Tonight at the Wells Fargo Center, the Celtics (8-5 overall, 4-3 road) and Sixers (10-5 overall, 8-1 home) met for the first time this season and it turned out to be an entertaining game although Philly came away with a 117-109 victory. It was the first win for new Sixers head coach Doc Rivers against his former team. As a Celtics fan, the easiest thing to do after suffering a loss to one of their closest rivals, all you want to do is chalk it up to Boston missing its superstar Jayson Tatum who is still recovering from Covid-19. That is fair but you have a feeling that at almost any point in this campaign, you could say the same thing about most teams due to the pandemic and such a condensed schedule which is already causing tons of injuries. Sixers center Joel Embiid (42 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals) scored the most he's ever recorded against the Celtics but this was still a winnable contest for Boston since it was tied at 105 with 4:08 left in the fourth quarter. The problem is that without their elite closer (remember baseball?), the Celts fell apart in crunch time.
Besides Embiid's dominance and Tatum's absence, the other main issue was that Philadelphia lived at the free throw line all night. No really, as a team they attempted 25 more free throws (45-20) and made 23 more of them (36-13). For that reason, it's crazy that Boston was able to keep it that close. Complaining about fouls typically bores me to tears but you simply cannot overlook those absurd numbers. Besides the stats above, all that you need to know in that regard is that Embiid took 21 free throws by himself and made 17 of them. The uber-talented big guy will get most of the headlines for Philly but power forward Tobias Harris (22 points, 5 assists, 2 steals) did his mostly underrated thing, small forward Danny Green hit four 3-pointers and grabbed six rebounds while point guard Ben "I Still Can't Shoot To Save My Life" Simmons had 11 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and two steals. Guard Shake Milton scored 16 points off the bench for the Sixers and center Dwight Howard posted 10 rebounds in only 15 minutes. PS what other star in his generation besides maybe Derrick Rose (but that was because of a million injuries) has had a more bizarre career path than Howard?
Four players did basically everything for the Celtics: shooting guard Jaylen Brown had a team-high 26 points and five rebounds, guard Marcus Smart added 25 points and point guard Kemba Walker made the most of his minutes restriction (in his 2nd game of 2020-21) by registering 19 points and six assists in only 22 minutes of action. With some generous home cooking, Embiid got all of Boston's bigs in foul trouble: center Tristan Thompson (9 rebounds), power forward Grant Williams and backup center Daniel Theis (23 points, 10 rebounds) all picked up five fouls apiece. It was a close game almost the entire time until Boston ran out of gas in the fourth quarter.
If we're being honest, Philadelphia was also missing its best shooter-Seth "The Other" Curry (who is also out due to the coronavirus)-but they still managed to speed out to a 32-25 lead after the first quarter. Boston recovered with its best frame of the night (36-26) for a slight 61-58 halftime advantage for the road team. The C's actually extended it a little more with a strong third quarter (31-28) for a six-point lead going into the fourth. With no Tatum to let cook in the final 12 minutes, not to mention the foul trouble and Smart being the second best offensive option, it all added up to a disastrous ending for the Celts who dropped their second game in a row.
The free throw discrepancy will get the majority of the focus from this game but let's not overlook the fact that Boston had seven more turnovers (16-9) and the 76ers made four times as many steals (12-3) as them. Between that and Embiid's monster performance, the C's will never beat any quality opponent by being so careless with the ball. These same clubs meet again on Friday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) and with any help from Boston's team doctor Lucky the Leprechaun, Tatum will be back in the lineup for the first time in two weeks. Philly's win put them two full games in front of the Celtics-who have two games in hand-for first-place in the Atlantic Division. Assuming that he's healthy and motivated (both huge ifs), Embiid is way too good to ever be completely neutralized but here's an idea, hold him to under 35+ points and let's see what happens.
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