Sick of the debate as to whether Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can make it work here in Boston? Try this on for size: Can a player below the third spot on the depth chart contribute meaningfully in the next game of this series?
It didn’t look that way Tuesday, as the Celtics went down 3-2 against the 76ers in a 115-103 loss that was even uglier than the final score.
“That was our first really, really bad game in the playoffs,” Joe Mazzulla said postgame.
Credit the supporting cast. The star duo was far from perfect — Tatum got off to another slow start and Brown finished with five personal fouls — but they combined for 60 points and 16 rebounds.
Marcus Smart tried to play his role early, draining a pair of slick threes and instigating foul calls from whistle-happy referees, infuriating Doc Rivers. But Philadelphia’s cooler heads ultimately prevailed, as the point guard hit a low point air balling a 3-pointer halfway through the third quarter.
What else did the Celtics offer? Seven bricked 3-point attempts from Al Horford and an uncharacteristic turnover in the second quarter. A ghostly version of Derrick White on the same day he earned NBA All-Defensive Second Team honors. Grant Williams immediately fouling the NBA MVP and sending him to the free-throw line for two of his 11 free throws. Malcolm Brogdon being picked apart by Philadelphia’s stars on defense — although he was far from alone on that end.
“It just seemed like we couldn’t get a stop tonight,” Brown lamented postgame.
Couldn’t get a stop, couldn’t catch a break, couldn’t stop tripping over their own two feet. It was the kind of game that was one step forward, two steps back, and suddenly – oops! The Celtics’ backs are up against the wall as they head back to Philly.
Mazzulla tried to pull a P-Rabbit out of his hat late in the third quarter, tossing energizer bunny Payton Pritchard into the game. He was looking for any kind of spark.
“He’s always ready. I trust him,” Boston’s head coach said. “I thought we needed a little bit of a boost, a little bit of a different feel, and I thought he gave us some good minutes.”
It was a nice idea.
But on the opposite bench, Joel Embiid and James Harden were bolstered by an ultra-efficient offense that spread the wealth. Tyrese Maxey sank three shots from behind the arc early in the game and never looked back, finishing with a whopping 30 points, bested only by Embiid’s 33. Sometimes the numbers tell the story. Celtics whose names don’t begin with the letter “J” put up 43 points and 20 rebounds, including garbage time. Sixers outside of Embiid and Harden posted 65 points and 34 rebounds.
That’s right, for all of Embiid’s unstoppable looks in the paint, the role players contributed more points than Embiid and Harden combined.
Mazzulla, a documented practitioner of jiu-jitsu, preached balance after the loss: “balanced basketball” from Tatum, a “well-balanced” transition game. That’s all true. Transition offense will be key to catching the Sixers on their heels. The Celtics need to create great plays off of their good plays.
It’s just…now, the team that told everyone they had unfinished business is teetering on the brink of elimination, and even though Mazzulla continues to lean on the term, “hindsight is 20/20,” nobody saw this coming.