Dropping Nail-Biter To 76ers Wasn’t Worst Outcome For Celtics

At some point, the fire was gonna dwindle down, and that resulted in back-to-back losses following five straight wins season-opening victories for the Boston Celtics.

Despite having guard Derrick White back following a two-game absence, the early-season woes that explain Boston’s current mini-slump returned and followed the Celtics from Minnesota to Philadelphia on Wednesday night — and it haunted them when it mattered most.

Just like the Nets and Timberwolves, the 76ers weren’t a pushover on either end of the floor. James Harden might’ve wanted no part of the bright lights in Philadelphia’s rivalry with Boston, but Tyrese Maxey wanted all of it.

Philadelphia didn’t fail to make Boston pay for its mistakes, creating a second-half disaster which granted, still gave Kristaps Porzingis a chance to knockdown a game-tying 3-pointer before the final buzzer, but shouldn’t have reached that point.

Early on, the Celtics were able to lean on their depth. If one of Boston’s premier players was ice-cold, it wasn’t a problem. That theme was crystal clear and easily the team’s greatest strength, but that tip of the cap to Boston’s offseason front office work wasn’t the same.

Jaylen Brown was off, plain and simple. He shot just 4-of-13 from the field with 11 points and committed four unnecessary turnovers, however, that doesn’t exonerate the rest of the group. If Brown’s off, the Celtics need to find a hot hand and facilitate an efficient offense that applies pressure and prevents opposing teams from assembling strong transition baskets off misses to snowball late-game deficits.

In the second quarter, Philadelphia grabbed five offensive rebounds and on four of those instances, the 76ers scored. Giving up second-chance points, at the time, seems minuscule, but when losing a 106-103 battle, surrendering eight points because of defensive failures becomes a greater issue.

“We took a few possessions off in the second quarter. and anytime you’re playing against a great team like Maxey and Embiid, if you’re down 10, you’re down 15-18 because of their ability to make shots,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said, as seen on NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage. “… We have to have the emotional maturity and the mental toughness to know, like, we’re gonna learn from this.”

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This would be cause for concern had this been the way the Celtics opened up the season from Opening Night, but that wasn’t the case. Remember, the Celtics did erase a 14-point deficit in order to make the final seconds a legitimate race to the finish line.

Boston walked into Philadelphia averaging an NBA-leading 50.1 rebounds and dropped to second (49.6) in that rank after the 76ers won the rebound battle, 56-43, and scored 56 points in the paint to 40 from the Celtics.

“The one thing we gotta teach our bigs is to stay in the paint on defense and not move. We just gotta be able to do so we can protect the rim,” Mazzulla said, per NBC Sports Boston.

In the end, there were several learning lessons within each shortcoming that harmed the Celtics. The roster is still settling in having only played seven regular season games together — not to make any excuses for a relatively inexcusable loss.

Being tested rather than cruising through an 82-game stretch makes for better preparation in situations that present themselves in the playoffs.

Consider Boston’s three-game road trip its first major test.