The Boston Celtics are now in a win or go home scenario after a 115-103 home loss against the 76ers last night. This year’s MVP, Joel Embiid, had his third straight 30-point performance to carry the Sixers to victory, but it was the Boston’s failure to produce on offense that really widened the score.
GAME RECAP
Long story short, it just wasn’t Boston’s night. Key performers weren’t playing up to their standards and there seemed to be a lid on the rim blocking any incoming shot.
Al Horford, who had called himself an “elite shooter” earlier this week, ended up going 0-7 from the field, with all of his shots being from beyond the arc. Jaylen Brown shot 3-8 from the line, finishing the game with a cool 24 points, while Tatum started the game 0-5 from the field, finishing 11-27 with an inefficient 36 points. Marcus Smart and Derrick White did such a poor job defending James Harden that Payton Pritchard was subbed in late in the third. No hate towards the Pac-12 Player of the Year and Bob Cousy Award winner for best point guard in the nation, but when Pritchard enters the game, the Celtics are either in a commanding lead or waiving the white flag. When he walked towards the scoring table last night, the white flag was flying high.
Don’t let this poor performance by the Celtics take away from the phenomenal play of Embiid though. As a Boston fan, we’d much rather blame the refs than credit the enemy, but Joel Embiid deserves all the recognition he received this year. These defensive highlights from last night speak for themselves:
That last chase down block was so demeaning to watch. Side note, add “why didn’t Jaylen just dunk the ball?” to the laundry list of questions I have for the Celtics’ efforts last night.
LOOKING TOWARDS GAME SIX
The best thing Boston can do is contact Will Smith and borrow his memory eraser from Men in Black. Last night’s atrocious performance should be wiped from their brains, leaving only game six to think about.
In order for the Celtics to bring the series back to the Garden, they need to play a complete team game like we saw in game two. There will be no room for miscommunication on offense or boneheaded moves on defense like fouling shooters on three pointers. Big Al needs to turn back the clock once more to hit his shots and lock down Embiid in the post. Smart and White need to make covering Harden their sole mission in life. Last a certainly not least, the C’s need Tatum and Brown to live up to their superstar potential when it counts. It’s time for Tatum to prove he’s got that dawg in him, and the same goes for JB.
Game six will tip off at 7:30 ET tomorrow night, so tune in to see whether the Celts can extend the series to a game seven on Sunday.