BOSTON — To say that Tuesday’s Game 5 between the Celtics and 76ers was ugly is a massive understatement.
The Celtics missed 14 consecutive field goals to close out the game, got outscored by 17 points in the fourth quarter, and watched their own fans file out with several minutes left in the ball game.
A series that appeared over early in the third quarter was suddenly headed back to Philadelphia, with most of the momentum on the 76ers’ side.
And, Joel Embiid lookes eager to deliver to turn the season
around; he exploded for 33 points in Game 5, 18 of which came in the second half on 7-10 shooting.
“Give him credit, he played well,” Jayson Tatum said. “He put a lot of pressure on us especially on the defensive end. We’ll go back and watch the film and make some adjustments and be ready for Game 6.”
Philadelphia is 0-2 at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in these playoffs, and will be desperate (and fully healthy) when they host Game 6 on Thursday night.
“Our fans deserve a win at home,” Tyrese Maxey said after the 76ers’ 113-97 defeat over the Celtics.
The question is: will the Celtics allow it?
On Tuesday, Boston didn’t play with the attention to detail required to put away a good team on the brink of elimination. They led by 13 points with 10 minutes to play in the third quarter, but were outscored 63-26 the rest of the way.
“I thought we had a decent first half,” Payton Pritchard said. “I just think we were just a little lackadaisical at times when we could have put them away. We just messed around with the game. And when you have a team on the brink of elimination, you’ve really got to put your foot on the gas and finish it. I thought we’d let them have life at times that they didn’t need to.”
Jaylen Brown, who went 0-6 from the field in the fourth quarter, acknowledged the Celtics had to deal with adversity with better than they did. Outside of Sam Hauser, who went 2-3 from three in the fourth, the rest of the Celtics roster combined to shoot 1-19 from the field in the period.
Sean Grande, the Celtics’ play-by-play radio broadcaster, broke down why Tuesday’s second-half was, according to the numbers, the worst half of the year.
The Celtics allowed 1.452 points per possession, which ranked 172nd of 174 halves this year. They scored 0.881 points per possession, which ranked 166th. Their net rating? .0571 points per possession, which ranked 174th of 174 halves played.
In other words, they played their worst basketball of the season at the absolute worst time, with the chance to put away a 76ers team that was fully healthy for the first time in months.
“Just got to be better,” Brown said. “Got to be better. It’s not always going to go your way, so just be able to handle that and respond with maturity, and be able to score the ball, make plays for others, etc., even when the rhythm is maybe not flowing in our direction. I feel like tonight, we had a chance to win and pull away. We were up 13, and we didn’t take advantage of it. So we’re all to blame. We’ve just got to watch it and respond and get better and move forward.”
But, the reality is that while fans can sulk about the loss for the next 48 hours, the Celtics have to turn the page. They’re still in control of the series, but Philadelphia is fully-healthy and frseh off some of their best basketball of the year.
“Just take a deep breath, relax and get ready to go,” Brown said. “Just have the right mentality and come out and execute your job. No need to put any extra pressure on ourselves. It’s already enough of that as it is. So, just come out and play basketball and play the right way. I think that’s what our mindset is, and that’s what we’ve got to do going forward.”
