The Celtics Showed The World What Happens When You Doubt Them In Their Game 1 Win
Upset Sixers fans will be quick to tell you that this is a long series. That it’s just one game. Would they have that same stance if they came into the Garden and blew out the Celtics? Of course not. To be honest, they’re right, this series is not even close to being over, but let’s not forget what an overwhelming favorite PHI was heading into this game and this series. So the fact that the Celtics came out and whipped that ass, of course the fan base is going to be excited. Nobody really gave the Celts a chance this series, even more so when we learned Jaylen wasn’t playing, and casual fans that didn’t really watch this team couldn’t imagine how the Celts would be able to beat the all powerful Sixers.
But the rest of us knew. Last night’s performance may have surprised some, but I’ve seen the Celtics do this exact thing time after time after time during the regular season. No team wins while facing more adversity than this Celtics group, but before we get too far I want to warn all Celtics fans who like myself, are feeling really good right now. This will not last. There will be regression. This team’s outside shooting will come back down to Earth, and the Sixers will not miss that many wide open shots again. And that’s OK, the Celts will adjust and find other ways to win, that you can believe in, but do not allow yourself to have this false sense of security that this team is suddenly GS. They played great, and at times exposed the Sixers in ways that will be valuable moving forward, but if anything this was the exception not the norm. But that’s what is great about the playoffs. All it takes it one random offensive outburst to really change the dynamic of the series, and you bet your ass the Sixers are taking the Celtics much more seriously this morning than they did before Game 1. Nothing really changes for me, this series is still going to be a dogfight.
With that said, let’s have a little fun
The Good
– Heading into the playoffs, every person that cares about this team could all agree on one thing. Terry Rozier was going to have to be as close to Kyrie Irving as possible if this team wanted to advance. For a guy getting his first opportunity this is a pretty insane thing to ask. And yet, he is delivering
Another incredible performance, you know the numbers. He finished with 29/8/6 on 11-18 shooting (7-9 from deep) and to say he was as problem for the Sixers would be an understatement of the century. Here’s the thing too, this wasn’t like Wade’s random outburst when MIA beat PHI, Terry has been playing at this level essentially the entire post season. The confidence he is playing with right now is making all the difference, and with that confidence comes control. Terry finished with just 2 TOs in his 34 minutes, and you can tell by watching him play that things are really slowing down for him.
In all honesty, who in the Sixers lineup is going to match up with him? Robert Covington, perhaps PHI’s best on ball defender matched up with Rozier on 24 possessions (most on team). Rozier cooked him to the tune of 4-8 shooting and 3-4 from deep. If Covington can’t stay with him, who is going to? TJ McConnell? JJ Redick? Markelle Fultz? Ok that last one was a joke but it’s a serious question. It’s fair to say that Rozier may not make 7 threes again, but who on that team is going to come close to slowing him down? If the Sixers don’t figure it out Terry is going to continue to eat and be as close to Kyrie-Lite as we’ve seen all season.
– Please, join me in a moment of silence for those who have spent the last two years yelling on Twitter how Horford is not worth his contract. How he isn’t a max player. While they are busy crying, the rest of us should watch what it looks like to be a max player. It looks like this
Not only did Horford get it done on the offensive end to the tune of 26/7/4 on 10-12 shooting, but he outplayed Joel Embiid in the process. Defensively, opponents shot 6-16 against Horford, and he led the Celtics with an overall net rating of +27.7. To say he was incredible would be doing him a disservice. Once again, when this team needed it’s leader to step up and come through, Horford rose to the challenge which you LOVE to see.
Last night gave us a glimpse as to how valuable Horford is to this system, because his ability to bring Embiid away form the basket was a major factor in this team’s success. Joel Embiid did not have 1 block in this game, think about that. The whole key to the Sixers defense is having a guy like Embiid by the rim so he can block/challenge shots. But now that he has to account for Horford on the perimeter, he’s in a tough spot. Does he stay home and protect the rim, or leave Horford open. Last night, he chose wrong
But back to Al. His energy on both ends was great, he contested a total of 15 shots which was second on the team, and dare I say his clutchness (?) was on display with a couple GIGANTIC late fourth quarter makes. This is nothing new for anyone with a brain, we saw him do this last postseason, and maybe now that he outplayed Embiid people will finally understand just how worth the money this guy is.
– It’s always nice to see when someone on the Celts staff reads the blog. Yesterday I gave 9 ways the Celtics could beat this Sixers team, let’s see how they did
1. Contain Embiid
OK well this was a mixed bag. On one hand, Embiid finished with a beastly 31/12. Some may say he was not contained. Well, I say he had 31 points on 27 possessions. That’s good enough for me. I also talked about how they should try and get Embiid on the left side, where he struggles. Well, last night he missed every one of his shots from the left side soooooo
2. Pick your poison with Simmons and stick to it
The Celtics did a great job on Simmons. In the blog I talked about how you can let Simmons get to the paint, just not the restricted area. He struggles outside of 3 feet and last night was no different. They gave Simmons the right amount of space so that he took himself to his problem areas, and the Celtics didn’t bite and forcing him to try and convert on those little bunnies. Simmons missed every single one.
3. Limit transition Opportunities
The Sixers had just 10 fast break points and just 16 points off TOs. The Celtics did a great job of limiting their transition threes, and forced them to play the Celtics pace. The this game was placed on a 98.88 pace, something that is drastically slower than what the Sixers like to do. Mission accomplished.
4. Lock down the perimeter
19% from three for the Sixers. Again, sad butthurt Sixers fans will tell you this was just an off night. Me, a person with eyes, saw the Celtics do a great job of getting to shooters and running them off the three point line. Here are the facts: When the Sixers were wide open (closest defender 6+ feet) they shot 8-17. On open shots they went 9-22. The Celtics, just like they have all year, took away the three point line, and when you do that to PHI, they struggle.
5. Utilize the Sixers youth
This was all about taking advantage of the Sixers desire to make huge momentum plays. When you do that often times you are not disciplined. I wanted the Celtics to utilize the pump fake, especially on Embiid. Boom.
6. Don’t rely on isolation
This was a mixed bag. At times they did, mainly Smart, but the Celtics did finish with 27 assists on 41 baskets. In that blog I talked about exposing the corners through ball movement. For those curious, the Celtics made 6 of their 17 3PM from the corners.
7. Win the bench battle
Celts won this 19-17. It doesn’t seem like much, but the Celts did a great job of making both Belinelli and Ilyasova complete non factors. That may not happen again, but seeing as how the Celts were shorthanded and had to go deeper in their bench, this was a great thing to see.
8. Communicate off screens
See the Sixers 3pt%. Great defense comes from great communication. The rotations were crisp, guys took care of their individual assignments, and as a result the Sixers had a tough time scoring. That went about as well as I could have hoped.
9. Just win all your home games
5-0 this postseason at home. Who needs the road!
– Oh right, how could I go this long without talking about the best rookie on the floor last night
Stud. What else can you say when talking about Jayson Tatum? All year everyone had been talking about Simmons and Mitchell as the ROY, and Tatum just went along doing his thing. Well last night was his chance to go up against Simmons, and to put it lightly, he murdered him. 28 points on 50% shooting, the Sixers do not have a player that can really match up with Tatum either, because Simmons refuses to for whatever reason. He guarded Tatum on just 9 possessions and gave up 50% shooting. Instead the Sixers went with JJ Redick a total of 23 possessions on Tatum, and we all saw how that worked out.
Heading into the series it was all about how were the Celtics going to stop Embiid/Simmons. Well I’d like to ask how the Sixers are going to guard the Celtics, and that’s not even factoring in Jaylen! Redick and Belinelli and Covington are not athletic enough. Simmons is going to have to try and that’s bad news given all the energy he has to use on offense. This is a series of matchups, and after Game 1 I’m not sure how many matchups favor PHI.
– This defense is ridiculous
– By now we should be used to it, but Marcus Smart had another one of those classic Marcus Smart nights. One minute you want to kill the guy because he turns into a hero ball shooting asshole, they next minute he makes a play that brings a tear to your eye.
Sure his 3-12 was a disaster, but the way he moved the ball and found his teammates, added in with a few winning plays here and there gave the Celts just enough in his role of filling in for Jaylen.
– Remember when nobody thought the Celtics would be able to score against this team and then they had three straight 30+ point quarters? This team making no sense is my favorite part.
– Is Aron Baynes the best center in this series?
The Bad
– If the Celtics want to make sure they take care of business, they need to be MUCH better on the defensive glass. They played with fire early where it seemed like the Sixers got every OREB and were quicker to the ball, and as a team they finished with 11 OREB on the night. That’s too many, and fortunately led to just 18 second chance points. You keep letting PHI live on the offensive glass like that, eventually they are going to kick it out to shooters and those shooters are going to make their threes.
– Once again, layups and inbounding the basketball continue to plague this team. I don’t get it, these are things that middle schoolers can do without problems, and yet the Celtics, a professional basketball team if you were not aware, for whatever reason can’t do either. It makes no sense.
– Robert Covington is an All NBA defender apparently. Seriously, people put him as one of the best defenders in the league. Lol.
– Just 1:44 for Yabu. Come on Brad, this series would have been over if we got just one Yabu 3PM dab. If we’re in another blowout in Game 2 I’m going to need him to play the entire fourth quarter. Give us what we want.
The Ugly
– I still can’t let Smart off the hook for the shit he pulled in the third quarter. That shot selection is going to get them beat, and while it’s a tricky subject because he did make a couple big threes, he needs better situational awareness. From a few bad fouls to bad shot selection, Smart needs to take a deep breath. He’s at his best when he’s creating first, and focusing on scoring second, not the other way around.
– I dunno, maybe I’m in the minority here, but the “not a rookie” chant was pretty weak in my opinion. Now “fuck the process” is much better, but I’m going to need everyone to be a little more creative in their trolling moving forward.
As I said in the beginning of the blog, this series is FAR from over. Chances are before it’s all said and done, the Celtics will be on other end of a game like last night, and Sixers Twitter will get their chance to clown on Twitter. That’s what makes this series so awesome, both teams are going to have their moments. But last night it was the Celtics turn, and with Jaylen set to come back Thursday, it feels like a great time to be a Celtics fan. The whole basketball world can keep sleeping, all we’ll do is just keep winning.
5 down 11 to go