With a 3-1 lead over the 76ers, the Boston Celtics had an opportunity today, but they failed to capitalize. Now, the first-round series will shift back to Philly as they try once more to save their season.
Tonight, the Celtics’ star duo, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, looked unfazed despite the 113-97 loss. In fact, in the post-game chat with the media, they downplayed the defeat to look ahead to Game 6.
“I thought we got some good looks. I think we’ll take a look at it, but it felt like we got some good looks and that we just didn’t knock down tonight. It felt like we got some really good shots, but that’s the name of the game,” said Brown. “We definitely want to go back and look at it. But just owning our space, it was not good enough overall from the Celtics tonight, and the result was the result. But we have to move on. You look at it, learn from it, and move forward.”
According to Brown, the issue wasn’t from a lack of effort or playing hard. He says all of the Celtics were playing to win, but that a general lack of focus and execution cost them when it mattered. Brown, who played 40 minutes, finished with 22 points, five rebounds, five assists, one steal, and zero blocks on 39.1% shooting and 25.0% shooting from three.
“It’s tough to say,” Brown added on whether his team played harder than the competition. “I feel like we play hard. I also feel like they play hard as well. It just wasn’t good enough from us; it wasn’t good enough on my behalf. We just got to be better.”
The biggest problem for the Cs tonight was star center Joel Embiid, who torched his team for 33 points, four rebounds, eight assists, zero steals, and one block on 52.2% shoooting from the field (0-5 from three). He was getting what he wanted all game long, and Jaylen made sure to call out that mistake.
“I felt like he had too many easy baskets,” said Brown on Embiid. “I need to make him work, and it was just too easy for him. Even though we trust our guys in certain matchups, we have to make it a little bit tougher, and tonight he got a lot of easy baskets, and I felt like that propelled them.”
Jayson Tatum (who is still fresh from his Achilles recovery) had a better night overall, finishing with 24 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and zero blocks on 42.1% shooting and 33.3% shooting from the field. While it wasn’t enough to win the game, Tatum expressed little urgency, reminding reporters not to expect perfection from his team.
“There’s a human element part of it. We’re not perfect,” said Tatum. “After each game, a win or a loss, there are a lot of things we look back on and talk about things we could be better at.”
The Celtics built a lead in the first half, only to see it reversed in the fourth quarter, when the Sixers pulled away with a 28-11 run. On a night when virtually every Celtics player was struggling, Boston was unable to keep up with the red-hot Sixers, and it makes you wonder about their chances to close the series and advance to the Semifinals.
For the Celtics, having beaten Philadelphia four times in the playoffs since 2018, it makes sense why they are not worried. They’ve been here before, they’ve won it all, and they know what it takes to win at the highest levels. Still, they have a history of playoff defeats that reminds us all how vulnerable they can be. Tonight, Embiid gave us another reason to doubt their contender status, and it’ll be up to the star duo to prove that they are a level above their current competition.
