Boston Celtics’ veteran point guard has found his offensive rhythm of late and acted as a key catalyst in Friday’s 118-112 win over the Indiana Pacers<\/b>
\nGetty Images\t Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens directs his team and has been using Jeff Teague more lately\t Boston Celtics veteran point guard Jeff Teague has found his offensive rhythm of late and acted as a key catalyst in Friday\u2019s 118-112 win over the Indiana Pacers. At the risk of surrendering their fourth consecutive loss, the Celtics prevailed from an early double-digit deficit before head coach Brad Stevens turned to his bench for reinforcements as he began to slowly pull his starters off the floor, one-by-one. From the outset, rookie Payton Pritchard connected on a 24-foot 3-pointer, and then came Robert Williams\u2019 slam dunk, and then finally, there was Teague checking into the game for Kemba Walker. And he joined in on the fun. Teague drew a foul to get to the free-throw line, which was followed by a 15-foot floater that officially wiped out the Pacers\u2019 14-point lead and pushed the Celtics ahead. Averaging 6.2 points while shooting 34% from the floor,42.5% from deep this season in 17.2 minutes per game, it\u2019s been a trying season. Teague, whose playing time has fluctuated throughout the course of the season as a result of falling in and out of Stevens\u2019 rotation, will look to carry the momentum of this encouraging back-to-back set. \u201cIt\u2019s been a different experience than I\u2019ve ever been a part of but I mean, it\u2019s always a learning experience,\u201d Teague said after Friday\u2019s win. \u201cYou take the good with the bad and you keep rolling but tonight was a big win for our team. We played well, happy to see a lot of guys play well. We finally helped J.T. (Jayson Tatum), Kemba (Walker), and Jaylen (Brown) out tonight; it was big for us.\u201d Highlighting Teague\u2019s presence throughout the Celtics\u2019 comeback against the Pacers earlier in the season, Stevens liked the idea of giving Jeff early minutes. Plus, as the Celtics head coach mentioned Friday night, Teague was one of only a few positive takeaways for Boston. \u201c(Jeff) Teague and Payton (Pritchard) both played really well in that second game in Indiana that we won a couple of months ago as they kind of led that comeback,\u201d Stevens said after Friday\u2019s win. \u201cIn the late third-early fourth, Teague was probably our most encouraging performance on Wednesday, just because he hadn\u2019t played as much. He played pretty well, especially offensively. I thought he was great tonight.\u201d Teague\u2019s spark off the bench grew contagious alongside Pritchard and Robert Williams; who contributed in a big way and led the second unit to a combined 39 points accompanied by a stellar defense that led to fast-break point opportunities and, at times, kept the Pacers at bay. His recent production is a testament to the hard work he\u2019s been putting in; something that Jeff doesn\u2019t talk about much but his head coach revealed that the team\u2019s elder statesman has been putting in more work than the youngins. \u201cPayton was really good, he was really engaged and Robert (Williams) gave us certainly what he\u2019s capable of giving us,\u201d Stevens added. \u201cWe don\u2019t need that scoring every single night but we need that kind of, like, the way that they played tonight. It wasn\u2019t a great matchup tonight for the guys that normally play; they\u2019ll get more opportunities when the matchup presents itself. But I was really happy for Jeff (Teague); this has not been an easy transition for him. \u201cHe didn\u2019t play the way he wanted to or didn\u2019t feel good about it but he\u2019s been putting in as much work as any of our young players in the last two weeks and I think that\u2019s showing and paying off.\u201d For Teague, these positive results, of late, were inevitable. \u201c(I\u2019ve) just continued to stay the course. I didn\u2019t play basketball for ten months. So, I knew there would be an adjustment period,\u201d Teague said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it would be like this but, you know, you learn. It\u2019s just something that happened. I\u2019m going to continue to learn and grow as a player and as a person and I think those DNP\u2019s only made me want to go a little harder. So, I just tried to get some extra reps in and I\u2019m going to continue to keep doing that.\u201d READ NEXT: How Kemba Walker \u2018Willed\u2019 Celtics To A Desperate Win<\/p>\n