NBA: 76ers canceled! Celtics’ outstanding offensive trio dominate match 1

The Celtics’ home strength continues! In the play-off duel number 101 – Boston against Philadelphia, the Celtics, despite the loss of their previous top scorer, could win the opening duel against the 76ers with 117:101 thanks to a strong offensive performance.

Shortly before the game began, the play-off euphoria of Celtics fans was dampened: top scorer Jaylen Brown, whose status had previously been considered “questionable” for his use, could not shake off his thigh injury sufficiently and had to pass for the opening game. Celtics coach Brad Stevens put Marcus Smart on the grid.

After a six-day break, the Sixers offensive brought a good portion of rust into the first quarter. Early goals from Joel Embiid and Dario Saric were followed by an ice-cold stretch in which the 76ers scored only 2 of their 15 attempts to throw out of the field. On the other hand, the offense had a name: Terry Rozier! The lrring replacement acted as if he was turned up, met his threesome early on and opened paths to the basket, which he attacked aggressively on several occasions. A 7-0 run of the 76’s at the end of the first quarter limited the damage – 25:23 Celtics.

Philly remained unlucky, especially from outside, and accordingly often sought the presence of Embiid in the zone. However, Aron Baynes held steady and Embiid needed nine litters for his 8 points in the second quarter. The Celtics offensive was much more fluid and benefited from a sensational quarter of Al Horford. The technically gifted Big Man scored 10 points and played 3 assists. In general, Boston always found an open man under the basket or played a shooter free in the corner, extending the lead to 56:45.

Embiid dominated the offensive of the 76s after halftime and found his rhythm more and more. Ben Simmons could also set accents under the basket for the first time – but all this was not enough to reduce the distance, since the Celtics ignited an absolute fireworks display from outside in return. Although they only hit 6 of their total of 14 triples – they laid the foundation for another successful quarter. Marcus Smart in particular had a strong defense, 9 points and a series of ball templates. 87-75 Celtics.

Celtics coach Stevens’ offense hardly faltered in the last 12 minutes and Rozier fended off any 76s comeback with 13 points in the quarter at the latest. With still 2:50 to play 76ers coach Brett Brown then pulled the rip cord and sent his starters prematurely into the closing time. Final score: 117:101 Celtics.

With 48 percent from the field, 47 from outside and 95 from the line, the Celtics showed an unexpectedly outstanding offensive performance. Horford (26 points, 10/12 FG, 7 rebounds, 4 assists) shone at both ends of the court, Rozier scored 29 points (11/18), a new play-off career high, and Jayson Tatum (28 points, 8/16) also showed his best performance so far in his still very young play-off career.

On the other hand, the 76ers threw bricks around and could only count on a dominant embiid (31 points, 12/21, 13 rebounds) and a good offensive performance by J.J. Redick (20 points, 7/13 FG). Simmons filled the statistics sheet as usual (18 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists), but also did 7 turnovers and seemed a little inhibited against the strong Celtics defense overall.

Boston Celtics v Philadelphia 76ers 117:101, Series 1:0 (BOXSCORE)

Aron Baynes throws threesomes? Yes, he’s been doing that since this season and especially in the matchup against Joel Embiid, he got the green light from outside. The Celtics want to pull Embiid out of the zone as often as possible – so Baynes spent relatively much time offensively at the perimeter and set up a new career high with three triples. With his two goals (also career high), he raised his career account to 8.

The actually so potent triple shooters of the 76’s experienced an absolute horror evening – only 5 of their 26 throws from outside found the inside of the nylon. Only for the fourth time this season Philly took more than 20 triples and scored less than 20 percent.

The joint scoring performance of Horford (26), Tatum (28) and Rozier (29) was a real rarity for the previous Celtics season. It was only the fourth time Boston had three players with 20+ points in one game and no big surprise: each of these four games ended in a Celtics victory.

With 11:5 the 76ers clearly won the duel on the offensive board and uncovered an old weakness of the Celtics. However, many of these second chances ended in another Philly miss and so the Sixers could not capitalize enough on this advantage.

The 76ers certainly did not fail due to a lack of aggression – with 35 free throwing attempts they rewarded themselves for most of the hard work under the basket, but also lost 9 points and especially Simmons (6/11) showed another shaky throw from the line.

Terry Rozier (Celtics): “Self-confidence is the most important thing. I realize that my teammates believe in me, my coaches believe in me – and I just want to find a way to go the same way.”

Brett Brown (76ers coach): “Defensive, offensive – this performance has not corresponded to what we represent as a team. That was a very weak game of ours.”

Al Horford. This achievement could be copied directly into the basketball textbook. As so often, Horford was not incredibly spectacular, but incredibly efficient in all areas. Defense, scoring, playmaking – an absolutely outstanding performance that made Horford the man of the evening despite strong competition from Rozier and Tatum.

Robert Covington. The predicate “streaky” has been sticking to Covington for a long time and today he showed once again how ugly it can get when he lives through a cold litter evening. The real 3&D elite roleplayer discarded each of his 6 field goal attempts and, in addition, defensively made some misfires.

Brett Brown decided over long periods to defensively relieve his snipers a little. Redick did not defend one of the Celtics backcourt players, but was hidden in the corner by Brown and usually defended the much larger Tatum. The same was true for Bellinelli from the bank and Brown not only tried to save his strength, but deliberately tried to take his weaker defenders out of pick&roll situations. Tatum thanked him for his rewarding scoring options and Ben Simmons, who defended one of the ball handlers, was unable to play the usual “free safety” role in which he lurks in the opponent’s passes.