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Jayson Tatum, Celtics look ready for what’s ahead in Game 1 blowout over Sixers: 7 takeaways
As the seconds wound down on the Celtics’ blowout win, fans serenaded the players with a chant of “We want Boston! We want Boston!" in a jab at Sixers fans.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown started their postseason run with a statement victory on Sunday, tearing into the 76ers in a 123-91 victory to take a 1-0 lead in their first-round series.
Here are the takeaways.
The Celtics look up for the challenge
As the seconds wound down on the Celtics’ blowout win, fans serenaded the players with a chant of “We want Boston! We want Boston!” — a callback to Sixers fans, who chanted the same after the Sixers advanced past the Magic in the play-in tournament last week.
It’s not clear whether the Celtics noticed (or cared about) the chants last week. After all, this Celtics team has bigger goals than a first-round series — on Sunday, they embarked on what they hope will be a journey that renders a first-round series relatively unremarkable.
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“I didn’t really think anything of [the chants],” Joe Mazzulla said. “I think that’s just part of … there’s a history to the series, which you have to appreciate, but at the same time, we have to focus on the task at hand and the most important thing, and the stuff that we can control.”
Or, as Tatum put it: “I mean, yeah, I guess it was a response to Philly fans.”
The Celtics looked like a professional playoff team on Sunday. They took their first double-digit lead halfway through the first quarter, and with a couple of small blemishes, they never really stumbled the rest of the way.
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The Sixers, meanwhile, are not built to withstand what the Celtics can do. They have too many defensive targets, and while Tyrese Maxey is a genuine star (and VJ Edgecombe looks well on his way), they didn’t show nearly enough firepower to hurt a Celtics defense that has far exceeded expectations. That very well might have been the case even if Joel Embiid were healthy enough to play, but the gap in quality between the two teams is far more obvious in his absence.
So, when the Sixers prodded at the Celtics with a bit of a run, they responded. In the middle of the third quarter, the Sixers mucked up the game enough to break the Celtics’ rhythm and trimmed the lead to 15. Jaylen Brown missed a jumper, and the Sixers appeared to be on the verge of a transition opportunity.
Andre Drummond, however, underthrew his outlet pass to a streaking Maxey. Brown stole it, the Celtics moved the ball around the 3-point line, and it made its way back to Brown for a 3-pointer. Nikola Vucevic made a 3-pointer on the next possession, and the route — which had briefly nodded off — was back on in earnest.
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“The game’s just about managing your emotions,” Brown said. “They’re going to go on runs, we’re going to go on runs, but you can’t let that kind of stampede and turn into momentum. So we just got to cut out the momentum plays.”
Mazzulla noted in the aftermath of the victory that “it really doesn’t matter anymore, because in 48 hours, we have to do it again.”
He’s right, of course. The good news for the Celtics is that if Game 1 is any indicator, they will be focused and ready for Game 2.
Jayson Tatum is incredibly back
Celtics fans may have grown a little used to seeing Tatum back on the floor looking like something close to his former self over the last month, but it was striking to see a fully realized Tatum dominating in the playoffs again.
Tatum took over in the first half as Brown was sidelined with three fouls. He was primarily a scorer, dropping 21 of his 25 points in the first two quarters. He hit the Sixers with several mid-range jumpers, shooting easily over Drummond (who was too slow-footed to contest), Maxey (who was too small), and Kelly Oubre. He also executed this nasty snake pick-and-roll to perfection — a drive and finish that would not have looked out of place at any time last year either.
Tatum flirted with a triple-double once again, adding 11 rebounds and seven assists.
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Afterward, he said everything in the last 48 weeks has “kind of been a buildup to today,” and a reporter asked if he’s sick of talking about his rehab.
Tatum, however, said he isn’t, calling it “part of the process.”
“There were days where I wasn’t even sure I was going to play this season, let alone get a chance to play today,” Tatum said. “So I’m openly just grateful that I’m in this position.”
The Sixers (like the rest of the NBA) have a Jays problem
Brown didn’t have a particularly notable game — just a game-high 26 points on 11-for-21 shooting, another ho-hum afternoon from an All-NBA wing — but he scored 14 points in the third quarter, which was the only period in which the Sixers looked vaguely threatening.
More importantly, he hammered home one of the most notable takeaways from Sunday’s game: The Sixers have a big Jays problem.
They aren’t alone, of course, and other Eastern Conference teams may be watching a revitalized version of the Jays with some trepidation. Paul George is still a decent defender, but he can’t play all 48 minutes, and he isn’t a stopper for either star. Oubre is a good defender who plays hard, but both Tatum and Brown are too strong for him.
No one else on the Sixers roster looks particularly close, and if the Sixers exert too much energy trying to slow them down, the rest of the Celtics get target practice.
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“The game will open up at some point,” Brown said. “You’ve got to be ready for it when it does. The third quarter is when it kind of opened up for me, and I took advantage.”
Neemias Queta struggled with fouls
The Celtics could have pushed their lead considerably higher, particularly in the first half, if they had their starting center.
Queta struggled enormously to stay on the floor, picking up three fouls in just seven first-half minutes. He returned in the second half and immediately threw down a difficult two-handed slam, but he picked up his fourth foul shortly afterward — failing to stay vertical as Paul George pump-faked his hands into the air.
Whenever he managed to get on the floor, Queta’s vertical spacing was yet another major threat on a team that can score in every other way — he finished with 13 points on 5-for-5 shooting. Vucevic, meanwhile, had a quiet afternoon, but he played an important role boxing out the Sixers’ bigs while his teammates crashed the glass around him.
“You don’t get credit when you keep your guy from getting in and someone else comes in and gets the rebound,” Mazzulla said. “So at the end of day, we got to do what we got to do to win, using everybody that we can. He did a great job on that tonight. All the bigs did.”
Sam Hauser had a nice evening
Much has been made about Baylor Scheierman’s rise, and deservedly so, but on an afternoon when the Celtics were dipping into their playoff experience for a blowout win, Sam Hauser reminded everyone that he has been here too.
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Hauser finished 4-for-6 from the floor, scoring 12 points, and he grabbed a new personal playoff-high seven rebounds — part of the Celtics’ team rebounding strategy.
“You have to continue to prove yourself in this league,” Hauser said afterward. “There’s always new guys coming into this league, there’s always a guy that maybe they’re drafted in place of you for a couple years down the road, or whatever it may be.
“So just not taking it for granted and enjoying each and every day.”
The Celtics came back to that theme repeatedly in their postgame pressers — Brown, Tatum and Hauser all made it clear that they appreciate where they are.
For a player like Hauser, the motivation is a little different. The second apron forces the Celtics to make shrewd, borderline callous decisions as they let good players go to other teams. Hauser can’t know how many more runs he will make with the Celtics — not when the second apron forced them to bid farewell to the likes of Jrue Holiday, Luke Kornet, Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis just last year.
Tatum and Brown will presumably be in Boston as long as they want. For a player like Hauser, future playoff runs with the Celtics are not guaranteed, so they need to be appreciated as they happen.
Expect more from the Sixers
We should, at the very least, offer this caveat to all of these words in praise of the Celtics’ chances: Expect the Sixers to be better going forward.
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The Sixers should probably be expected to make a few more shots in Game 2, if only because the odds dictate that some of the shots they missed should, mathematically, be more likely to fall.
Maxey was 8-for-20.VJ Edgecombe was 6-for-16. Kelly Oubre was 5-for-14. As a team, the Sixers attempted just 23 3-pointers and they made just four of them.
The Celtics, of course, played hellacious defense and deserve credit for a number of those misses, but Maxey also missed several shots he normally makes, and the Sixers will make adjustments.
“You have to show them that respect and know that they’re going to play better next game,” Tatum said. “Next game’s going to be tougher. They’re going to make adjustments, so just preparing for that.”
Nick Nurse said the Sixers need to generate more 3-pointers (clearly), and that they have to take care of the ball better — like the Celtics, the Sixers turn the ball over very little, but they coughed it up 14 times on Sunday.
“I just think we got to be a little more concentrated, a little tougher,” Nurse said. “That’s it.”
What’s next
The Celtics will try to take a 2-0 lead when Game 2 tips off at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The series shifts to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday.
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