BOSTON -- The Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers walked into TD Garden ready to fight, with Tyrese Maxey leading the charge. What they were met with was a Boston Celtics team that hasn't missed a beat all season.
With Jayson Tatum back in the fold and a full lineup of impactful defenders, Boston powered through Philadelphia, earning a monster win and taking a 1-0 lead in the series.
Here are two ups and two downs from Sunday afternoon.
Up: Jayson Tatum
The first half of Sunday afternoon's game was all Tatum. He was operating in a realm of his own. Nobody else on the court could touch him.
On defense, he rotated beautifully to protect the rim, and he even picked up Maxey for a possession or two. And on offense, his mid-range game was on fire, and his work as a playmaker opened up everything for Boston.
By the time Tatum checked out midway through the final frame, he had accrued 25 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists while shooting 9-of-17 from the floor. He only went 1-of-7 from deep range, but it didn't matter. The damage was done. Tatum's impact on the game stretched far beyond his inefficient 3-point night.
The first half of Sunday wasn't just one of Tatum's best halves of basketball since returning from injury. It may have been one of the most impactful playoff halves of his career.
Down: First-half Jaylen Brown
It was one game. After the regular season he had, Jaylen Brown deserves some grace. But this was not a great start to the postseason for the Celtics superstar.
Boston's offense ran best through Tautm early on, which meant Brown took a back seat. And when it was time for him to try to find a rhythm himself, the shots felt forced in comparison to everything else the Celtics were generating.
Add in defensive lapses and late get-backs on defense, and it was a pretty rough first-half showing for Brown.
Brown bounced back in a big way in the third quarter, pouring 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting. There was still the occasional ball-stop possession or ill-timed shot attempt, but it was night-and-day from his play in the first half.
Up: Perimeter defense
Though Maxey and Paul George still got their points, Boston's perimeter defense was locked in on Sunday afternoon, and it wasn't led by the usual suspects.
For much of the season, Boston's perimeter defense has been defined by the likes of Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, and Baylor Scheierman. At least, that's what the exterior narrative would portray.
On Sunday, Sam Hauser, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard took the challenge head-on. All three spent time guarding Maxey, seamlessly switching on and off him. They guarded George, VJ Edgecombe, and Quentin Grimes, too.
It was a defensive clinic from those three guys, as Philadelphia struggled to get downhill without seeing multiple bodies.
Walsh and Scheierman played their parts, too, but the defensive movement of Hauser, White, and Pritchard, especially off the ball, was particularly impressive.
Down: Boston's bigs
A quick glance at the box score is enough to tell a reasonable tale, but only if you look in the right place.
Not the scoring column, but rather, the rebounds and fouls columns. The Celtics' centers were less than stellar in this game. Yet they each had their ups and downs.
Neemias Queta's work with Tatum (in particular) in the pick-and-roll was impactful, but he struggled with foul trouble and defensive positioning
Nikola Vucevic was Boston's best interior defensive option in the first half (which is a telling tale), yet he also struggled with foul trouble, and his shot was a bit erratic.
Luka Garza provided his usual energy on the glass, but his defense under the basket wasn't where it needed to be.
The cumulative result? A Philadelphia offense that ran off the fumes of and-ones and