At least Game 4 put a little extra fire into the Celtics-76ers rivalry
So this is how a classic rivalry is renewed, folks.
With a team down three games to one in a series carrying itself with the brashness of a team up 3-1 and the inevitable just ahead.
With the home team’s refusal to release the usual post-victory confetti from the rafters, as if there will be another opportunity to let it float and fall later in the series.
With a brief confrontation between opposing players carrying the ominous edge of something that was a swing away from turning to chaos.
With familiarity turning opponents once admired into enemies despised.
The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Celtics, 103-92, in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Monday night. In a short time we’ll know whether it was the first step in an unprecedented comeback from a 3-0 deficit, or a brief delay of the inevitable.
It will be the latter. The Sixers don’t really have a chance. Monday night, the Cavaliers became the 130th team in NBA history to win a series when up 3-0. No team has ever blown a 3-0 lead. But in winning Game 4, they at least have the inkling in their minds that it is possible.
Frankly, it’s what I expected to happen in Game 3. But the Celtics stole an all-timer of a win in overtime when Al Horford turned one of his worst games in his two seasons here into a clutch performance we’ll never forget.
That didn’t make Monday’s loss any less frustrating. The Celtics played poorly by their usual standards. They were a step behind too many passes on defense. They were pummeled on the boards (the Sixers had 16 offensive rebounds, and 53 overall; the Celtics finished at 5 and 43). The Sixers seemed to win all of the 50-50 balls, and a few that were probably 60-40 in the Celtics favor.
The Sixers were not ready to let their season end. The officials, notably Scott Foster and Tony Brothers, apparently weren’t either, calling a multitude of ticky-tack calls on the Celtics in the first half while allowing the Sixers to mug Jayson Tatum of all of his valuables every time he went to the hoop. I imagine the officials will cater to the home crowd in Game 5 – the ultimate makeup call – since this is how this all seems to work.
This series doesn’t yet have the white-hot intensity of an ‘80s Celtics-Sixers showdown – or really, even the Paul Pierce-Allen Iverson duel from 2002. There isn’t a Sixer who demands the utmost respect like Julius Erving, or one who absolutely terrifies you like Andrew Toney. But those story lines are being built for a rivalry that appears destined to last for years.
We’re getting to know the burgeoning and future enemy. Here is what we’ve learned about the Sixers so far:
Joel Embiid: The NBA has more lively, diverse, and enjoyable personalities now than at any other point I can remember, and I go back to John Havlicek’s coda. Embiid, funny and savvy on social media and the closest thing I’ve seen to Hakeem Olajuwon on the court (though he’s not all that close yet), is one of those players who enhances the league.
But the more you see of him in a short span, the more obvious it becomes that he needs to be careful, because he’s dipping into the Dwight Howard Starter Kit of obnoxious antics.
He ignited the brief scrap with Terry Rozier by trying to steal the ball from him immediately after a whistle. After his dunk put the Sixers up 73-62 with a pivotal run in the third quarter, he yapped in Marcus Morris’s face while Morris countered with the perfect response: He raised three fingers, then formed a zero. Talk when you’ve accomplished something, kiddo.
Embiid doesn’t seem to lack self-awareness, but he is camera-aware, and it would be a bummer if he chooses that look-at-me route at the expense of his likeability.
T.J. McConnell: He sure picked a fine time to submit his career-best performance (19 points on 9 of 12 shooting, 7 rebounds, 5 assists). McConnell was sort of the avatar for the Sixers’ struggles during The Process – look at this scrappy little guy! He probably wouldn’t even be in the league if they weren’t so terrible! – but the reality is he’s a nice find by the Sixers, someone who has earned the role he has in the league. I do wish the announcers – Brian Anderson and some guy named McHale, who shows no favoritism to his former colors – would stop David Ecksteining him up by talking about his grit and scrappiness so often when he makes an excellent play. In performance like that, it feels like a backhanded compliment.
Dario Saric: He’s a skilled, versatile offensive player who unexpectedly tormented the Celtics in the paint (24 points Monday). Saric doesn’t say much and looks like a Color Me Badd member four years after the record company dropped them. He’s OK with me.
JJ Redick: As a college star in the early 2000s, he was the most beloved player in the country – if and only if you were a Duke fan. Otherwise, you loathed him like he was a Laettner. He’s become an admirable NBA player, a quintessential pro and respected teammate who is more than just the spot-up shooter he was expected to be when he entered the league in 2006. But right now, in this series, he’s back to being as aggravating as he was during his Dukie days. He’s Grayson Allen with a podcast.
Robert Covington: He’s playing in this series? Are you sure? I see his name there on the stat sheet, and there is an array of unimpressive digits to the right of his name, but on the court he’s apparently a ghost incapable of haunting.
Ben Simmons: Though he’ll collect the hardware that says he is, he’s not a rookie. He’s just playing like one most of the time in this series. Maybe he has more in him that he’s about to unleash. But so far, I imagine this is what LeBron played like when he was 17.
As well as some of those new enemies played, the Celtics did still have their chances in spite of themselves. They led after first quarter and were down just four at the half. But the Sixers built a double-digit lead in the third, and the Celtics’ hopes of a comeback were thwarted near the 5-minute mark in the fourth quarter, when multiple shots to cut the Sixers’ lead to less than 10 refused to cooperate.
It was such a frustrating night for the Celtics that even Brad Stevens – for whom it would be slightly hyperbolic to describe as mild-mannered – picked up a technical foul, presumably a calculated attempt to jostle awake his team.
So the Sixers won a game. It’s a semi-series now. There will be no brooms necessary in TD Garden Wednesday night. They’ve got their mulligan. Now it’s time to get serious. Adjust to the Sixers’ adjustments. Feed off the crowd. And definitely comp Kevin Hart some fine tickets in the 300 section.
The Sixers? They should have dropped the confetti Monday. It’s the last chance they are going to have until next season, when the rivalry returns at full boil, no rehashed reminiscence of the old days necessary.
This is how it used to be. This is how it is going to be, for years to come. It feels right for Celtics fans to loathe the Sixers again. It will feel even better when the Celtics wrap this up, end the Sixers’ hopeful season, and force Philly to loathe them even more.
