BSJ Game Report: Celtics 117, Sixers 99 - Celtics attack, live at the line, for their ninth straight win

Everything you need to know about the Celtics win over the Sixers, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

Both teams traded early runs, and big quarters from Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Maxey ended up with the score tied after one. Jaylen Brown’s 12 helped give Boston a two-point halftime lead and then Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis got going to push the lead as high as 14 in the third. But an early fourth quarter run cut Boston’s lead to two. They answered with a 16-0 run and put the game away for their ninth straight win. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Doing it without the 3: After the game, Tatum looked at the box score and said “we only shot 22 threes. That's not like us.” 

No, it’s not. 

It was almost as if the Celtics decided to play a game where they didn’t shoot just to prove they could. That's not the case, because that would be insane, but it’s very unusual to see Boston win a game by 18 when the other team took 20 more 3-pointers and hit nine more than Boston. 

- Aggressive attacking: The reason they were able to win is the 37 free throws they took. Boston was outscored by 27 points at the 3-point line but they made up 23 of those at the free throw line, so that's a four point deficit. Boston won the points in the paint by 22, so there's your math. 22-4=18 point win.

- Star power: Jaylen Brown dropped 31. Tatum had 29. Porzingis had 23. They each went to the line at least 10 times, Combining for 33 of Boston’s 37 attempts. 

- Standings watch: Since January 2, Cleveland has jumped from seventh to second in the standings with a blistering 20-4 run, but they've only gone from eight games back to 7.5 games behind the Celtics because Boston has nearly matched them with a 20-5 record over that same stretch. The Cavs have gained on everybody ... except Boston.

TURNING POINT

Boston’s 16-0 run in the fourth turned a two-point game into a blowout. Jayson Tatum had 12 of his points in that run and the rest of the fourth. Boston shot 9-18 while Philly shot 4-13.

THINGS I LIKED

- Attacking: When I said before the game that they should punish Philly inside, I didn’t expect it to result in 64 points in the paint and 37 free throw attempts. The Celtics recognized their advantage and they kept on going at it all night long. 

“It’s really how they tried to guard us,” Joe Mazzulla said. “They obviously switched us, tried to take away our 3s … we were able to win a different way, and this game showed a template of how teams are going to guard us, and it gives us another thing to practice. I thought our guys did a great job.”

- Tatum & Brown: Mazzulla used them a little differently in this game, but they were both able to mostly get whatever they wanted. Brown had a couple of bad turnovers by being lazy with the ball around Maxey, and Tatum got a little sulky after he thought he was fouled a few times, but other than that, they were great. Tatum was two assists shy of a triple double and he had a 15 point fourth quarter to salt this game away. 

- Second half rebounding: The second chance points that kept the game close went away in the second half as Boston out-rebounded the Sixers 27-11, giving up only two offensive boards and two second chance points. They fixed a big problem after halftime. It’s a big reason why the Celtics were able to hold the Sixers to 24 point quarters in the third and fourth. This is part of an overall monster defensive effort to close the fourth.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- The tech on Tatum: First, I don’t like it because Tatum should know better. He should know he gets that called against him every single time so it’s not worth it.

Second, I don’t like it because Draymond Green continues to go ballistic on officials every other game, which is much worse than Tatum, but he continues to be given a lot of leeway. 

- Messy first half: I’m not too worried about style points here, but I do think the Celtics got way too sloppy early on and it cost them. They have to continue to focus on good process and not give in to the temptation to believe the job is done. 

“I know we’re in first place. We’ve got a comfortable lead. But like I said earlier, we don’t talk about It much,” Tatum said. “We really just try to get better every single day. It sounds cliché and it sounds boring, but maybe last year we rushed or looked past opponents and were just ready to get to the playoffs. With this year, we’re really taking it one day at a time. Try to get better every day that we have practice or we have film sessions and look at every game as an opportunity to grow and get better as a team.”

I will be fair here … this is how they kept at it and won this game going away. Our persistent search for games they would have lost last season gives us one more for the collection. 

The bench: Not their best night. Other than Horford, no one gave much. 

HIGHLIGHTS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- It was a long and winding road, but the Celtics got where they needed to be.

The Celtics beat an undermanned Sixers team by 18 and held them under 100 points. 

It was a weird path on their way to exactly where they needed to be. As I said in the live game blog, it’s sort of like getting lost somewhere and somehow getting exactly where you needed to be with a couple of minutes to spare. It didn’t go nearly as planned, but it all worked out perfectly in the end. 

“I just thought we were unorganized a little bit on the offensive end,” Mazzulla said of his team’s start. “Got some empty possessions, got some turnovers, and they controlled the shot margin. I thought in the second half, we did a great job of just getting to our spots, playing with physicality on our drives, and we controlled the shot margin with our one-shot defense and our ability to get to the free-throw line. So this game was probably one of our best games of the year … (because of) the information that we were able to extract from it, and like, we were guarded differently than we have throughout the year, and how we were able to execute. It gives us something to work on.”

This goes to what I said after the Knicks game. The Celtics can shapeshift into whatever kind of team they need to be. This was certainly their most unique win of the season, and Mazzulla getting a whole bunch of new information on top of it is a bonus. 

Add it to the pile of evidence that this team is different this year. 

Next Up: The Celtics host Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night