After questionable decision-making on the ultimate possession of Recreation 4 on Sunday price them a win, the Boston Celtics discovered themselves in tenuous place getting into Tuesday evening’s Recreation 5 towards the Philadelphia 76ers. What might have been a commanding 3-1 sequence lead was a model new sequence, with the 2 groups taking the court docket in Boston trying to put the opposite on the ropes. That mistake proved pricey — the Celtics appeared sluggish and absent-minded in Recreation 5, and suffered a 115-103 loss to fall behind 3-2 within the semifinals for the second consecutive season.
Jayson Tatum was Boston’s main scorer with 36 factors, however he struggled by means of yet one more sluggish begin because the Celtics fell behind Philadelphia early. Jaylen Brown was curiously uninvolved within the offense, scuffling with stress from PJ Tucker and the Sixers protection and trying simply 9 discipline objectives by means of three quarters (16 for the sport, 24 factors). Philadelphia’s three greatest gamers simply had this recreation beneath management. Joel Embiid and James Harden mixed for 50 factors — together with 21 free throw makes an attempt — and Tyrese Maxey had his greatest recreation towards the Celtics of the season with 30 factors and 6 made threes.
Marcus Good opened Boston’s scoring with back-to-back threes, however the Celtics discovered few simpler buckets within the early going this night. The Sixers dialed in defensively, and although the Celtics discovered the underside of the web moderately properly — 45% from the sphere within the quarter — they needed to work for each level. In the meantime, Philadelphia was unconscious from three-point vary, hitting 5 threes, together with two from the reigning MVP. The Celtics trailed by seven after the primary quarter, 33-26.
Complicating issues was the Celtics’ ineffectiveness on the glass. They misplaced the rebounding battle by a major margin within the first half, surrendering 5 offensive boards, together with three to Embiid, one in all which resulted in a three-point play. Piled on high of that was one other sluggish begin from Tatum, who missed his first six pictures of the sport en path to a 3-of-10 first half.
The Philadelphia lead swelled into the double-digits because the second quarter started, because the Sixers opened the body with a 7-0 run, forcing a Joe Mazzulla timeout simply 90 seconds in. The Celtics staunched the bleeding from there, punching again with a 10-0 run of their very own to attract again inside attain of the lead, however the momentum lasted only a second. Their run gave solution to greater than three minutes of scoreless basketball, and after a half the place little or no appeared to go proper, they have been fortunate to path by simply 9 factors, 58-49.
The Celtics continued to appear to be they have been enjoying with the sport set to “Very Laborious” issue as play resumed. They merely couldn’t put factors on the board with any consistency, failing to string collectively even two consecutive buckets within the third quarter. The Sixers did precisely what they wanted to — knocked down pictures and averted errors, and so they pushed their result in 16 getting into the ultimate quarter.
Mercifully, the Boston offense discovered their first consecutive baskets of the second half within the early minutes of the fourth quarter, a modest 5-0 run behind a Brogdon layup and a Tatum and-one. Modest was all of the run can be; Maxey and Embiid drilled a pair of threes on both aspect of a pair of missed free throws from Brown, and that was the top of any combat the Celtics had in them this night.
Subsequent up, the destiny of the sequence is on the road, because the Celtics face a do-or-die Recreation 6 in Philadelphia, this Thursday at 7:30 PM EST on ESPN.
