76ers too much for Celtics to handle in Game 7: 6 takeaways

Boston Celtics

Embiid outscored Boston in the paint again, finishing Saturday’s game with 34 points.

The Celtics had multiple chances to extend their season in a wild Game 7 against the 76ers on Saturday, but Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey were too much for the third straight game, and the Celtics came away with a 109-100 loss.

Here are the takeaways.

The Celtics were without Jayson Tatum

Many Celtics fans were already bracing for the worst when Jayson Tatum was ruled out of Game 7 due to left knee stiffness.

Mazzola said before the game that Tatum was working day-to-day, so presumably the Celtics were trying to walk a fine line between trying to win games and keeping their franchise player healthy if they got ahead (so if you’re looking for a silver lining to a season that ends earlier than expected, that’s a small one).

But after losing two straight games to the Sixers, one thing seemed abundantly clear: The Celtics were not capable of winning a championship, and pushing Tatum could have had truly dire consequences. Knee pain is worrying. Knee pain in your leg that was compensated for by a torn Achilles during the final month of the NBA season is not something you should ignore.

Tatum and the Celtics knew the risks. They knew they were about to collapse. They knew how shaky the rest of the East looked at the moment and how plausible it was to play in the finals in a normal year. They knew that Tatum sitting out made it more likely that they were opting out of their own season.

You can bet every dollar in your bank account that they didn’t make this decision lightly, which means you can also bet every dollar in your 401k that it was the right decision for both the player and the franchise.

The starting lineup was a wild declaration

Tatum’s absence was an earthquake, and the aftershock was almost as strong: Joe Mazzola chose to start Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Baylor Sherman, Luka Garza and Ron Harper Jr.

Harper’s news was eye-opening, but not as surprising as one might think. Mazzola wanted to maintain his rotation with Payton Pritchard as the first player off the bench, and Harper Jr. in place of Tatum.

Perhaps more noteworthy was the presence of Garza in place of Neemias Queta and Nikola Vucevic, the latter of whom spent Game 7 completely out of the rotation, which may have been a bit too late. Vucevic couldn’t do anything against Embiid in the previous three contests, his 3-pointers weren’t falling, and he was practicing guarding the Sixers in pick-and-roll coverage.

However, Garza also replaced Queta, who struggled mightily throughout the series to stay out of foul trouble and on the floor.

However, Garza also had a serious problem, and Queta came for him… only to run into a serious problem once again.

Perhaps Mazzola was hoping to keep Queta out of trouble longer, or perhaps he simply wanted to see if the Celtics could pull off the lead by selecting Embiid with Garza.

Either way, Embiid was once again a major problem, and the Celtics simply didn’t have the bigs to deal with, no matter how they started or how they rotated.

“We saw some things tactically and wanted to test them,” Mazzola said. “Obviously to give the series a little bit of a different feel and take advantage of the roster that we had, take advantage of players that can make plays and whatnot.”

The Sixers are going to be a tough team

Presumably, few readers here want to read extensive writing about the Sixers, but we have to admit that this series said a lot more about them than it did about the Celtics.

Joel Embiid was maligned a lot in Boston, and deserved a lot of criticism, but after almost single-handedly costing the Sixers Game 4, he was absolutely dominant in Games 5, 6 and 7. To his enormous credit, he played exactly the brand of basketball the Sixers needed — drawing doubles and shooting, limiting jumpers, bruising defenders around the rim. On Saturday, he fumbled in ways that might have made some Celtics fans reel from normal events, but he also took two brutal hits directly to his left knee and showed a level of determination that Boston fans have never seen from him previously in any postseason encounter. He finished the game with 34 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists.

“What’s changed in this series is Joel Embiid is back, and they’re a completely different team,” Mazzola said. “This is what changed in the series.”

Meanwhile, Maxey torched the Celtics for 30 points with a blistering efficiency on 11-for-18 shooting with 11 rebounds and seven assists. He has fully ascended to star status, and best wishes to the Knicks in trying to slow him down in the next series.

This isn’t the same Sixers team we’ve seen in previous years. After Embiid, Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, and Paul George, the roster looks pretty top-heavy, but Embiid’s worst tendencies are balanced out with Maxey’s best tendencies, allowing him to focus more on his strengths.

“Give Nick Nurse credit. Give Philadelphia credit. They’ve gotten better,” Brown said. “They’ve improved throughout this series. They’re playing good basketball now. Defensively, I thought they were very sound. I give credit to Philadelphia.”

The pre-Tatum rotation gave the Celtics a chance

The weird starting lineup didn’t really do its job – the Celtics were down 32-19 after the first quarter and showed few signs of life.

But Jaylen Brown, who started out so poorly, has come back to life. He finished with 33 points on 12-for-27 shooting, nine rebounds and four assists with Tatum out. Defensively, Embiid went 1-on-1 several times with mixed success, but gave the Celtics a chance late.

Derrick White started out coming off a tough series, but he calmed down again in the second half and wound up with 26 points on 26 shots, making just five of his 16 three-point attempts.

Despite his bad confrontation, Queta scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. He was a +9 in a game the Celtics lost by nine goals, bringing his foul trouble into stark relief.

“There are a lot of different things that can cause you big problems, and I have to start looking at myself and being better, first and foremost,” Queta said. “After that, it became consistent.

“I’ve shown flashes of where I can be without any contamination, and it’s just a matter of being in tune with what I’m doing to do it.”

The Celtics dropped by double digits several times, but they rallied, and had plenty of chances to tie or take the lead in the fourth, but their three-point shooting let them down again — they finished 13-for-49 (26.5 percent), missing every field goal in the final five minutes except for a meaningless layup by Pritchard.

Brown said he wished the Celtics had gone to an expanded regular season rotation earlier.

“I hope we play like this and have more confidence in this style, even during the playoffs, and even through wins and losses,” Brown said. “Obviously it’s not always the easiest decision, but I hope this approach to our team is the way we empower the rest of our group, and you saw tonight how everyone came out and played with their background.

“I wish we could trust that more.”

Hugo Gonzalez changed the energy

González was a perfect example — he was out for the entire series before Game 7, but Mazzulla found himself facing an emergency and broke the glass.

The Celtics were in desperate need of their energy — trailing by 13 points after the first quarter, and looking frustrated and tired. The 20-year-old immediately addressed the latter issue, flying all over the floor and creating extra chances with his rebounding, and that frenetic energy seemed to address the former as well.

Gonzalez made a lot of mistakes, missing all three of his three-point attempts (and both free throws), but he was part of the reason the Celtics got back into the game.

What’s next

Typically, we use these final takeaways as a space to highlight the Celtics’ next game, and any other highlights that may be on the horizon.

Now, however, “what’s next” is a somewhat complicated question for the Celtics.

On the one hand, this team looked like a regular-season contender. Brown will likely make the first team in the NBA. Tatum looked healthier than anyone could have hoped for (at least until Saturday). Quetta seemed like a no-brainer to start with. Even players like Baylor Sherman and Gonzalez have shown really encouraging flashes. Brad Stevens may understandably want to consider shoring up some holes around the edges and giving that position another chance next year depending on the regular season.

The Celtics, on the other hand, are not a franchise that celebrates regular season victories.

“When you don’t win a championship for the Celtics, there’s always going to be a level of, ‘We’ve got to do better,'” Mazzola said.

The problems are clear. The Celtics lost every game in this series when they shot less than 30 percent from three, and they shot less than 30 four times. Mazzola defended the practice, noting that the Celtics use too many three-point shooters.

“We go out and get five big guys who can post it, and we’ll post it every time,” he joked when asked if the Celtics would reevaluate their game.

However, this is one of the biggest problems the Celtics have: They employ two great players in Brown and Tatum, but to compete at the level they want to, they still need to do their best to try to win by margins (offensive rebounding, turnovers), and they still need to make a ton of three-point shots to win.

“We’ve got good looks. If we beat them, nobody’s going to say anything,” Pritchard said. “It’s the end of the story. We just have to make it happen. You win the tournament, you hit the shots.”

The Celtics have the ability to improve the margins — for example, a complete exclusion of mid-level could lead to an upgrade at the position — or they could put a line in the water on some of the bigger fish on the market. Giannis Antetokounmpo will almost certainly move on. The Nuggets are in turmoil. Anthony Davis could be available for a trade.

But all that is still in the distant future. Right now, this team is focused on licking its wounds much earlier than anyone expected or wanted.

“Man, I’m so grateful to be with this group,” Brown said. “This group was great. I had a fun year. This is probably one of the most fun years I’ve ever played basketball.”