Celtics Expected To Adjust After Bucking Season-Long Trend In Game 1

BOSTON — The Celtics picked an interesting time to stray from the season-long strategy that led to them holding the second-best record in the NBA.

The Philadelphia 76ers stole Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series against Boston, riding a vintage James Harden performance and a late Celtics collapse to a close win at TD Garden. Though Philly played well without league MVP Joel Embiid, the Celtics aided the eventual Sixers win by doing two things: turning the ball over and failing to shoot threes.

In fact, they shot their lowest total attempts from beyond the arc (26) of the entire season and allowed Philadelphia to finish with a turnover margin of plus-10. The two issues seemed to stem from the 76ers’ decision to play zone defense, which allowed the C’s a clear path to the rim for much of the first half but also led to some sloppiness down the stretch.

“I thought they did a good job of making multiple efforts to run us off the line, and when the next guy comes to stop the ball,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said prior to Game 2. “So we have to find that balance of getting really good looks in the paint, but at the same time, not passing up open shots when we have the opportunity.”

If you know anything about the way Mazzulla has run things this season, you’d know his plan for Game 2.

“Shoot it. Make it,” Mazzulla said.

The 76ers are well aware of that plan, and while they won the first game of the series, head coach Doc Rivers believes his team needs to be much better defensively if they want to make things 0-2 headed back to Wells Fargo Center.

“We made a concerted effort to run guys off the three-point line,” Rivers said Wednesday. “In some ways that affected us. It helped us some, but it hurt us some too. They were doing a layup line there for a while. … We have to do that better. We won the game and they didn’t take as many threes, but you’re not going to win a lot of games when a team shoots that well from the field.”

The Celtics will likely also see something different, as it is fully expected that Embiid will make his return.

What better way of overcoming a dominant big man than shooting threes?