3 takeaways from the Celtics’ decisive Game 1 win against the 76ers
As Marcus Smart said, "no one saw this coming but us."
COMMENTARY
“I never felt we were in the game,” 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters after their 117-101 loss to the Celtics Monday night. “I never really felt it was a game.”
Philadelphia couldn’t take advantage of Jaylen Brown’s absence — the 21-year-old continues to nurse his right hamstring injury — as the Celtics entered halftime with an 11-point lead and never trailed for the remainder of the game.
“If you look at this game, defensively, offensively, this isn’t who we are,” Brown said. “This was a very poor game for us and I give the Celtics a lot of credit for producing that. This isn’t who we are . . . To think that this game is a reflection of what we’ve been doing the past few months would be a mistake.”
With the win, Boston takes an early 1-0 series lead. Game 2 is at the TD Garden Thursday at 8 p.m.
Here’s what we learned from Game 1:
Never doubt the resiliency of this Celtics team.
Philadelphia probably should have won this game.
The 76ers — who wrapped up their first-round series against the Miami Heat Tuesday — theoretically had the Celtics right where they wanted them. With no Brown and just a day of rest after a hard-fought seven-game series against the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston was arguably in a tough spot.
But the injury-ridden group, as it always seems to do, once again found a way to win.
“We had a plan,” point guard Terry Rozier told reporters in his postgame press conference. “Our coach holds us accountable for taking care of business and we hold each other accountable . . . No matter who is out there, we’re going to play hard and we’re going to pay attention to details and take care of business.”
Boston racked up 117 points thanks to 25 plus-point performances from Rozier, Jayson Tatum, and Al Horford. The last time a trio of Celtics players scored 25-plus points in a playoff win was the 1986 postseason opener against the Bulls.
The 76ers, unsurprisingly, were harsh critics of their defensive performance. As center Joel Embiid put it, “it was “sh—-.”
“I thought we were all bad tonight,” he said. “That’s not who we are, definitely.”
Guard J.J. Redick echoed Embiid’s sentiment.
“The defense was just bad tonight, all around,” he told reporters. “We didn’t execute our game plan. We didn’t communicate well. I thought, on the ball, we did a decent job, but the other stuff really hurt us.”
Brown said the team is considering several adjustments, including having Ben Simmons or Robert Covington, as opposed to Redick, guard Tatum.
“We’ll look at that,” he said. “For different reasons, we decided to do that, but we’ll go back and see how that worked.”
The three-ball was a difference maker.
“To shoot and make 17 threes is a big number,” Brown noted after the game.
The Celtics connected on an impressive 17 of their 36 three-point attempts. With the exception of Abdel Nader and Guerschon Yabusele — who both entered the game during the final two minutes of the fourth quarter — every player that checked into the game for the Celtics made a three-pointer.
Rozier led the way with a game-high seven made baskets from behind the arc, while Tatum, Horford, Aron Baynes, Marcus Morris, Semi Ojeleye, and Shane Larkin all contributed at least one of their own. Fifty one of Boston’s 117 points came from three-point shots, as the team knocked down 47.2 percent of their attempts.
The 76ers, on the other hand, struggled to find a rhythm behind the arc, shooting an abysmal 19.2 percent. Only 15 of their 101 points came from three.
“The easiest thing for me to say is when we go back and look at the tape, we need to break down why they got that volume and threes and how they made that volume of threes,” Brown told reporters. “I think, defensively, that’s where my head is at the most. I feel like I know, but I’d like to go back to the tape and see if I’m right.”
The rookie battle is on.
For the first time since the ABA-NBA merger, two top-3 picks met in the playoffs the year immediately following their draft. But the No. 1 overall selection in 2017, Markelle Fultz, was the lone man on the 76ers roster to not log a minute of court time. Little was made of Fultz’s absence, as the team’s expectations for the guard seem to be limited after he played in only 14 regular-season games.
Tonight will mark the first playoff meeting of top-3 picks the year after their draft (No.1 Markelle Fultz, No. 3 Jayson Tatum) since the ABA-NBA merger. pic.twitter.com/wda1lnVjIO
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 30, 2018
Even with Fultz out, however, there was still a competitive matchup between two rookies: Tatum (the No. 3 overall pick in 2017) vs. Simmons (the No. 1 overall pick in 2016). Simmons had missed the entirety of last season due to a foot injury, making this season his rookie year — rookie year by the NBA’s standards, that is.
The TD Garden crowd — who chanted “not a rookie” when Simmons was at the line and “he’s a rookie” when Tatum was at the line — would argue otherwise. Although Simmons is the favorite to win the league’s Rookie of the Year honors, some — including one of the other leading candidates, Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell — have posed the idea he shouldn’t be in consideration for the honor.
After the game, Simmons brushed off questions about the cheers and said they “didn’t affect [him] at all.”
He scored 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds, while Tatum recorded a career-high 28 points on 8-for-16 shooting. Tatum also finished the night with a plus-minus of +18, while Simmons’s plus-minus was -21.
Asked after the game if he thought he was a better rookie than Simmons, Tatum laughed and said, “No comment.”
“I mean, I am a rookie,” he said. “I love our fans. Much appreciated.”
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