The Celtics have a Recreation 2 downside

It’s not possible to not suppose again to the unprecedented taking pictures bombardment Boston endured in a Recreation 2 loss to the Miami Warmth within the opening spherical of the 2024 playoffs, which may have occurred two years to the day when the Celtics journey to Philadelphia for Recreation 3 of their present first spherical matchup.

On that night time, the Warmth, after a 20-point loss in Recreation 1 and with out Jimmy Butler for the complete sequence, hit a franchise playoff report 23 3-pointers, operating away from a Celtics workforce led by Jaylen Brown’s 33 factors that acquired the deficit all the way down to as shut as six factors late within the fourth quarter earlier than the Warmth slammed the door shut.

“It appeared we couldn’t get them to overlook,” Brown stated after that recreation. “They made a variety of pictures that often we’re snug with.”

Ultimately, it was a small divergence from a 5-game sequence the place Boston smacked Miami in each different recreation, however we’ve seen it earlier than and we’ve seen it since: the Celtics have lacked consolation as hosts in Recreation 2.

Amongst their final eight Recreation 2s at residence, they’re now 3-5, with irritating shows in opposition to Cleveland in 2024 (118-94), New York final yr (91-90) and now, in opposition to an Embiid-less Sixers, who shot 49% on 19 made threes and have been led by a VJ Edgecombe 30-point, 10-rebound efficiency that hasn’t occurred since Tim Duncan’s rookie yr in 1998. TIM DUNCAN.

Between Boston’s personal taking pictures misfires (they have been 13/50 from past the arc), a deep drop protection that opened the door for Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey to fireside pull up threes at will, and Philly’s personal defensive changes that shut the door on a paint that Boston had beforehand owned, the Celtics usually regarded unrecognizable from the workforce we’ve seen this season.

Whilst they reduce the deficit to 2 with 6:25 left to play, the Celtics, already with the slowest tempo within the league, spun their wheels deeper and deeper right into a muddy rut, and on this space of the sport specifically, the Sixers do deserve credit score for placing extra foot site visitors in the course of the ground.

Although the primary quarter indicated extra of the identical from the Celtics after they attacked Philly’s weak point-of-attack protection in Recreation 1, the 76ers began to ship extra assist defenders into pick-and-roll actions, whereas taking part in their bigs up-to-level and pushing pickup factors farther out from the 3-point line.

Merely put, they made the Celtics work after they needed to drive.

The Celtics took 22 shot makes an attempt with a shot clock of seven seconds or decrease on Tuesday night time, taking pictures simply 5/21 (24%) on these possessions. That’s 24% of their pictures for the complete recreation that got here with the clock winding down.

On the opposite finish, two days after hitting simply 4 3-pointers for a whole recreation, the Sixers regarded method too snug taking pictures the ball, most evident of their taking pictures round screens.

Almost a 3rd of Philly’s pictures have been from 24 toes or deeper. Of Philly’s 90 pictures for the sport, 47 have been thought-about both open (4-6 toes of area) or large open (6+ toes of area), and so they shot 55% on these makes an attempt.

It usually felt like after a sluggish taking pictures night time in Recreation 1, the Celtics dared the Sixers to beat them from deep slightly than surrender area within the paint for Maxey or Edgecombe to speed up into, and the Sixers fortunately obliged.

It was a chance that didn’t repay.

When the Celtics did carry Queta nearer to the motion on the finish of the sport, the outcomes nonetheless weren’t promising.

“That’s the low-hanging fruit to take a look at,” Joe Mazzulla stated of Philly’s 3-point taking pictures. “It begins with the stuff that we are able to management.”

Mazzulla pointed to pick-and-roll positioning and the timing and stage of their defensive shifts as changes to make it tougher on Philly to generate open seems to be.

Of the three most up-to-date Recreation 2 losses the Celtics have endured after a win (Miami 2024, Cleveland 2024 and now Philadelphia 2026), they’d entered that night time by successful their sequence openers by a mean of 25.7 factors.

Pure and utter dominance, proper out of the gate.

For it to observe with uncharacteristic taking pictures execution each from them and in opposition to them is a tricky capsule to swallow for this group, however in a extra hopeful outlook for Friday, they’ve gone 4-1 of their final 5 Recreation 3s that adopted a loss.

The Sixers landed a giant punch throughout the jaw to separate their video games on the street, and now we’ll get to see precisely how Boston responds. No less than we are able to’t say we haven’t seen this story play out favorably earlier than.