The Boston Celtics will try to avoid a series collapse Saturday night when they face the visiting Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Second-seeded Boston held a 3-1 lead in the series, but lost Game 5 at home and then dropped Game 6, 106-93, in Philadelphia on Thursday night. If the seventh-seeded 76ers can find a way to win Game 7 on the road, Boston would become the 14th team in NBA history to lose a series after holding a 3-1 advantage.
“I’ve been playing these guys for so long,” said Philadelphia center Joel Embiid. “I’m tired of losing to them. So we have a chance to accomplish something special. They’re a great team. You look at everything they have. That’s a super team. We just gotta go in with the mindset that we’ve had for the last two games. One play at a time. Tough environment, but we’ve been there. We won two games over there.”
Boston was 12 of 41 from 3-point territory in Thursday’s loss, after being held to 11-of-39 shooting from behind the 3-point arc in its 113-97 setback in Game 5.
“Very good game by us,” Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse said following Thursday’s victory. “I think we played really well. Probably most impressed with our defensive effort, and shot creation was good. I don’t think the shot-making was great, but the shot creation was very good.”
Boston received a scare Thursday when Jayson Tatum exited the court with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter and did not return. Though he and coach Joe Mazzulla initially said Tatum would play in Game 7, he was listed as questionable on Saturday afternoon with left leg stiffness.
Tatum said the current situation is not related to last May’s devastating ruptured right Achilles tendon, which knocked him out in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the New York Knicks and kept him off the court until March 6 of this season.
“It was my other leg, not the one I injured last year,” Tatum said Thursday. “I mean, I wasn’t like overly concerned. … I came out at four minutes, like I was supposed to. He (Mazzulla) took the starters out fairly early in the fourth quarter.”
Tatum acknowledged the Celtics still have some work to do to gel after his extended absence.
“Our intentions aren’t good,” Tatum continued. “We want to go out there and play the right way and win. It’s just we just got to be a little bit more together, a little bit tougher, play with more pace, play faster. How they have played majority of the season. Then since I’ve been back (from the Achilles injury), just kind of getting back to who we are.”
Two of Boston’s three wins in the series came by more than 30 points. The Celtics won Game 1 123-91, then prevailed 128-96 in Game 4.
“We definitely made some adjustments,” Mazzulla said after Game 6. “Some of them worked, some of them didn’t. Like I said, I thought tonight the Sixers played well, and we didn’t.”
Tyrese Maxey led all scorers with 30 points in Game 6. Jaylen Brown led Boston with 18 points.
“Sometimes it’s not about the Xs and Os, it’s about the Jims and the Joes,” Maxey said. “Who you have on your team, our Jims and Joes got to be better than theirs. It’s going to be a dogfight. It’s going to be extremely difficult. Every single second will be a roller coaster ride. Us as a group, we have to stay connected. Stay with one goal in mind — that’s you’re trying to win the game.”
–Field Level Media
