By Scott Agness

The Pacers were looking for an emotional jolt heading into Tuesday’s game with the Boston Celtics. They had dropped four straight, their longest streak since the 2011-12 season. Despite the poor play over the last week, Pacers coach Frank Vogel didn’t feel they were too far from their identity, that they just needed to play with greater urgency and compete for a full 48 minutes.

At home for their final meeting of the year against the Boston Celtics, the Pacers showed signs of progress, but still have areas to improve upon. They had a nine-point lead at the half and led the rest of the way, but turnovers and giving up offensive boards helped the Celtics get to within one midway through the fourth period. David West, the catalyst all night, hit a couple big shots, including a bucket plus the foul, to lift the Pacers (47-17) to a 94-83 victory over Boston (22-42).

“We got a lot of things to work on. It’s not like we’re over here rejoicing. It’s not a sigh of relief, but more that I’m happy we won and closed it out. We haven’t been finishing games the right way and we finally got a win. We got to grow from this.” said center Roy Hibbert.

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