Twenty-two times, the Celtics and 76ers have tipped off a playoff series with Boston owning a 15-7 lead. Their 23rd meeting started with a 123-91 blowout in Game 1 of this year’s first round series with the Jays combining for 51 points and 10 assists.
If there was any doubt that Jayson Tatum wasn’t ready for the postseason after a 16-game regular season runway, his performance in the series opener silenced any doubters. Just a year shy of his Achilles tear, Tatum finished with another near triple-double
of 25-11-7. He looked springy on defense and like a charging bull on his drives.
And as for this year’s MVP candidate, Jaylen Brown fulfilled his role as lead scorer with 26 on 11-of-21 shooting. He started off slow before halftime, hitting just 4-of-12, but when the 76ers threatened a comeback to open the third, Brown scored on 7-of-9 from the field for 26 points to put Philadelphia away.
The Celtics have been littered with x-factors all season. This afternoon, with a healthy roster and no one on the injury report, it was the entire team that had their moments in the blowout win. Mazzulla had trimmed the rotation to eight towards the end of the season, but with the bigs in foul trouble in the first half and the game in hand by the start of the fourth, Boston went twelve deep and everybody had their moments: a floater and block from Baylor Scheierman; Luka Garza with a putback and triple; Jordan Walsh contributed a Maxey shift and a leak out dunk; Sam Hauser hit 4-of-6 from 3.
Ultimately, the Celtics bench outscored Philly’s 37-27, led by Payton Pritchard’s 12 and six assists.
As we previewed here at CelticsBlog, containing Tyrese Maxey was going to be a priority for Boston and for the most part, they kept the All-Star point guard in check. Maxey managed to lead the 76ers in scoring with 21 points, but on an inefficient 8-of-20 with just five trips to the free throw line and three turnovers.
Creating turnovers hasn’t been a strength for the Celtics, but in Game 1, they forced fourteen that generated 22 points. Conversely, Boston had just eight givewaways from 3.
Game 2 is on Tuesday at TD Garden with a 7 pm tip-off.
