After questionable decision-making on the ultimate possession of Sport 4 on Sunday value them a win, the Boston Celtics discovered themselves in tenuous place coming into Tuesday evening’s Sport 5 in opposition to the Philadelphia 76ers. What may have been a commanding 3-1 sequence lead become a model new sequence, with the 2 groups taking the court docket in Boston seeking to put the opposite on the ropes. That mistake proved pricey — the Celtics regarded sluggish and absent-minded in Sport 5, and suffered a 115-103 loss to fall behind 3-2 within the semifinals for the second consecutive season.
Jayson Tatum was Boston’s main scorer with 36 factors, however he struggled via one more sluggish begin because the Celtics fell behind Philadelphia early. Jaylen Brown was curiously uninvolved within the offense, combating stress from PJ Tucker and the Sixers protection and making an attempt simply 9 subject objectives via three quarters (16 for the sport, 24 factors). Philadelphia’s three finest gamers simply had this recreation below management. Joel Embiid and James Harden mixed for 50 factors — together with 21 free throw makes an attempt — and Tyrese Maxey had his finest recreation in opposition to the Celtics of the season with 30 factors and 6 made threes.
Marcus Sensible opened Boston’s scoring with back-to-back threes, however the Celtics discovered few simpler buckets within the early going this night. The Sixers dialed in defensively, and although the Celtics discovered the underside of the online fairly nicely — 45% from the sphere within the quarter — they needed to work for each level. In the meantime, Philadelphia was unconscious from three-point vary, hitting 5 threes, together with two from the reigning MVP. The Celtics trailed by seven after the primary quarter, 33-26.
Complicating issues was the Celtics’ ineffectiveness on the glass. They misplaced the rebounding battle by a big margin within the first half, surrendering 5 offensive boards, together with three to Embiid, one among which resulted in a three-point play. Piled on high of that was one other sluggish begin from Tatum, who missed his first six photographs of the sport en path to a 3-of-10 first half.
The Philadelphia lead swelled into the double-digits because the second quarter started, because the Sixers opened the body with a 7-0 run, forcing a Joe Mazzulla timeout simply 90 seconds in. The Celtics staunched the bleeding from there, punching again with a 10-0 run of their very own to attract again inside attain of the lead, however the momentum lasted only a second. Their run gave option to greater than three minutes of scoreless basketball, and after a half the place little or no appeared to go proper, they have been fortunate to path by simply 9 factors, 58-49.
The Celtics continued to appear to be they have been enjoying with the sport set to “Very Exhausting” problem as play resumed. They merely couldn’t put factors on the board with any consistency, failing to string collectively even two consecutive buckets within the third quarter. The Sixers did precisely what they wanted to — knocked down photographs and averted errors, and so they pushed their result in 16 coming into the ultimate quarter.
Mercifully, the Boston offense discovered their first consecutive baskets of the second half within the early minutes of the fourth quarter, a modest 5-0 run behind a Brogdon layup and a Tatum and-one. Modest was all of the run can be; Maxey and Embiid drilled a pair of threes on both aspect of a pair of missed free throws from Brown, and that was the tip of any struggle the Celtics had in them this night.
Subsequent up, the destiny of the sequence is on the road, because the Celtics face a do-or-die Sport 6 in Philadelphia, this Thursday at 7:30 PM EST on ESPN.
