NBA: Overtime Crime! Celtics steal Game 3 – Philly before the end

What a thriller in Philadelphia! After a real defensive battle, the Philadelphia 76ers save themselves into overtime. Then Jayson Tatum, Al Horford and the defense of the Boston Celtics are too strong. Boston win 101:98 (BOXSCORE) and take a 3-0 lead in the series.

After his weak performance in game 2, Ben Simmons returned with an aggressive drive in the first minute of play. There should still follow some strong actions of the Australian – game 2 was really only a slip-up.

However, not everything went well for the Sixers at the beginning of the game. Although the hosts in the zone were extremely dangerous, the Jumpers did not want to fall at all at first. Thus, the Celtics were led by a well-placed Jayson Tatum in the middle of the first section with a score of 17:8. Only in the last minute of the quarter did Philly sink his first three, directly followed by a second.

Despite some advantages for Boston, the Sixers finally found their rhythm in the second round. While the guests – where Tatum had to hit the bench early with three fouls – did not meet any more and also made numerous turnovers, Philadelphia started a 22:5 run.

Joel Embiid finally set the exclamation mark for this run with a crackling dunk over Aron Baynes – the fans at the Wells Fargo Center were thrilled! The Sixers had shot the match and started the halftime break with a 51:48 lead.

After the break, the defenders on both sides took control of the game. The Sixers’ hot hand from downtown flattened a bit again, but Simmons and Embiid were still dangerous under the basket. In the Celtics, Terry Rozier thawed a bit and Jaylen Brown – who came back from the bank – sunk an important threesome. Towards the end of the third quarter, however, the guests also scored several minutes without a field goal. Nevertheless, the Celtics were in front with 69:68.

Also in the final section no team could gain a decisive advantage. It remained highly competitive until the last minutes, 24 seconds before the end it was a draw with Philly in possession of the ball. However, J.J. Redick played an inaccurate pass, Rozier grabbed the ball, fitting the free Brown, who finished the fastbreak with a lay-up – 89:87 lead for Boston with only 1.7 seconds left on the clock.

But that should not have been it yet: Belinelli got the spalding in the right corner and immediately sent the turnaround jumper on its way. In! Since the Italian still touched the triple line with his toes, the game went into overtime.

First of all, however, the court had to be cleaned, as confetti was shot down a little prematurely in the arena. After almost seven minutes it could continue. The long interruption obviously didn’t bother Philadelphia. Belinelli was successful first, then Redick followed with a three-pointer (94:89 for Philly).

But the Celtics could not be shaken off mainly thanks to the ice-cold Tatum. The rookie kept his team in the game with 5 points in overtime, on the other hand the Sixers made one or two mistakes in the half-field attack. After all, it was Al Horford who took Boston 5.5 seconds before the end with a 99:98 lead. At the Inbounds Pass, however, the next mistake followed: Horford caught the pass from Simmons to Embiid, from the free-throw line the Big Man extended his lead to 3 points. Belinelli’s last attempt of three ended only at the Ring – Boston won 101:98!

Tatum became the top scorer of the game, scoring 24 points (11/17 FG) with an additional 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Rozier contributed 18 points and 7 rebounds, while Brown (16) and Horford (13) also delivered strong performances. On the Sixers side Embiid played an impressive double double (22 points, 19 rebounds, 10/26 FG). Five other players were led by Redick (18), Simmons (16, plus 8 rebounds and 8 assists) and Belinelli (14) for a double-digit points score.

Nevertheless, the Sixers are now trailing 3-0 in the series and are on the brink of collapse. In Game 4 on the night of Monday to Tuesday, Philadelphia faces a final must-win game.

Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics 108:101, series 0:3 (BOXSCORE)

Jayson Tatum. With Tatum, it’s easy to forget he’s still a rookie. The 20-year-old played like in the games before and kept his team especially in the overtime with important actions alive. His plus/minus rating of +24 was by far the best. Once again Al Horford played as strong as an ox and presented Embiid with some problems in the defense.

Robert Covington. Many Sixers fans saw his strong appearance in Game 2 as Covington’s breakout game after rather weak playoffs overall. However, the 27-year-old again fell short of expectations this evening. Defensively, the Shooting Guard played well as usual, but at the other end of the court nothing could be seen from Covington (1 points, 0/8 FG).

Right from the start, the Sixers tried to use their famously dangerous transition game to catch the still unsorted Celtics Defense on the wrong foot. On the one hand, Philly implemented this continuously after the guests’ misthrows, on the other hand, Boston’s turnover also helped. Philly set the pace at every opportunity and scored 16 easy fast break points. (Boston: 5). However, as soon as the Sixers were in demand in half-field, the hosts had enormous problems with the Celtics’ strong defense (9 steals). This was particularly noticeable in overtime.