Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics 88-87 win over the Philadelphia 76ers with BSJ insight and analysis
IN A NUTSHELL
This was not a particularly pretty game. The Celtics came out hot and it looked like they had a chance to blow it open early, but the Sixers bench, behind Shake Milton and Georges Niang (Lawrence's own!), closed the gap. From there it was a muddy back-and-forth that featured very little scoring. Leads never grew into double digits. There were no big runs either way. In the end, the Celtics made a few more plays to escape with the one-point win.
HEADLINES
Winning ugly is still winning: The meat grinder of the season forces everyone to move on quickly (I point I routinely make), so teams will take wins like a survivalist hoarding food. It doesn’t matter how they get them, it just matters that they get them.
“Not really gonna apologize for an ugly win. It happens,” Ime Udoka said after the game.
C’s turned up the defense when they needed to: Yes, the Sixers scored 87 points ... and yes, the Sixers shot 37.1% ... some of those were a function of outside factors (more on that in a sec). But down the stretch, the Celtics really put the clamps down, forcing the Sixers to work incredibly hard just to get contested looks. The icing on the cake was Robert Williams’ blocked shot on the final possession.
Joel Embiid was not himself: Embiid spent a bunch of his warm up session bent over and grasping his shorts, a clear sign that this wasn’t going to be a high-energy game from him. His return from COVID is clearly going to take some time, and he certainly was not himself on the floor. He shot 3-17 from the field and all of them were jumpers. The Celtics did some nice things defensively on top of it, but this was very nearly a wasted opportunity.
Jaylen Brown re-injured?: I very clearly saw him hopping up and down and holding that right hamstring. It came after some very tough defense played on Embiid where he looked like he was hitting a blocking sled in a Sixers jersey. Brown looked off the whole night, and he would grab at it from time to time. To my eyes, it looks like it’s still bothering him.
There was no word from the Celtics after the game.
TURNING POINT
After Embiid missed a go-ahead free throw attempt with 2:14 left, Jayson Tatum hit a fadeaway to put Boston up 2. They forced a turnover on the next possession and added two more on free throws by Dennis Schroder. A Schroder layup with 37.1 left pushed the cushion up to 4.
SECOND GUESS
I’m not a big fan of the end-of-game Schroder-centric offense at the end if it’s not going to involve Al Horford. They had one play where Horford’s pop to the 3-point line drew Embiid away from the rim and Schroder got a layup. When it doesn’t involve Al, it’s just the Schroder dribbling show which often ends with tough shots or turnovers.
FOUR UP
Al Horford: He got the C’s going early and attacking during their big opening run. I honestly don’t know why he finished with only 6 shots in this game. He was clearly feeling something extra in this game. He finished with 5 blocked shots.
Robert Williams: He was catching lobs all over the place early. Even though Philly was sniffing them out later, he was still putting pressure on the rim. He added 3 blocks to the Celtics tally.
“It makes all the difference on the defensive end,” Tatum said. “Even offensively, he’s one of the best passers. He’s like that safety net. You get beat, you trust that Rob’s going to, if not block it, alter the shot with his ability. You’ve just got that security blanket with Rob being back there in the paint.”
Marcus Smart: It’s hard to compile assists when your team is shooting less than 42% and scoring 88 points, yet Smart continues to rack them up with another 8 in this game. No one was outright “good” in this game (he did make a couple of bad decisions), but Smart set up some easy baskets and the C’s needed all of them.
Jayson Tatum: I don’t actually think this was a particularly great game from Tatum, but 9-20 shooting isn’t bad and he finally got a few 3-pointers to fall. But it’s the 16 rebounds and impacting the game in other ways that stood out. But he certainly needs to be closer to the Toronto-level of passing. That was not the case in this game.
TWO DOWN
Jaylen Brown: He was very clearly not himself in this game. He gets a lot of credit for the way he defended Embiid in the final few minutes. That was not easy and he worked his butt off on those possessions. But he was very unfocused for most of the game and it’s obvious his hamstring is still an issue (and it might have gotten worse). Tatum noticed it too, and said something to him on the floor.
“Keep your head up,” Tatum said of his conversation with Brown. “There’s times when I’m down and he sees it, and he sees when I’m down, because I know how hard he works and how bad he wants it, and having COVID and the hamstring injury and trying to come back, I know how tough it can be, and how bad you want something and how it may not be going that way at that moment, and how frustrating it can be, but you still trying to find a way to win.
We’re all human. We get down on ourselves sometimes and when you see that, tell him it’s gonna be all right. Still be him, because we’re at our best when he’s the best version of Jaylen Brown, and sometimes guys need to be reminded of that.”
Dennis Schroder: He did make some timely plays, but still way too much isolation out of him for too long. He has too many stretches where he plays too casually.
TOP PLAY
It has to be the same-sealing block at the buzzer.
GAME SAVING BLOCK BY ROB WILLIAMS! pic.twitter.com/Mgr9tkElLX
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) December 2, 2021
There's so much good on this play. Robert Williams goes from guarding the inbounder on left side of the floor to blocking the shot in the right corner.
Brown is basically run blocking Embiid to prevent him from getting the ball in the post.
Horford is forced to switch onto Tobias Harris and he does a great job staying in front.
Beautiful all around.
TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
There’s no end in sight to the roller coaster: I saw a great team effort against Toronto that was marred by some turnovers and missed rebounding assignments. But I liked how they stuck together and moved the ball and really tried to play the way Ime Udoka wanted.
That didn’t happen quite as much in this game. The team knows it, too.
“It’s definitely difficult when it’s up and down like that,” Horford said. “We want to be more consistent, being able to move the ball more consistently, doing certain things, that’s something that we have to keep working on.”
Opponents have something to say about that, too. Too often we get caught up in the “why didn’t you do this” part of the analysis and not enough in how the other team forced some of that with their schemes. Also, as I’ve mentioned plenty of times, habits are hard to break.
“You have to continue to acknowledge it and understand that it’s a process,” Horford said. “It’s hard because we see the potential of how we can play, how it looks, and then we have some setbacks. It’s something as a group we have to continue to work, we have to continue to trust it and we’ll see where we’re at the end of this kind of 10-game stretch.”
Luck might finally be swinging Boston’s way: December is a buzzsaw of a schedule, but the Celtics got the Sixers on a night Embiid was clearly strongly impacted by his recovery from COVID. Damian Lillard will miss Saturday’s game in Portland and LeBron James will likely miss the game on Tuesday in Los Angeles. Devin Booker left Tuesday night’s game with a hamstring issue, so we’ll have to keep an eye on how limited he is.
For once, I’m going to give you a take I might actually regret later like the section promises: This is set up for a successful road trip. Luck is turning in Boston’s favor. 4-1 on the trip!