BOSTON — The Boston Celtics gave Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid fits just three weeks prior with the help of Al Horford, among others.
Well, the Celtics were without three of their most impactful frontcourt options Monday night at TD Garden as Robert Williams was ruled out last minute due to personal reasons with both Grant Williams and Horford in health and safety protocols.
Embiid proceeded to feast on the matchup with Enes Freedom, who’s not exactly known for his defense, and scored a game-high 41 points on 14-for-27 from the field. Embiid scored nine points in the final 1:22 to help Philadelphia pull away.
“Embiid made some tough baskets on us, some incredible shots, to be honest,” Jaylen Brown said after the 108-103 loss. “Embiid had a hell of a game, but we still could have played a lot better to win this game.”
Again, Monday’s result came three weeks after the Celtics shut Embiiid down. The All-Star center on Dec. 1 was 3-for-17 from the floor for 13 points as the C’s earned a 88-87. win.
So, what happened?
“Rotations were slow, I guess. We started out with the game plan that we wanted to guard him one-on-one with heavy digs. And he just took advantage of those matchups,” Brown said. “We didn’t do a good enough job of helping Enes and helping our bigs down there. Embiid started feeling uncomfortable. And we don’t want a guy like that to feel comfortable.
“Then we made adjustments to rotate, and it just felt like we were a little slow on some of those rotations and we gave up some big baskets,” Brown continued. “We got to do better of adjusting on the fly. We got to do better, you know, the stuff that we normally do well and what we didn’t do well enough tonight.”
Celtics head coach Ime Udoka cited Boston’s inability to stop Embiid as what ultimately earned them the loss, as well. Brown said it was a game the team would like to have back while Payton Pritchard, who scored 14 points off the bench, acknowledged it was a game he thought Boston should’ve won.
“I think the defense at the end on Embiid was as poor as, you know, some of the offensive possessions there,” Udoka said after the game, referencing some late turnovers. “So we were kind of living with him (Embiid) taking those tough shots and keeping everybody else under control, and then he got going at the end, and we tried to take those hands and didn’t do a great job there.”
The Celtics fell to 15-16 with the loss. Boston will return to TD Garden on Wednesday to face the Cleveland Cavaliers.
