BSJ Game Report: Celtics 124, Sixers 117 - Tatum & Brown outduel Embiid & Harden

Everything you need to know about the Celtics 126-117 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, with BSJ insight and analysis. 

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics and Sixers gave us a good battle that saw some expected flaring of tempers. After a foul-fest that led to THREE fouls on James Harden 3-pointers in the first quarter, the Celtics settled down behind Malcolm Brogdon and Marcus Smart. They broke things open in the third quarter, when Jayson Tatum went into takeover mode. Then Jaylen Brown closed the door as the Celtics stars combined for 70 points in an opening-night win.

Box Score

HEADLINES

Jays lead the way: This wasn’t just a 70-point night for these guys. This was a dominant effort first by Tatum (17 third-quarter points) to attack better than he ever has, and then Brown (13 fourth-quarter points), who got hot from deep late in the game. 

Defense leads to offense: The Celtics didn't do much to stop the Sixers in the halfcourt, but I’m going to bet few teams can against the James Harden/Joel Embiid pick-and-roll. The Sixers didn’t even turn it over an egregious amount of times, but when they did, or when they missed, the Celtics made a point of running. They finished with 24 fastbreak points and 44 points in the paint.  

Bigs struggle: I didn’t expect Al Horford to have a big game while he was guarding Embiid, but the C’s didn’t get much from their bigs outside of a hot shooting night from Grant Williams. I don’t think Williams played as well as his box score might indicate, and he was in foul trouble for much of the game. 

Appropriately chippy: You didn’t think the Celtics and Sixers could get together without a little finger wagging and chest-thumping, did you? And yes, obviously it was Marcus Smart and Embiid getting into it. 

“Went for a rebound. Basketball play. Went for the steal. Basketball play. Referee blows his whistle, calls a foul,” Smart explained. “I stop play, my arm’s still stuck in there and he tries to break it. And then I’m the only one who gets a tech. Everybody saw it.”

Brown, who stepped in to break things up, agrees with Smart’s assessment. 

“It seemed like he was trying to hurt Smart in a sense,” Brown said. “Ended up being nothing, ended up being a play-on, nobody got hurt. We just ended up finishing the game, played some good basketball. But we got each other’s backs out there and we’re not taking no mess this year.”

Smart still doesn’t feel like he’s earned the respect of the officials.

“I’m probably ejected, suspended three games, four games, fined,” he said. “But the fact that I was the only one that got I guess something out of that is kind of beyond me. Especially defending DPOY and that’s how he gets treated. It’s tough. But, like I said, it’s maturity. I could have cracked his head open but I didn’t. And that’s the maturity we have. So we move on from it. It is what it is. And we control what we can control.”

TURNING POINT

The game was tied at 68 in the third but the Celtics whipped off a 22-10 run and ended up leading by 10 after the third quarter. 

FOUR UP

Jayson Tatum: He had a monster block early in the game that seemed to set the tone for his night. Then he started attacking in transition and got cooking. He put up 35 points on 13-20 shooting, 11-13 from 2. As I like to say (thanks to a follower on Twitter), there's nothing like that bowl of Apple Jacks at the rim on someone's shot chart

Jaylen Brown: Brown seemed to benefit from the transition game opening up some easy looks. He started slow, but hit for 58.3% from the field for his 35. 

Malcolm Brogdon: Brogdon was more of a scorer than a passer in this game, a little bit of a flip from the preseason games we've seen. The Celtics bench outscored Philly's 34-11, showing the C's second unit is going to be a strength like it was in the second quarter of tonight's game until Tatum and Brown can do their thing.

Marcus Smart: I'll give Smart credit for keeping it together where he hasn't in the past against Embiid and the Sixers. Smart was judicious with his shot, and he was the C's assist leader with 7. He finished with 14 points and 1 turnover.

ONE DOWN

Sam Hauser: This seemed like a bad matchup for him. He couldn't keep up defensively to do what he does offensively. 

TOP PLAYS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Mazzulla passes first test

With 4:11 left to go, the Celtics were in the midst of a two-minute stretch of stagnation. When Mazzulla challenged a foul call on Horford (which he won), he pulled his guys aside on the sidelines and challenged them. 

“Just execute. Be better at execution down the line,” Brown said of the conversation. Astute lip-readers can tell the point was made a bit more, umm, colorfully than that. “That’s a point of emphasis that we had going into the season, in the fourth quarter, our execution. Last year, it seemed like at times we sort of railed off in the fourth quarter. We had some moments there, and I had some moments where I’ve got to be better, but we just gotta keep throwing punches and I think that’s what he was pushing us to do. Like don’t take the foot off the gas.”

The Celtics came out strong in this game and started to give it back amidst a flurry of bad fouls (and some bad calls), but they held it together, went into the half tied, and pulled away. 

“I think he’s been great. Joe is tough as nails,” Brown said. “Even when in the midst of everything, all the turmoil, when you looked into his eyes, you could tell he was ready. Coming out, you got to see it on the floor: composed, calm, ready, strategic. So I’m looking forward to seeing more from him and I’m looking forward to building that relationship.”

Ime Udoka still comes up as a talking point from time to time, but winning will quiet all that noise. After the game, Mazzulla got the customary water bath from everyone to celebrate his first win. 

“Joe is great. I’m super happy for him, just making the most out of his opportunity and getting your first win as a head coach on your first try, that’s big,” Tatum said. “He wouldn’t have took any of the credit for tonight, but the thing that I like about Joe and admire about him is that he’s very honest that he doesn’t know everything. He wants us to help him out as much as he’s helping us out. It’s like we’re in a relationship, and we’re all on the same page and trying to accomplish the same thing. We’re all in this together.”

That's some pretty good buy-in. They're 1-0, so the antiseptic W’s are starting to pour into what wounds are left from the offseason. Mazzulla kept his calm on the sidelines when things were falling apart, he got his team back on the right track, and the guys are working with him to make this work. 

Adversity will come, but days like this make it more believable that this team might be able to get through whatever is coming down the road. 

- The landing spot foul needs to be reviewed by the NBA

Al Horford got called for a terrible foul in the first quarter when he challenged James Harden and Harden landed on Horford’s foot. 

The rule is a good rule put in place to prevent defenders from sliding underneath a jump shooter and putting a foot in his landing spot. Guys get hurt when players do that. But the spirit of the rule is to prevent a guy who is jumping up and down from injuring himself when given no place to land. 

In this foul, Harden took a 3-pointer and Horford stopped short of the 3-point line. Harden took a stepback fadeaway, yet somehow his feet landed inside the line. That's hard to do unless someone is actively looking to draw a foul on a play like that. 

To make matters worse, Horford was given a flagrant foul on review. 

The league needs to look at this kind of play and eliminate it. Harden is clearly gaming the system, and that needs to stop. The league doesn’t want a whistle-filled free throw fest, and this type of thing is one way to eliminate it.