1. Playoff Jayson Tatum Is Back
The last time Jayson Tatum played in the playoffs was May 12th 2025. He dropped 42 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists before he suffered what is known as one of the worst injuries a basketball player could sustain in a Torn Achilles. It was only 342 days later where Tatum was back playing in a playoff game and it looks like he hasn’t skipped a beat, finishing with 25 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals on 9-17 shooting.
Jayson Tatum is now 5th in Eastern Conference history in 25-point playoff
games with only LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Dwayne Wade having more. Tatum joined Jimmy Butler in 2022 and Russell Westbrook in 2017 as the third player in NBA Playoff History with 21+ Points, 8+ Rebounds, 4+ Assists, and 2+ Steals in the first half of a playoff game in the last 30 years.
Tatum played most of his best basketball in the first half of this game, finishing with 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists on 7-11 shooting. Tatum had 10 of those points in the first quarter, where he exploited the fact the 76ers didn’t have a wing defender that could guard him. He was able to slice through Philly’s defense like a cheese steak to get to easy buckets in the midrange and some aggressive finishes at the basket.
Tatum did a great job of getting to the line in the second quarter, finishing 6-6 at the charity stripe. Philadelphia did not have any answers for him and you can tell they were frustrated. He was 1-7 from three in this game but that one he hit made him pass Kobe Bryant for 11th place on the all-time playoff three-pointers made list. Tatum put an exclamation point on his incredible first half performance with an emphatic slam off a Sam Hauser steal.
Tatum only played in 12 minutes the rest of the game but his first half performance stamped his impact on this win. He was serenaded with a standing ovation from the TD Garden crowd in the fourth quarter, being shown the respect he deserved for his great game.
2. Jaylen Brown Big 3Q
Jaylen Brown started game this game a little slow with only 10 points on 4-12 shooting in the first half but really stepped up his game in the third quarter. Brown played the entire third quarter and finished with 16 points on 7-9 shooting from the field and 2-2 from three. The play that really ignited his fire in the quarter came at the 6:24 mark where he deflected an errant pass by Andre Drummond and turned it into a wide open three pointer.
This three sparked a 10-0 run by the Celtics that took any possible chance the 76ers had of coming back in this game. Brown shot 5-6 after his steal, twisting the knife even deeper into Philadelphia’s defense. No matter who Philly threw out there to defend him, Brown was able break them down and finish in his spots.
This game was the 50th time that both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum scored 20+ points in the same playoff game, the second most in Celtics history only behind Larry Bird and Kevin McHale who did it 58 times. It is the 19th time that Brown and Tatum have both scored 25+ in the same playoff game. If Game 1 was any indication of how these playoffs are going to go, we could see the Jays breaking that record this season.
3. Sam Hauser Dialed In
For the first time in his NBA Career, Sam Hauser shot under 40% from three in a season, finishing at 39.3% with the Celtics this season. He seemed to take that personally going into Game 1 where finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds on 4-6 shooting from behind the arc. He started the game off hot, hitting back-to-back threes in the first quarter and set the tone for the Celtics offense.
He hit two more threes in the fourth quarter but what really impressive from Hauser was his defensive effort in this game. Via Taylor Snow on X, Sam Hauser played 1,934 minutes in the regular season and drew 0 charges but 2 minutes into the playoffs he drew a charge on Adem Bona who barreled right through him. When asked about taking the charge, Hauser laughed and said, “I was scared” but he was just trying to make a play.
Hauser made another great defensive play in the second quarter, picking off an inbounds pass and finding Jayson Tatum the other way for a wide open dunk. After struggling for most of the season, this was a great start what hopefully is a big playoff run for Hauser this season.
4. Jordan Walsh Energy Minutes
Jordan Walsh played some big minutes for the Celtics down the stretch of the regular season and got his first chance to show out in the playoffs, finishing with 5 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists on 2-5 shooting. He was thrown in at the 3:49 mark of the third quarter and was immediately tasked to stop Tyrese Maxey. Walsh stepped up by playing some great defense that resulted in him getting a fast-break layup off a nice pass from Jayson Tatum at the end of the first quarter.
Walsh checked back in at the 3:36 mark of the third quarter, where he once again brought the energy on the defensive end that the Celtics were looking for. After Brown missed a midrange jumper, Walsh grabbed a big offensive rebound in traffic, drawing a foul and hyping up the crowd. This is a great example of why Walsh is so important to the Celtics with the instant energy he provides on the defensive side of the ball.
5. Neemias Queta X-Factor
Neemias Queta had an up-and-down game against the 76ers in his first career playoff start. The good was that he finished with 13 points and 1 block on 5-5 shooting but the bad was that he committed 5 fouls in only 15 minutes of play. Some of the fouls were bad but when he was out there, Queta dominated the 76ers inside, just like he did on March 1st when he dropped a career 27 points with 17 rebounds.
Much like most of the games at the end of the regular season when Queta went off, he was a monster in the pick-and-roll against Philadelphia. If he wasn’t in foul trouble I believe the Celtics would have spammed the same play over and over again until the 76ers could stop him. The 76ers looked like they wanted no business in guarding him and if that is the case, Queta will be a big X-factor for the Celtics in this series if he can stay out of foul trouble.
6. Nikola Vucevic Adventure
With Queta in foul trouble, Nikola Vucevic got a lot more minutes off the bench, finishing with 18 in total. If I had to describe his performance it would be: an adventure. Much like Queta, Vucevic also was in foul trouble, finishing with 4 fouls. On the positive side he finished with 3 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and a +13. We saw Vucevic have a rough game early on, getting dunked on by Kelly Oubre Jr and air-balling a wide open shot at the basket.
However he was also able to be a real positive for Boston on the glass, doing a great job of sealing off Bona and Drummond to secure defensive rebounds to start the Celtics offense. He was even able to turn one of these rebounds into a transition three. It was cool to see TD Garden yell “VOOCH” as the shot went up and the subsequent cheers after it went in. Joe Mazzulla praised his ability to keep the 76ers big men off the glass in his post game press conference, so although it might not look the prettiest, Vucevic is an important part of this rotation.
7. Garza/Scheierman Step Up In Spot Minutes
With both Queta and Vucevic in foul trouble at points in this game, Luka Garza got a chance to play 14 minutes off the bench and finished with 7 points and 2 rebounds. Garza started the second quarter for the Celtics and immediately grabbed a big offensive rebound to get free throws. He followed that up with a three pointer and even though he only played 5:27, in the second quarter, the Celtics were able to open up their lead to 15 points. Garza played a little bit of spot minutes in the second half as well and although he didn’t put up a ton of numbers on the stat sheet, he was able to keep Philadelphia’s big men under wraps.
Baylor Scheierman also started the second quarter alongside Garza, and had one sequence where he made an impact. He finished a nice floater late in the shot clock on offense and then blocked Paul George on defense the next possession. Seeing Garza and Scheierman excel in spot minutes is huge for the Celtics and is a testament to everyone being ready for when their number is called.
8. Three-point Disparity
When asked about limiting the Celtics three-point shooting pregame, 76ers head coach Nick Nurse said that he wanted his team to cut the number of three point attempts down in this series by “4-5.” Safe to say, that game plan did not work out well. Boston was 16-44 (36%) from three which isn’t great but was substantially better than Philadelphia who finished 4-23 (17%).
The three-pointer is the great equalizer when it comes to the NBA. It can both win you and lose you games based on how good the team shooting is. Safe to say the 76ers might want to try a little harder to force the Celtics off the three-point line a little more, given they lost by 32 points and Boston didn’t even it shoot it well. I wonder what the score would look like if the Celtics made even 40% of their threes.
9. Maxey Non-Factor
Tyrese Maxey is the engine that makes the Philadelphia 76ers offense go but he is also playing through a right finger tendon injury that he suffered on his pinky. When he isn’t able to have a big game, the 76ers have a hard time generating offense and we saw it in this game where Maxey finished with only 21 points on 8-20 shooting. The primary defenders on Maxey in this game were Derrick White, Jayson Tatum and Jordan Walsh and all of them did a great job of forcing him into tough shots. Maxey is still going to get his and might have a big game in this series at some point, but I liked what I saw out of the Celtics defense.
10. TD Garden Crowd
The best part about the Celtics being back in the Playoffs is that we get to hear the roar of the TD Garden crowd. I was there covering the game for CelticsBlog as a media member for the first time in a playoff game and sitting in the press box it was amazing to hear how loud the crowd got in big moments. The crowd was engaged from the jump ball and I thought even sounded loud on TV.
The highlight of the night was during the fourth quarter when in garbage time, the TD Garden broke out in a “We Want Boston” chant. This was a response to the Philadelphia 76ers crowd chanting it at the end of their Play-In Tournament victory against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday April 15th. We saw Gino Time, the wave, and a Celtics victory, it doesn’t get much better than that.
