4 takeaways from the Celtics’ Game 4 loss against the 76ers
"We need to execute better."
COMMENTARY
Put the brooms away, Celtics fans.
One win away from becoming the first NBA team to sweep a series as the Vegas underdog in each of the four games, Boston couldn’t pull off the victory in Philadelphia Monday night. Their series lead is now 3-1.
“Hats off to their team,” coach Brad Stevens said in his postgame press conference.
The 76ers, coming off their meltdown in Game 3, salvaged their pride and dignity with a 103-92 win on their home floor. The series will return to the TD Garden Wednesday, where Philly — for the fifth straight game — is favored to win. The Celtics open as 1.5-point underdogs, according to Westgate Superbook.
“S***, I’m ready to go now,” Marcus Morris told reporters after the loss.
Here’s what we learned from Game 3:
T.J. McConnell gave the 76ers what they needed.
Coach Brett Brown decided to shake things up by inserting guard T.J. McConnell into the starting lineup. Following his impressive performance in Game 2, McConnell scored 19 points on 9-for-12 shooting, grabbed seven rebounds, and dished out five assists. He also had no turnovers and finished with a plus-minus of +18.
“Got to give a lot of credit to T.J.,” 76ers center Joel Embiid said after the game. “He came in and he changed everything.”
Brown called McConnell “an injection of energy” in his postgame press conference. After losing Game 3 in ugly fashion, Brown said he thought about what he could to do that would help the team the most. The solution? “To remind them of how good a season they have had” and “to retain, maintain, increase their spirit.”
“There’s no better player to catapult the start of the game with that mindset than TJ,” Brown said. “The decision [to start him] was based on a lot of other things, but that was the main thing — just the energy and the spirit.”
Not only did McConnell contribute on the offensive end — driving to the basket and allowing teammates to get into their sets — he also made an impact with his tenacity on the defensive end. McConnell was matched up against Rozier, who was limited to a series-low 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting.
“I’m just trying to make him as uncomfortable as possible, picking him up full court and making him work for everything,” McConnell said. “He’s their engine, everything goes through him, and he gets them going. I try to take him out of the play or just make everything as hard as possible.”
TJ McConnell is doing it all!
17 PTS, 7 REB, 5 AST for the @sixers guard.#PhilaUnite pic.twitter.com/RfkqngDHGe
— NBA (@NBA) May 8, 2018
The 76ers held the advantage in a number of key stats.
Offensive rebounds:
76ers 16, Celtics 6.
Turnovers: Celtics 15, 76ers 10.
Points in the paint: 76ers 52, Celtics 30.
Philadelphia’s offensive rebounds and Boston’s turnovers gave the 76ers a number of extra possessions. Although both teams shot right around 40 percent from the field, Philly took 19 more shots and scored nine more second-chance points than Boston. The 76ers also notched 16 points off of turnovers.
“We need to execute better,” Al Horford said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Boston also struggled with foul trouble for the second straight game, as the 76ers brought a level of physicality the Celtics couldn’t seem to match defensively without getting whistled. Brown, Morris, and Smart all finished with five fouls.
“It’s tough to kind of get a rhythm because you’re in and out,” Morris told reporters. “You just can’t be as aggressive, and the game is very aggressive. It was hard to kind of not give back what they were doing to us.”
“They were the more physical, more aggressive team,” Brown added. “Usually that’s us, so we got to get it back.”
Things got chippy.
The 3-0 deficit didn’t stop Embiid from provoking a couple of his opponents.
At the end of the first half, he got into a small altercation with Rozier after trying to snatch the ball from Rozier’s hands following a whistle.
Both were issued technical fouls.
“He tried to punch me twice,” Embiid said after the game. “Too bad he’s so short that he couldn’t get to my face. I didn’t understand why it was a double technical because I was just trying to get the ball. He was the one trying to swing.”
Tensions ran high between Joel Embiid and Terry Rozier in Game 4. pic.twitter.com/eYNGlMsynQ
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 8, 2018
Embiid was at it again in the third quarter. When Philadelphia extended their lead to 73-62, he started taunting Morris: “We’re in your head. We’re in your head.” But Morris — who picked up a handful of technicals at the end of the season — let his hands do the talking, as he motioned “3-0” with his fingers.
“That’s just reality,” Morris told reporters of the gesture. “I wouldn’t say a damn word if I was down 3-1, but hey, we’re all different. It is what it is.”
When asked if the team perhaps “lost their cool,” Rozier deflected the question.
“We lost the game.”
But Stevens didn’t express any concern about the chippy back-and-forth.
“One of the things I’ve learned is when you play a team four straight times or five straight times or six straight times or seven straight times, you’re probably going to have some of that,” he said. “Every series does.”
“3-0” 😬😬😬. #NBAPlayoffs | #CUsRise pic.twitter.com/5dw5dpBHud
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 7, 2018
Game 4 was a missed opportunity for the Celtics.
The Cavaliers swept the Raptors Monday night, which means the winner of the Celtics-Sixers series will face Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. Assuming the Celtics advance — teams that have gone up 3-0 are 129-0 — Boston could have used some rest before taking on their next opponent.
After all, they also battled Milwaukee to a seven-game series, too.
If the Celtics-76ers series ends in six games or fewer, the Celtics-Cavs series would tip Sunday. If Celtics-76ers goes seven games, the conference finals will tip Tuesday. Philadelphia, of course, had nearly a week off before losing to Boston in Game 1, so rest doesn’t necessarily guarantee success.
But Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, specifically, could have used some extra time off for their respective nagging injuries.
“I’m doing the best I can,” Brown told reporters. “I’m trying to get back to being 100 percent, and it’s a process, for sure. We definitely wanted to get this game, but we didn’t. We definitely got to get the next one.”
Shane Larkin also exited Game 4 with a left shoulder injury. After running into an Embiid screen, he walked off the court wincing and holding his shoulder. Stevens said Larkin was sore after the game and will have imaging Tuesday. His status for Game 5 has not been announced.
