BOSTON -- With 2:42 left in the fourth quarter, Tyrese Maxey drove to the basket and converted an up-and-under and-one. He screamed at the TD Garden crowd, walked directly in front of the Boston Celtics’ bench (still screaming), and past Joe Mazzulla, who stared him down.
It was emblematic of the ugliness that transpired for roughly 39 minutes of action on Tuesday night. After a nine-minute stretch of Boston dominance, the Philadelphia 76ers ran over the Celtics.
VJ Edgecombe caught fire, pouring in 30 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Maxey finished the night with 29 points. The Sixers shot 19-of-39 (48.7 percent) from 3-point range.
A quick glance at the box score would lead to a simple conclusion.
“I think their ability to hit shots,” Neemias Queta said. “They kind of made a lot of the shots they didn’t make [in] the first game. Same thing for us, we missed a lot of shots that we usually like.”
As Philadelphia approached 50 percent shooting from beyond the arc, the Celtics mustered up just 13 makes on 50 attempts (26.0 percent).
There will inevitably be calls for fewer 3-point shots. Those ringings have sounded off like alarms ever since Mazzulla took over as head coach. But Mazzulla always stresses taking the best shot. And Boston got a lot of open threes on Tuesday night.
They just didn’t go in.
It’s less about the number of threes Boston took and more about the number they missed. Derrick White has been ice-cold. Sam Hauser struggled after a hot start. Payton Pritchard was make-less on Tuesday. Jayson Tatum shot 2-of-8 from distance.
“Thought we got a lot of great shots,” Jaylen Brown said. “Thought we did some really good things. Some things we definitely gotta improve on. But defensively, I think that was an emphasis. But also, if we made some shots tonight, I think that takes a little pressure off our defense as well.”
Missing open shots is a backbreaker. Not only did it take surefire points off the board, but it also gave the Sixers a chance to run in transition on Tuesday.
“Thought we got some good looks, didn't [make them], then [that] puts more pressure on your D,” Mazzulla said.
The second quarter, in particular, was ugly. The Celtics got outscored 37-26 by Philadelphia, paced by Edgecombe’s 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from deep range.
“In the second quarter, we gave up 37 points,” Tatum said. “So, doing that in a playoff game is tough. It's not a recipe for a win. You gotta give them credit. They played better [than in Game 1], obviously, and that was to be expected.
“Some live-ball turnovers, some offensive rebounds that we gave up, and then obviously, when you're not hitting shots, it just puts more pressure on your defense. And that's kind of what happened tonight.”
“You lose a quarter by 11, that's tough to come back from in a playoff game,” Mazzulla said. “When you take a look, a lot of those points were stuff that we can get better at. I think they had six or seven offensive rebounds in the second quarter that they converted for either layups or 3-point shots.”
These are the types of games that spark frustration. But this isn’t football. Losing in the playoffs is inevitable. No team has ever won a championship without losing a game, and only the all-time greats lose fewer than three.
But there were plenty of problems to warrant frustration on Tuesday night.
Boston’s drop defense got shredded. The same Sixers who shot just 4-of-23 (17.4 percent) from beyond the arc in Game 1 caught fire on Tuesday. They waltzed into a flurry of open 3-point shots, led by Edgecombe and Maxey.
“I just thought they out-competed us tonight,” Brown said. “I think our intensity level could have been better. Defensively, we could have been better. We died on some screens. We just got to be better. It's the playoffs. They got ball players over there, and they came to play. Any given night, you could lose a game if you don't come out with the right mindset.”
Those are the shots that lose basketball games. There was no pressure from Boston’s bigs. The perimeter guys didn’t fight hard enough. In Game 1, the Celtics stepped up a little on some of those, and the fight from White, Hauser, and Pritchard forced the Sixers to drive.
That didn’t happen nearly as often in Game 2.
Queta faded away. The regular-season rim presence that deters interior shots wasn’t there. He struggled on the glass. And though Nikola Vucevic got off to a decent start, he was liable to lose focus under the rim at times, too.
The free-flowing offense that dominated the first nine minutes of Game 2 action was slowly replaced by a slow-moving fumble-fest, derailed by Philadelphia’s upped ball pressure.
Sloppy passes were intercepted by awaiting 76ers defenders. Open threes clanged off the backboard. Aimless drives ended in contested layups, which were turned into 76ers buckets on the other end.
Based on the way Game 1 went, it was about as unsightly a performance Boston could have put forward. Philadelphia played harder.
“That's a good team over there,” Tatum said. “The NBA is hard. Bunch of guys over there that are prideful and obviously wanted to come out and play better, and that was to be expected, and you got to give them credit. They did.”
None of that is acceptable in a playoff setting. It’s a one-way ticket to a loss, and that’s exactly what Boston ended with on Tuesday night.
But the players and coaches live in a very different world than the fanbase.
The same plays and gripes being outlined in columns, podcasts, and videos across the Celtics-sphere Wednesday morning will be the same ones shown in Boston’s film sessions from now until Friday night.
“Obviously, we all respect the role that the media plays in this ecosystem, the NBA, and that we, obviously, need each other,” Tatum said. “But we all got a job to do, and our job is to focus on the things that we can control. Going out there and playing, and good or bad, we can't necessarily listen to outside noise. And I've been dealing [with] or doing that for the last nine years.”
The difference is that Mazzulla, assistant coach Matt Reynolds, and the rest of the coaching staff will show hundreds of other plays that flew under the radar. The missed rotations. The ill-timed jumpers. The early-shot-clock threes. The bad offensive possessions that didn’t show up in the box score.
This is exactly the opposite of what happened in Game 1.
At practice on Monday afternoon, Mazzulla, Pritchard, and White downplayed Boston’s successes in Game 1. They spoke about the possessions the Celtics needed to improve at and emphasized the fact that the Sixers would come out and play better. That happened.
Yet there were inevitable comments and replies on social media that pushed back against the mindset, noting that the content felt more like a Game 1 loss than a 32-point victory.
Game 2 is exactly why Boston acted the way it did after Game 1.
“Just throughout my career, and obviously just throughout the playoffs, it's just about emotional stability,” Tatum said. “Don't get too high after a win or too low after a loss. They all count as one, and you just got to stay levelheaded.”
The Celtics can’t afford to throw a temper tantrum. They can’t afford to get overly frustrated and try to take it out on the court in Game 3. They can’t afford to throw away all the game plans that have worked this season because of a single loss.
As fans turn to rightful irritation after what was a thoroughly disappointing home loss on Tuesday night, the Celtics cannot mope.
“We watch it, we move forward, and we get back to Celtic basketball,” Brown said.
Playing hard has been this team’s MO. On Tuesday, that’s what beat them. But just as the Celtics have done all year, they’re ready to push past the problems.
“I trust our group,” Brown said. “We've grown a lot over the course [of the season]. Obviously, this is the ultimate test, playing in the playoffs, and we got players who have gotten better and developed, and we're going to rely on them and trust them to come out and make those plays, and contribute to the game. We just gotta continue to have the right mentality, have each other's back. Just breathe.
“At the end of the day, it's basketball. But you gotta still play with a force. You can't allow the other team to kind of take advantage of us, in a way, offensively or defensively. So, over the course, it's gonna be a journey. There are going to be some ups and some downs, but I'm looking forward to it with my guys.”
Tuesday night was an awful representation of who the Celtics have become.
Similar stats to those that said the 76ers should have made more shots in Game 1 indicate that, based on shot quality, the Celtics should have won Game 2 by 15 points. That’s how many great looks Boston generated.
That doesn’t matter. The Celtics lost. And they played some stretches of ugly basketball in the process.
But Boston can’t afford to get swept up in the past, the what-happeneds, or the what-could-have-beens. They have a game to play on Friday night.
The Celtics didn’t play Celtics basketball on Tuesday night.
But Tuesday night is gone.
The real question is, will they play Celtics basketball on Friday?