7 takeaways as 76ers beat Celtics behind MVP night from Joel Embiid
The Celtics couldn't complete a chaotic comeback in the final minute.
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The Celtics put together a wild, disruptive finish Tuesday night but couldn’t quite steal a win in Philadelphia as the 76ers claimed a 103-101 victory.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Joel Embiid scored 52 points and pulled down 13 rebounds, and the 76ers needed him to push them the entire way across the finish line to secure the win. That deserves to be unpacked at length.
First, Embiid was brilliant. He finished 20-for-25 from the field, 12-for-13 from the free-throw line and — crucially for the Sixers — just 0-for-1 from behind the arc. In the past, the Celtics have often worn Embiid down and coaxed him into tossing up 3-pointers by the second half. On Tuesday, he stayed on task and kept demolishing whoever was in front of him. When the Celtics finally doubled — which was really their only adjustment against him other than switching from an ill-fated Grant Williams experiment to the tried-and-true Al Horford method — Embiid won the game with his passing by finding P.J. Tucker (more on this in a minute). He was +17, and whenever he left the court, the Celtics went on a run. Whenever he returned, the Sixers reclaimed their momentum.
Embiid submitted a dominant performance against one of the league’s best defenses and dragged his team kicking and screaming to a victory that locked them into no worse than the 3-seed. That’s a very valuable player. Some might argue he’s the most valuable. Time will tell, but his case is excellent and he strengthened it on Tuesday.
The Celtics didn’t show Embiid many different looks, presumably in anticipation of a highly likely second-round series against the Sixers. Embiid has been much better this season against the Celtics, but they can do quite a bit more with help defenders than they did on Tuesday. Having Robert Williams as a help defender would have mattered too, even though he doesn’t generally have the physical bulk to do much against Embiid as a primary defender.
And, of course, the Sixers should probably feel at least a little concern over how poorly everyone else played. Derrick White and Marcus Smart help mitigate the Sixers’ guards. James Harden finished with 10 assists but scored just 20 relatively inefficient points. Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris both scored five points on eight shots.
Sixers fans will celebrate Embiid’s performance, and they should. Embiid is a brutal playoff matchup, and it looks likely that the Celtics will be playing against the league’s MVP in the second round.
But the Celtics have reasons for confidence against the rest of the Sixers, especially at full health. Embiid showed a lot of grit and determination on Tuesday. How long can he realistically backpack this team?
2. The last few seconds of the game were so eventful, they were genuinely funny. To recap:
– Embiid scored points 51 and 52 to put the Sixers up by a commanding seven points with 9.8 seconds remaining.
– Marcus Smart drove to the hoop and drew a foul as he laid the ball in.
– The Sixers complained about the foul call, and as they complained, Smart missed on purpose. With everyone off guard, Smart flew in and grabbed the rebound uncontested (tomorrow’s Last Two Minute report may show that he entered the lane early, but that’s neither here nor there).
– Smart found Al Horford, Horford whipped a pass to Derrick White, and White buried a 3-pointer. Officials whistled P.J. Tucker for a foul on the shot, and White appeared to be headed to the line for a free throw to cut what was once a seven-point lead to just one with 2.0 seconds remaining. The Celtics had a chance to intentionally miss another free throw.
– However, Doc Rivers challenged the foul on Tucker and successfully got it overturned because White kicked his leg out as he shot. The Sixers got the ball on the other end, presumably about to get two free throws with a chance to ice the game (again).
– But wait! We’re still not done! The Celtics got the ball back because Grant Williams drew a foul on Embiid, which looked — again — like something that might show up on the Last Two Minute report (Williams may have dressed up the contact). The Celtics got the ball back with a chance to either tie or win the game.
– That was where the chaos finally ended: Tatum missed a tough turnaround jumper at the buzzer, and the Celtics came up just short.
3. On the final play, Tatum also missed an opportunity to pass back to the inbounder — Derrick White was wide open after Embiid left him to go double-team Tatum.
“That s— just happened so fast, it was two seconds,” Tatum said. “My momentum was taking me. The guy ran Smart over. I think I paused for a second. I didn’t know if they were calling a foul or not. My momentum was taking me away from the basket. I just had to get a quick shot up.”
Tatum finished with 19 points on 7-for-20 shooting. He did dish out six assists and recorded three steals, but the Celtics needed more offense — either as a scorer or as a creator — from their star with Jaylen Brown sidelined due to a sore back.
4. White was brilliant, scoring 26 points to go with seven rebounds and four assists. He dropped 15 points in the fourth and kept the Celtics alive with a series of floaters and 3-pointers as the 76ers threatened to pull away.
5. Malcolm Brogdon played well and once again provided a crucial 18-point spark off the bench. He did, however, miss a pair of free throws in the third quarter, which sent the Sixers crowd into hysterics since an opponent missing two free throws earns everyone in attendance a chicken sandwich from a local fast food restaurant.
Brogdon, it should be noted, is shooting 87.1 percent from the free-throw line this season. It’s also worth noting that the Celtics lost by two points.
6. Whatever the Celtics do to defend Embiid probably needs to be better than simply daring P.J. Tucker to shoot corner 3-pointers. Tucker buried three triples late in the fourth quarter, the second and third of which looked like daggers before the Celtics chaos’d themselves back into the game. Tucker is shooting 38.9 percent from the corners combined this season.
7. The Celtics now need to win out and have the Bucks lose out to earn the 1-seed (a 41-point victory still only counts for one in the standings). Since they hold the tiebreaker over the Sixers, a win for the Celtics or a loss for the Sixers would lock the 2-3 seeds in place.
The Celtics will have their first chance to claim the 2-seed at home on Wednesday against the Raptors.
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