Celtics will play in the NBA Finals after completing a sweep against Pacers

Derrick White broke a tie with a 3-pointer with 43 seconds left to give Boston the lead and the Celtics completed their four-game series sweep of the Indiana Pacers with a 105-102 victory on Monday night, to reach to the NBA Finals for the second time in three years.

White finished with 16 points, Jaylen Brown led Boston with 29 points, while Jayson Tatum added 26 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists to help erase a nine-point second-half deficit.

Boston swept the Pacers after rallying from an 0-3 deficit in last year’s Conference Finals to force a Game 7.

“They fought hard against us, they have pride as a team. “They didn’t want to give up,” Tatum said afterward. “We failed all night. I knew we had one. “That was a great opportunity.”

The Celtics will play the winner of the Dallas-Minnesota series. The Mavericks lead 3-0 and will have a chance to win the Western Conference series on Tuesday night.

Indiana, again playing without two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton, lost its second straight at home, both in the final minutes after blowing leads. Andrew Nembhard finished with 24 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, but he missed the potential tying shot with a three-pointer in the final seconds and the Pacers no longer had the ball.

Pascal Siakam added 19 points and 10 rebounds for Indiana, while TJ McConnell had 15 points and Aaron Nesmith had 14.

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle promised his team would fight hard to extend the season and, as always, this young roster did not disappoint. Tempers flared briefly in the third quarter when Pacers center Myles Turner tackled guard White, Brown grabbed Turner’s shoulder, and Turner shoved Brown.

Turner was called for an offensive foul and both he and Brown were called for technical fouls.

But that connateness didn’t change the back-and-forth tenor of this game, or the series in general.

Indiana lost three times despite holding a lead or being tied in the final minute, and it happened again on Monday as Boston pressed for three and a half minutes to come back.

The Celtics got within 102-100 on a Tatum dunk with 3:12 left, tied it with 2:40 left on Brown’s mid-range jumper and took the lead on White’s 3-pointer.