Boston – The Boston Celtics The way he spent the past 48 hours feeling “angry and angry,” according to coach Joe Mazzulla Dropped Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals As far as philadelphia 76ers at home. So from the opening minutes of Game 2 on Wednesday night, Celtics guard jaylen brown was determined to set a different tone for the rest of the team to follow.
Brown knocked down a 3-pointer on Boston’s first offensive possession of the game, answering an opening bucket from tobias harrisand then proceeded to take james harden From that moment on, the Sixers pushed the ball inside to defend him all over the court.
All this led to a dominant effort from the Celtics, who responded 121-87 win in Game 2 on the Sixers. Boston’s 34-point victory tied for the third-largest margin of victory in a playoff game in franchise history, handed the Sixers their first loss of the postseason and tied the series at 1–1. Game 3 is Friday night in Philadelphia.
Brown said after the game, “We have to be more proud of ourselves.” “I felt like we underperformed in the last game, and we wanted to come out and play to the best of our ability. That’s what we did.”
Brown led all scorers with a game-high 25 points to help the Celtics advance jason tatum, who played only 19 minutes and scored seven points after spending most of the game in the foul. It was Boston’s largest margin of victory in any game in which Tatum was held to fewer than 10 points.
The Celtics guard said, “Our strength is our depth.” malcolm brogdon, who tied a franchise playoff record with six 3-pointers off the bench and finished with 23 points. “The way the roster is built, we’ve got guys like me, heavy lifting equipment [White], Grant [Williams] who are playing behind our two superstars and ready for [contribute] when we can.”
Meanwhile, the Celtics kept the intensity up on the defensive end all night. He held Harden to 12 points after his 45-point outburst in Game 1 and retained the returning and newly named NBA MVP. joel embied Up to 15 digits only.
“We have to tip our hat [Brown]He started that whole momentum for us,” Celtics guard marcus smart Said. “We just had to follow his lead. When you have one of your best players setting the tone, it’s hard not to follow. Our defense is slipping, and we wanted to come out and Wanted to go back to do the best we can.”
Boston’s win on Wednesday marked the 15th consecutive time that a team that dropped the first game of a playoff series at home came back to win Game 2.
After criticizing their own defensive effort early in the series, the Celtics turned up the intensity on the Sixers on Wednesday night. Harden shot 2-for-14 from the field (0-for-6 on 3s) to finish with the worst field goal percentage in NBA postseason history after the 45-point game.
The Celtics tested Embiid in his first game back from a knee injury, putting him in space and attacking him in pick-and-rolls to see how far he could run. Embiid went 4-for-9 from the field, though he finished with five blocks.
Meanwhile, after attempting a season-low 26 3-pointers in Game 1, the Celtics made 20 of their 51 3-pointers in this game, including a barrage of seven 3-pointers during the third quarter that tied the game. put out of reach. Boston outscored the Sixers 35–16 in the third quarter, allowing Tatum and Brown to rest for the final period as the Celtics cruised to a win.
“You never want to go into a game where you feel like you let go,” the Celtics add. Grant Williams Said. “We did a lot last year, we’ve done a lot this year as well. It definitely gives you a certain edge. But now it’s about whether you can do the same thing in the next game.”
“Does that edge stay or does that edge go because now all of a sudden, you’ve won one and now you take your foot off the gas. You can’t do that. For us, it’s about maintaining that. ” Same physicality, same intensity, same attitude going into play. This will be important in this series. We can’t be the first to break.”
