In recent years, the Celtics (25-26 overall, 15-10 home) have owned the Sixers (35-16 overall, 15-11 away) both in the regular season and more importantly in the playoffs. That script has definitely changed in 2021 though as Philadelphia has become one of the top teams in the NBA while Boston has regressed to a middle-of-the-pack club (at best) that has little chance against a team like the Sixers when it comes to the postseason. Philly left no doubt tonight at the TD Garden as they easily disposed of the C's 106-96 to take all three games of the season series. Don't let the final score fool you, it really wasn't even that close as the Sixers used a 22-3 run in the second quarter to lead by as many as 21 points as they cruised to an easy win and kept pace with Brooklyn (35-16) for first-place in the Eastern Conference.
Much like the Bruins, the Celts can't seem to shake their bout with Covid-19. They got swingman Semi Ojeleye back tonight but swingman Evan Fournier returned to the league's health and safety protocol for the second time already in his brief time here. Ugh. Anyone seen Tristan Thompson lately? It feels like he's been missing for months while he has tested positive for Covid-19 as well. Regardless, with a real head coach in Doc Rivers by his side, Philadelphia center Joel Embiid (game-high 35 points, 6 rebounds) has blossomed into one of the best players in the league. He can do it all including get to the line (20 free throw attempts) where unlike Shaq or many other clumsy big guys, he is a great shooter (he made 16 of those). Small forward Danny Green (17 points) is one of the better 3-point marksman (he made 5-of-6 tonight) in the NBA, point guard Ben Simmons added 12 points, six assists and three steals while power forward Tobias Harris (who made his first All-Star Game this season) had 10 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Philly's bench is for sure a weakness that will probably come back to bite them in the playoffs as they were led by something called Furkan Korkmaz who had 10 points.
If Boston is held under 100 points, you know that they aren't going to win since their defense will never hold any decent team under that. Mr. Empty Numbers himself swingman Jayson Tatum paced the home team with 20 points while shooting guard Jaylen Brown was held to 17 points. Point guard Kemba Walker (6 assists) and guard Marcus Smart each scored 14 points. Center Robert Williams has been one of the few bright spots of this frustrating season for the Celtics but tonight showed how far he still has to go: he fouled out in 14 minutes trying futilely to stop Embiid, scoring four points and grabbing nine rebounds in that short time.
The truth is that I (along with any reasonable Celtics fans) knew that they had little chance to win tonight and the real test is tomorrow night when they host the Knicks (25-26 overall, 11-16 away) who you will notice have the exact same record as them. New York is also 5-5 in its last 10 games so they aren't exactly setting the world on fire either but unlike the C's, they are overachieving this season compared to the disappointing team in Green. Kemba will be out which is when Boston could really use Fournier. Get ready for the full Marcus Smart experience which always makes for a bumpy ride. Their only meeting of the season so far-which I have totally forgotten for obvious reasons-was a 30-point drubbing (105-75) by New York on January 17 at the TD Garden. Haha dare I say that it can't get any worse than that for the C's?
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