BOSTON — There’s no question that the Celtics have allowed playing to the level of their opponent to become a trend over the past few seasons.
In the era of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Boston has routinely put together some stinkers when it seemed all but certain they’d roll to a victory. There are recent examples in the regular season, with losses to the Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards perplexing fans in 2022-23, but they’ve also carried that over into the postseason.
In all honesty, the Atlanta Hawks had no right pushing their first-round series with the Celtics to six games. The Philadelphia 76ers didn’t really have any right to win Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series against Boston with MVP Joel Embiid sidelined, either.
Jaylen Brown agrees, which is why he believes the C’s still have things to improve on after their drubbing of the Sixers in Game 2.
“It comes down to defense. Defense is all about pride. Defense is all about effort,” Brown said following Game 2. “We gotta do a better job no matter who is out there. Our team defense and our team intensity has been lacking throughout the playoffs, and going forward we’ve got to make sure we embrace each and every challenge — with ball pressure, with intensity and stuff like that.
“I don’t see a difference (with Embiid on the court), I think you’ve just got to embrace the challenge. It’s going to be tough guarding a guy that’s MVP caliber. It’s tough guarding a guy that’s motivated and wants to play well in the playoffs, so you’ve just got to man up and do your job.”
The key to Boston’s victory in Game 2, as much as chucking up more threes contributed, was ball pressure. The Celtics defense stifled the Sixers and was the main point of focus from Doc Rivers postgame. The plan for Philadelphia is for Embiid to continue playing as he did in Game 2, which should help Boston keep that same intensity and focus.
That’s the hope, anyway.
