The Philadelphia 76ers have maintained their little hope for the Eastern Conference Finals with their first win in the series against the Boston Celtics. With a hard-fought 103:92 victory (BOXSCORE) the Sixers shorten to 1-3 in the series, but in two days the Celtics have the chance to finish the series with a victory at home.
With the impending sweep, Sixers coach Brett Brown changed his linup for the first time and brought T.J. McConnell for Robert Covington, but the hosts did not start furiously, instead the first minutes were marked by hard defense and numerous misses. Al Horford and Joel Embiid dominated the defense and the throwing odds were correspondingly weak. J.J. Redick sunk a few Jumpers for Philly, but Boston led 22-21 after 12 minutes.
Of course, the slow pace met the guests again, who didn’t hit well either, but could intersperse a Jumper (Marcus Smart!) every now and then. Ben Simmons, on the other hand, was more aggressive in his search for his litter, but had little success. Numerous foul whistles and Boston’s turnover, however, kept the Sixers in the game. Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris and Marcus had three fouls in the middle of the second quarter. But it wasn’t unfair, only when Terry Rozier and Embiid clashed, it got a little heated, there was a technical foul for both.
Finally, there was a good mood, because Embiid immediately sunk a threesome, Rozier countered on the other side. Embiid set the last exclamation mark before the break with a dunk, the Sixers led 47:43.
It went on with a lot of momentum, McConnell made some good plays for Philly, while the Celtics now tied Tatum more into the offense. The hosts now played at a faster pace and got better results, Dario Saric took the sixers’ first double-digit lead from the free-throw line. Brown was already on five fouls, the guard and coach Stevens didn’t like it at all, both picked up technical fouls. It took a while for the guests to catch up again, Philadelphia went into the final section with a 76:65 lead.
But now the Sixers had the necessary self-confidence, even Covington, who was weak in the series, finally met a threesome again. But Boston stayed pretty close, even if it wasn’t nice. Defensively it was again at a high level, but the guests lacked high-percentage finishes. So the Celtics came no closer than 9 points, the Sixers brought their first victory of the series into dry cloths.
Best Sixers scorer was Saric with 25 points and 8 rebounds. In addition, Embiid (15, 13 rebounds), McConnell (19), and Simmons (19, 13 rebounds) score in two digits. The Celtics were missing the hot little hand this time, Tatum (20, 7/16 FG) and Morris (17) were already the most diligent scorers. Al Horford (10, 10 rebounds) scored a double-double, Smart scored 14 points.
Philadelphia 76ers – Boston Celtics 103:92, series 1:3 (BOXSCORE)
T.J. McConnell. The change in the Starting Five for Philly paid off. Despite his missing range, the little guard did the Sixers good. He unburdened Simmons in the game and made virtually no mistakes. That every Sixers starter had at least 10 throwing attempts was also due to McConnell. In addition, he had a strong defence against Rozier, whose drives to the basket were barely visible.
Jaylen Brown. Not the game of the sophomore. Except for two sunken threesomes, Brown had little to offer that evening. Some of his fouls were really unnecessary, which is why he couldn’t really get down to it later on in the game. Boston could have used a little offense from Brown, there were 8 points and only 6 throw attempts in 23 minutes clearly too little.
Sixers coach Brett Brown took Covington out of the Starting Five and brought McConnell in return, but the move paid off. With the Guard, the Sixers had another unreliable shooter on the field, but the hosts found ways to hide it. Among other things McConnell could shine from the middle distance and also complete some difficult finishes at the ring. Together with Anker Embiid McConnell helped that Boston didn’t come up with much offensive, also because the Sixers had decided to let Aron Baynes be thrown out of the corner (2/6 threesome).