With Jaylen Brown out, Celtics lose to last-place Pacers

Down their two best players, the Boston Celtics lost to one of the NBA’s worst teams Monday night against the Indiana Pacers.

Pacers forward Pascal Siakam’s jumper in the lane with 6.8 seconds secured a 98-96 win over Boston, which was playing without leading scorer Jaylen Brown for the third time this season.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla took issue with the play that led to Siakam’s make, repeating “illegal screen” several times during a postgame news conference that lasted less than one minute.

Brown, who’s posted career-best numbers while co-star Jayson Tatum recovers from Achilles surgery, was ruled out with low back spasms. Poor perimeter shooting doomed the team in his absence, as the Celtics went just 9 for 35 from 3-point range (26%) in the loss.

Payton Pritchard (23 points, 10-of-22 shooting), Derrick White (18 points, 7-for-21 shooting) and Anfernee Simons (16 points, 7-for-15 shooting) were Boston’s leading scorers, with Neemias Queta delivering a strong performance at center with 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting, eight rebounds, two steals and one block.

White had a chance to win the game as time expired, but his deep 3 caromed off the back of the rim.

The loss, which opened a four-game road trip, was the Celtics’ third in their last four games. They’ll visit the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.

Indiana lost 13 straight games from mid-December to early January — including two against Boston — but entered Monday on a two-game win streak. They improved to 9-31, while Boston fell to 24-15.

With Brown unavailable, Mazzulla gave the nod to Baylor Scheierman, who became the 11th different Celtic to start a game this season. The second-year wing was coming off a solid performance in Saturday’s loss to San Antonio, scoring 10 points in 23 minutes and playing competitive defense against Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama.

Scheierman’s only career start before Monday came in the final week of last season, when Boston was resting its top players to prepare for the playoffs. He joined White, Pritchard, Sam Hauser and Queta in the starting five against Indiana, with Hauser returning after missing the Spurs matchup with hamstring tightness.

The Celtics got two early steals from Scheierman during a low-scoring first quarter, which ended with Boston ahead, 24-19. Both offenses opened up in the second.

After starting a combined 3 for 14 from 3-point range, the Celtics and Pacers drilled nine threes in less than four minutes early in the second quarter. Two of Boston’s came from Simons, who paced the Celtics with 14 first-half points off the bench.

Boston’s sixth man scored on three consecutive Celtics possessions to halt an 8-0 Pacers run. Then, Boston’s starting guards assumed control, with White and Pritchard combining to score their team’s final 11 points of the first half. Those included the Celtics’ own 8-0 run, which helped send them into halftime with a 56-53 lead.

Then, the C’s went cold. Their first point of the third quarter didn’t come until the 7:32 mark, when Queta stole an errant pass and flushed a driving dunk. Boston only trailed by three at that point, but back-to-back Pacers makes off Celtics turnovers stretched the lead to 10 and triggered Mazzulla’s second timeout of the quarter.

His players seemed to get the message.

After the Pacers scored twice more to make it 73-60, the Celtics started chipping away. They cleaned up their ball security, upped their defensive pressure and began relentlessly attacking the basket. Of the 10 field goals Boston made in the third quarter, nine were shots in the paint, and seven were at the rim. Its lone perimeter make was a second-chance Pritchard 3-pointer off a Luka Garza offensive rebound.

Pritchard followed up that triple with three straight layups. Jordan Walsh — who made one of the defensive plays of the period when he smothered Aaron Nesmith to force a jump ball — scored with a nifty underneath finish on the next Celtics possession, and Garza added a jumper in the lane that cut Indiana’s lead to 79-77.

It took another 11 1/2 minutes, however, for Boston to close that gap. When Queta threw down a powerful one-handed slam to make it 83-81 Pacers, Indiana responded with a 3-pointer to pad its cushion. When Pritchard lost control of the ball, dove on the floor to recover it and fed a pass to White for an open 3, Andrew Nembhard canned a 3 of his own a minute later.

A running layup by White tied the game with 29.1 seconds remaining, but Siakam scored the controversial game-winner on the ensuing possession.

Brown fined $35,000

Brown, who said he’d “take the (expletive) fine” for his criticism of officials after Saturday’s Celtics-Spurs game, received his punishment Monday.

The NBA fined the Boston star $35,000 for his expletive-filled comments, during which he called referee Curtis Blair and his crew “terrible” and said he’s “tired of the inconsistency” of foul calls “every time (the Celtics) play a good team.”

The Celtics attempted just four free throws, tied for the second-lowest single-game total in franchise history, in their 100-95 loss to San Antonio at TD Garden. Brown played a season-high 43 minutes in the game, attempted 28 shots and earned zero trips to the foul line.

“They can fine me whatever they want,” Brown said postgame. “But it’s crazy. Every time we play a good team, it’s the same (BS). Somebody please pull up the clips. I’m irate at how they officiated the game today. … I’m driving to the basket. I’m physical. I don’t flop. I don’t shy away from contact. I go up strong. I’m athletic. And nothing. Zero free throws tonight. The inconsistency is (expletive) crazy. Give me the fine.”

Brown has been critical of officiating decisions after several Celtics losses this season. After a game against the Utah Jazz on Nov. 3, he said an “unacceptable” fourth-quarter no-call — which the league later acknowledged was incorrect — “cost (the Celtics) the game.”

“It’s some (BS),” he said.

Four days later, Brown said officials “made their point” by not sending him to the line more often in a loss to the Orlando Magic. After drawing just two shooting fouls last Wednesday in a loss to the Denver Nuggets, Brown said the refs “allowed them to get away with a lot,” adding that he “let the officiating get to my head a little bit.”

Saturday’s critique was the first to earn Brown a fine from the NBA.

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