The Celtics were poised to take Game 1 in a matchup that did not feature Joel Embiid, but James Harden had other plans.
Boston, which went 32-9 at home in the regular season, failed to assert dominance in the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals and lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 119-115, at TD Garden. Harden scored a playoff career-high 45 points and capped off his historic night with a game-winner over Al Horford with 8.1 seconds left.
The C’s were plagued by turnovers and didn’t take advantage of the 76ers’ smaller lineups that featured Paul Reed and P.J. Tucker, who had zero field-goal attempts and free-throw attempts in 37 minutes, which was the most minutes played without a field-goal attempt or free-throw attempt in the shot-clock era, according to ESPN Stats and Info.
Embiid’s status for Game 2 is up in the air, but the Celtics are in danger of going down 0-2 in the best-of-seven series. The poor performance was not lost on the NBA postgame panel on TNT.
“After watching the great Steph Curry (Sunday) night, I knew James was going to have a big game because their big guy was out. He’s the No. 2 option,” Shaquille O’Neal said, per NBA on TNT video. “I knew he was going to have a big game. I was only asking for 35, but he gave me 45. … But this isn’t about Philly. This is about the lack of focus with Boston. I said at halftime on (Monday’s) episode, when you mess around, this is what happens. There’s no way without Joel Embiid, you’re supposed to lose to this team, ever. Ever, ever, ever, ever. They were messing around. They let James get going. They kept it close.
“What worries me is when you’re a road team and you stay close, anything can happen in the fourth quarter. … This is about Boston, lack of focus, and hopefully, this doesn’t bite (it). Now, all of the stuff we talked about earlier, Joel can get a couple days’ rest.”
Boston fans would agree with the Hall of Famer’s analysis, and the Celtics themselves admitted they did not take Embiid’s absence seriously. There were multiple things that caught the C’s off guard, which should not happen at this point in the season and speaks to the “lack of focus” O’Neal highlighted.
Head coach Joe Mazzulla asserted postgame he would help Boston get itself in the right direction, and the Celtics will get a chance to do so Wednesday. Tipoff for Game 2 at TD Garden is scheduled at 8 p.m. ET.
