BOSTON — The Philadelphia 76ers walked into TD Garden expecting to earn a two-game advantage over the Celtics in their Eastern Conference semifinals series.
Instead, they got molly-whopped.
The Celtics found their shooting stroke, connecting on 20 shots from beyond the arc while doubling their attempts from Game 1. They also cut way down on the turnovers, finishing 13 more attempts from the field than the Sixers. Philly, on the other hand, saw newly crowned MVP Joel Embiid return to the lineup from his knee injury only to finish with 15 points and three rebounds while turning the ball over three times and putting up a minus-23 in the box score.
Not great.
“There’s no excuses,” Embiid said postgame. “I’m out here, so I’m good. I’m ready to play. We’ve just got to be better as a team. We didn’t execute well like we were supposed to do and they played freely all night. They got whatever they wanted, that’s partly my fault.”
While many will say the 76ers got what they wanted in splitting the two games at TD Garden, the sting of the loss is exactly what it would be in any other situation.
“We wanted to win both,” Embiid said. “We feel like every single game is an opportunity to accomplish something and that we can win that game. Coming here to Boston, it’s not easy with a team like that. They’re going to respond at home with their fans, now it’s our turn to make sure we’re locked in. Tonight, we just didn’t make any shots, especially the shots we were making the other night.”
The series will now shift back to Philadelphia, where the Celtics have won two of the last three meetings. As Embiid continues to nurse his knee injury and the Celtics continue to find their game, the excuses could soon become an option for fans of the 76ers.
