When a team is drubbed by 27 points — in a playoff game, no less — there’s typically a vast number of problems to be diagnosed.
While that was true for the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, one specific stretch of time stands out for head coach Brett Brown.
The Boston Celtics dusted Philly 128-101 in Game 2 of their first-round NBA Playoff series. The C’s now lead the best-of-seven set 2-0.
Although the C’s always were considered the favorite going in, it wasn’t expected to be this lopsided. It was a Celtics run early in the second quarter that sank Philly.
A 15-1 stretch from the C’s over 5:08 in the period pretty much put the game out of reach. There might not have been more sure of a sign things were going to get ugly for the Sixers than when Enes Kanter, of all people, knocked down a 26-footer just 40 seconds into the quarter, which kicked off Boston’s run.
So for Brown, that’s when things unraveled.
“I think it got deflating when their shotmakers went bananas,” Brown said, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I’m not going to scold (our players’) effort. I think that we’ve gotta shake their hands, the Celtics, on some of the shots. There were half-court bank shots — Kanter hit one — and they really ended up making a lot of shots.”:
Indeed, the Celtics just got so hot that there really was little the 76ers could do at the time.
They’ll have a chance to regroup Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET.
