Three keys to Game 3 for the Celtics vs. 76ers

PHILADELPHIA -- The Celtics are looking to take a lead in their semifinal series with the Philadelphia 76ers tonight, and it will not be easy. The Wells Fargo Center will be one of the most incredibly loud and hostile environments that these guys have ever seen. 

“Crazy. Chaotic,” Marcus Smart said of what he expects from the Game 3 atmosphere. “We love it, every last bit of it. People have told us we kind of like to make things hard on ourselves but just to be able to compete with some of the top players in this league. Two teams going at it, this team loves that, we strive for it and live for it.”

This is what basketball players dream of. The home team soaking in and feeding off the adulation of a rowdy crowd and the road team coming in hoping to shut them up. This should be an environment that invigorates both sides. Here are a few things Boston needs to go right in order to make sure they're coming out on top:

AL HORFORD’S SHOOTING

Horford is having a rough go of things from beyond the arc in the playoffs so far. The 1-8 night in Game 2 dropped him to just 29.7% in the playoffs. He’s taken 50 shots overall, 37 of them 3-pointers (he’s made 11), so considering the volume at which he’s shooting, the Celtics will need him to start hitting more of them pretty soon if they're going to keep piling on points. 

Horford has never had this much disparity between his 2-pointers and 3-pointers. Last postseason was the first run where he took more 3s than 2s (98 to 95). Now, 74% of his shots are from deep so far in the playoffs. It comes off a regular season where he, for the first time ever, took more 3s than 2s (325 to 154). 

Horford’s not only in a bit of a slump, the misses are sometimes not close, even on wide-open shots. 

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Horford is 9-28 on wide-open 3-pointers this postseason, after hitting on 44.4% of those shots this season. In fact, of the 325 shots Horford has gotten from deep, 248 of them were wide-open shots. It’s something Horford is used to taking and making. He says he just has to keep shooting. 

“I’m still getting good looks,” Horford said. “Even during the season, I went through ups and downs. That's just part of it when you’re an elite shooter. You gotta get them up.” 

He paused when delivering the “elite shooter” line, putting a little extra mustard on his statement for the crowd of reporters at the team’s morning shootaround.

He’s not wrong, though. Shooters gotta shoot, and he went through a 23-63 January (36.5%) and followed it with a 46.5% February and a 52% March.

Against the backdrop of his hottest shooting month of the season, the playoff swoon so far feels even worse. The Celtics have survived it well enough for now, but eventually they’ll need him to hit big shots in a tight game. That game might be tonight. 

JAYSON TATUM’S DEFENSE

Tatum has generally been impressive as a two-way player, but one of his flaws lately has been some laziness on help defense. Here he is in Game 1.

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Plays like that just can’t happen when the Celtics are trying to be an elite defense. Tatum’s energy changed a bit in Game 2

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“I thought we did a better job in our shift activity, presenting help and getting out to shooters, doing both,” Joe Mazzulla said of the team’s defensive effort. “Not giving up a ton of catch-and-shoot 3s. I just thought we managed the game really well.”

Defense works when everyone is on the same page giving the same effort. Jaylen Brown got a lot of love for his defense on James Harden in Game 2, and for good reason. But as that last clip shows, that doesn't mean he didn’t get beat. The difference between someone getting love and someone getting booed for his defense is often how much help they get and how they rotate out of it. 

I’ll go back to this play that I highlighted after Game 2. 

Grant Williams’ hustle after the double team to get out Tobias Harris took away a passing option for George Niang. That wasn’t happening in Game 1. Grant running across the court like he did is why Smart was able to block that shot. 

This type of effort all over the floor, starting with Tatum, has to be there from the beginning. 

KEEPING COOL HEADS

As I said at the top, this is going to be a madhouse tonight.

“It’s going to be a tougher game. They’re a really good team, they’re prideful,” Tatum said. “It’s going to be a great environment, right? They’re coming back home, fans are going to be into it, so we just have to be ready for that.”

Being ready for that is tough, but it’s something that can actually help a team focus on the road. It’ll be loud and impossible to hear one another, so the crowd can certainly influence some breakdowns if the Celtics are lax at all. Making sure they're connected and precise from the jump can counter the madness. 

Philly fans hate Boston. And when I say hate, I mean they hate the Celtics deeply and passionately. On top of that Joel Embiid is going to get his MVP award tonight, and that's going to make the building even crazier. The Celtics can’t get caught up in trying to answer things or playing too fast in an effort to shut down the crowd. 

“It’s not about that,” Horford said. “He should have a celebration. He is the MVP, so I’m sure that’ll be good. That's separate from the game. We’re here to play the game.” 

Other quick notes: 

- Smart is the NBA’s hustle award winner for the second year in a row and third time in five seasons. 

“That's what I do,” Smart said. “Coming into this league I prided myself on that. And nine years in at the age of 29 I'm still doing it and I'm still doing it very well. So it's a big time award. I know it doesn't show up on the stat sheet … but every team needs a guy like me who's going to come in and do the dirty work so Jayson and Jaylen can go out there and do what they do best.”

- Smart is working through a few injuries, but he’s in tonight

“Chest contusion, bruised sternum, that’s taking its toll. Just have to run its course,” he said. “Just try to protect it as much as possible. Hopefully, I won’t take too many blows there and stay on the court.”

- Tatum enjoys a pseudo-day off

Thanks to foul trouble and the blowout, Tatum was barely on the court for Game 2. He joked about his biggest adjustment. 

“Try not to foul out,” he said. “I only played 18 minutes, so it was like a day off. So, yeah, stay out of foul trouble today.”