The Boston Celtics are 9-2, and 2-2 against teams that came into the season with realistic expectations of finishing at the top (or near the top) of their respective conferences. Boston’s latest win, a 123-101 triumph over the Philadelphia 76ers, certainly came with a sizeable amount of fanfare and media attention.
Of course, that attention was inevitable. This was the first time Jaylen Brown was facing off against his former team since her was unceremoniously shipped out earlier this summer. It was also
the first time we’d seen Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown go toe-to-toe in a competitive setting.
You never forget your first time.
Just eleven games into the season, and we were already treated to a playoff-style game. Boston’s ability to impose its will against a staple of the Sixers’ defense gave it a leg up en route to an impressive win.
Winning the perimeter battle
Before Tuesday’s game against the Sixers, Philly was among the better teams in the NBA at limiting opposing teams’ three-point attempts. Before the game against Boston, Cleaning The Glass had Philadelphia ranked 9th in the NBA for defensive three-point frequency.
More importantly, though, they were ranked third for defensive three-point percentage, limiting opponents to 31.8% from deep.
On the other side of this battle, the Celtics were coming into the game ranked sixth in both offensive three-point frequency and offensive three-point accuracy.
Simply put, the Sixers denied a lot of threes and held teams to a below-league-average clip on the threes they did allow. Boston takes a lot of threes (although not as many as in previous years) and makes a lot of them, too.
One of these two sides was going to lose this battle. Either the Sixers were going to implement their will and force the Celtics to beat them on the interior, or the Celtics were going to stare into the Sixers’ souls, giggle, and make their shots anyway.
This is a Joe Mazzulla roster, so of course they chose violence, and giggle into the Sixers’ souls they did.
Today, the Sixers have fallen from 9th in the NBA for defensive three-point frequency to 12th, and from third in the NBA for defensive three-point accuracy to eighth.
For the Celtics, their three-point shot is akin to their jab. They use it to size you up, to score points, and to set up the bigger blows. Philly came in looking to slip those jabs and hit the Celtics with the counterpunch in transition.
Instead, the Sixers allowed, well, more so witnessed, the Celtics having one of those nights where their threes are falling from everywhere. Boston ended the game shooting 44.9% from deep, on 22-of-49 shooting.
Peppered.
The Sixers got peppered with jabs, and in turn, the Sixers’ biggest defensive strength looked penetrable. From there, the Celtics have a platform to build on, even when the whistle went cold against them.
14 Points
That’s how many Paul George scored in the fourth quarter. Eight more than anyone else on Boston’s roster in the final twelve minutes of play, and two more than Anfernee Simons, who was the Sixers’ only legitimate source of offense as they tried to keep pace with a Celtics team that surged out of the gates for the final round.
George has been way better than advertised to begin the season. Sure, there are still questions and/or concerns regarding his ability to stay healthy. Still, you can’t deny the impact he’s making when he steps onto the court for Boston, both offensively and defensively.
“I thought he was great,” Joe Mazzulla said during his postgame news conference. “That’s just what we need. We need him to play two-way basketball and be great. And you kind of saw that there, especially at the start of the fourth quarter.”
George was a catalyst for the Celtics last night, in a game where his involvement in the Brown trade had become an afterthought.
That’s how you remind people not to forget what you’re capable of.
Speaking of a reminder
How many of us threw Sam Hauser’s name into the trade machine this summer? How many times did you come across someone saying Boston needed to move on from him in order to strengthen other areas of the roster?
How wrong we/they/some of us were.
Hauser had another great night from the perimeter against the Sixers, going 4-of-6 from deep, along with snagging five rebounds and putting in a solid shift defensively.
This was just another game in a solid start to the season for Hauser. More importantly, he played a key role in unlocking the Sixers’ perimeter defense early, hitting two of his four treys in the second quarter and proving that Philadelphia’s point-of-attack defense wasn’t the impenetrable wall the numbers would have you believe.
Hauser is knocking down threes at a 43.1% clip over his first 11 games of the season. If he keeps this up, it will be the best shooting season of his career since his rookie year. Of course, when you factor in volume (he took 1.7 threes per game as a rookie compared to 5.3 per game this season so far), I think it would be fair to say this is the best he’s been as a straight-up perimeter bucket-getter.
A difference in defense
Dean Wade and Brown split the lion’s share of defensive responsibilities on Tatum. Wade totaled 3 minutes and 40 seconds paired up with Tatum, while Brown clocked 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
However, how each defender looked to play Boston’s superstar was interesting. When Brown was matched up on Tatum, he was face guarding or top-locking, looking to freeze Tatum out of Boston’s offense – which is a smart call. In fact, Tatum only took two shots with Brown as his on-ball defender, making both of them.
Now, part of the reason Brown didn’t defend too many of Tatum’s buckets is that the Celtics were more than happy to force Brown into a switch on the perimeter, as Tatum looked to punish Joel Embiid’s mafia-style bricks for feet. For the most part, the Celtics were successful in hunting those switches, although sometimes that led to Tatum pairing up with VJ Edgecombe or Tyrese Maxey.
Either way, a quick pass to Tatum followed by a screen ensured we weren’t seeing the two former teammates going at it possession after possession – as we did in 2023 when the pair were on opposite sides for the All-Star game.
Wade, on the other hand, appeared more than happy to guard Tatum on-ball and look to impact his scoring opportunities. In fact, Wade held Tatum to 1-of-5 shooting in their matchup, forcing Tatum into some tough spots, both on the perimeter and from two-point range.
When it comes to trying to shut down an elite talent like Tatum, you have to keep throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Brown was undoubtedly motivated to pair up with his former running mate, but the truth is, placing Brown in an off-ball defensive role limits his value on that side of the ball. Boston knew that, which is what once Tatum got the rock in those matchup minutes, screens were only a few seconds away (mostly).
Well, at least that is out of the way
I’m sure that most of us are done with the constant Tatum and Brown reporting. We lived through it when they were teammates, and since Brown was traded, the media cycle has been relentless. Naturally, that reporting shifted into another gear heading into Tuesday’s matchup.
I mean, it was a major storyline that added juice to a regular-season game in November; I get why that was the case. Fortunately, though, the game is over. Tatum and Brown have faced off. It’s done. We saw it. It was cool. Now, can we please move on?
Actually, if I don’t hear about the Tatum and Brown situation until we get closer to Brown’s first return to the TD Garden (we’re not counting a preseason game where he didn’t play), then that would be fantastic.
It’s time to move on. It’s been time to move on. Hopefully, last night was the closure everybody needed to put this whole situation on pause and ultimately in the rearview.
That would be swell.
Here you go
No words, just the best highlight of the game.
Ok, maybe one word…WOW…
Looking ahead
For anyone looking to dine out on this win, I got some bad news for ya…The Celtics are back in action again tonight.
They’re facing off against the 5-5 Toronto Raptors. As it’s the second night of a back-to-back, it’s fair to wonder whether Mitchell Robinson, George, or even Tatum will be present in the rotation. Right now, we don’t know the answer to that. However, I’m sure it won’t be long until the injury report is out and we see who, if anyone, is getting the night off to rest.
My problem with this matchup is that it has the potential to be a trap game. Scottie Barnes and Kawhi Leonard will not be participating. Immanuel Quickley is listed as doubtful, as is Collin Murray-Boyles.
When facing an injury-hit team, it’s easy to think you can take your foot off the gas. In recent years, the Celtics haven’t fallen victim to that mindset as much; in fact, it’s been quite rare recently. Still, the risk is there, and when coupled with the tired legs from two games in two nights, it could make for a tough outing.
