BSJ Game 1 Report: Sixers 119, Celtics 115 - Vintage Harden (with some help) buries Celtics

Everything you need to know about the Celtics' Game 1 loss to the Sixers with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics shot 17-20 in the first quarter, 11-11 at the rim, to take a 7-point lead. James Harden’s 16 kept the Sixers close. Jayson Tatum went off for 20 in the second quarter and the Celtics' lead grew to 12, but De’Anthony Melton scored 14 and the halftime lead was only 3. Turnovers were a problem, and they contributed to the Sixers taking a lead early in the third. The Celtics managed to tie it back up heading into the fourth and they had a late lead, but costly mistakes and vintage James Harden led to a Game 1 loss.

Box Score

HEADLINES

Missed opportunity: There's no other way to say it — losing to the Sixers without Joel Embiid like this is bad. This is a game they have to win and they played poor defense and made mistake after mistake down the stretch. 

Vintage Harden: 45 points on 17-30 shooting and 7-14 from deep. He only went to the line 4 times. 

“I haven’t felt one of those zones in a minute and it felt really good,” Harden said. “Just to be aggressive and shoot the basketball and… do what I want you know what I mean? Like, that felt really good.”

Poor execution late in the game: They looked almost afraid of the clutch minutes. They were outscored 17-11 over the final five minutes.

“The last three or four minutes, we couldn’t get stops,” Malcolm Brogdon said. “For a team like that that doesn’t have Embiid, they want to keep the game close. They’re not even looking to get ahead or beat us by 20. They’re trying to keep it close so a guy like James Harden can close it out, which he did.”

Boston’s late-game execution is looking like a problem. It has to be fixed, and quickly. 

Role players roast Celtics: They got 17 from Melton almost entirely in the first half to keep it close. Tyrese Maxey had 26 points and 4 steals. Tobias Harris chipped in 18. The key to beating Philly is to limit all these guys.

Zone issues persist: The Celtics have a history of being thrown off by zone defense. It happened again in this game. 

“I think their zone (made) us stagnant trying to figure out if they were in man or whether it was a zone,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Then our spacing was off kilter a little bit and I thought we passed up some open shots.” 

Said Brogdon, “I think it just slows us down. We talked about it; we knew they were going to go into it a bit just because we’re a team that can score with so many different guys. But that just slowed us down, made us hesitant, and we weren’t able to get the shots we wanted for the majority of the time they played that.”

Busting a zone is generally easy but I only saw Boston do it once. Send Horford or Marcus Smart to the middle of it and let them pick it apart, especially if you throw in a baseline cutter. The Celtics seem content to just shoot over it, and while that's fine, getting it to the middle and breaking it down first is a better way to break it.

TURNING POINT

The Celtics took a 4-point lead with 3:16 remaining but didn’t score for 2:02. That stretch included a bad possession where Tatum was forced to launch a 3 with the shot clock winding down. Later, the Celtics lost track of the clock and turned the ball over at the shot clock buzzer, leading to a Maxey dunk to put Philly in front with 28.9 to go. Boston only made one field goal in that final 3:16. 

SECOND GUESS

The Celtics paid the price for double-teaming Harden. Brogdon questioned that after the game. 

“You gotta pick your poison,” he said. “I thought we doubled Harden a little too much and it cost us. It puts us in long closeouts, it puts us in scramble mode, and they got a lot of shooters on the floor. They surround him with shooters cause he's a great passer.”

We can talk about the execution down the stretch, which was bad, but the Celtics really lost this game because they couldn't add to an early 12-point lead thanks to Melton getting clean looks early in the game. 

THREE UP

Jayson Tatum: 39 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists though he had 26 in the first half getting to the rim at will. He shot 3-10 in the second half, unable to keep his roll going. His rebounding was huge, though, and for a minute I thought his ability to limit Philly to one shot late in the game would be a difference-maker. He also dropped some wonderful passes, showing some great vision. 

Marcus Smart: He almost won the game for Boston, coming up with 10 fourth-quarter points and a few and-1 plays to get the Celtics a lead. He probably could have taken the last shot but instead dropped it off to Tatum who wasn’t expecting it. He had a game-high 7 assists but he did have 6 turnovers.

Malcolm Brogdon: 14 of his 20 points came in the first half. There was a stretch where he was responsible for getting the Celtics their lead in the first half, and he got the closing nod over Derrick White. However, he was 1-5 in the fourth with a turnover, so it wasn’t all great. 

TWO DOWN

Jaylen Brown: He had a stretch where he was doing the same old “get too deep and turn it over” stuff that cost Boston in last year’s Finals. Brown got better in the fourth quarter, pulling it back and setting the offense, but he was also clearly not happy about it. 

“I wanted to push the pace but if we’re not running you’ve gotta make sure you take care of the basketball,” he said. “I could have played in transition there but if I don’t have any outlets, nobody’s running, it’s a bad possession. And you always want to make sure your guys are running with you. And right there I just felt I was running by myself.”

Not great, and he’s not wrong. 

Still, Brown had 14 points in the first quarter and just 9 the rest of the way. He was also targeted a little on defense and he wasn’t able to respond against James Harden.

Derrick White: An awful night for White, who was 0-4 from 3 and 1-5 overall. He finished with just 4 points on offense and he didn’t do much on the defensive side either. 

TOP PLAYS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- This takes a ton of pressure off Joel Embiid to come back

The Sixers accomplished their goal without Embiid. They came into Boston, stole home court, and now only need to win at home to win this series. 

Now they can take it easy with Embiid and not rush him back for a Game 2. Give him an extra few days and let him come back on Friday if he’s ready. 

So it’s not only a blown opportunity to win one without Embiid on the floor. Now the Celtics have given Embiid a second chance to extend his rest. Instead of playing Game 1 on Saturday and Game 2 Monday without Embiid, the Celtics let Embiid rest over the weekend because they extended their series with the Hawks. Now Embiid can rest until Friday knowing that there isn’t a rush to get back now that they own home-court advantage. 

Once again, the Celtics love to make life tougher on themselves. They just can’t handle a golden opportunity when a gift falls in their lap. 

Next up: Game 2 is Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m.