Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown scored a team-high 25 points in making up for major struggles from Jayson Tatum (1-of-7 shooting, seven points).
On the other side, Joel Embiid’s return after missing the past two games didn’t go swimmingly for the Philadelphia 76ers. Just recently named the NBA MVP for the 2022-23 season, Embiid scored 15 points on a mere 4-of-9 shooting. After a brilliant Game 1 performance as Philadelphia stole one in Boston, James Harden shot a mere 2-of-14 from the field while scoring just 12 points.
The end result was a blowout win for the Boston Celtics by the score of 121-87 to even this Eastern Conference Semifinals series at one heading to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Friday. Here’s a look at four takeaways from Boston’s destruction of the Sixers.
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Philadelphia 76ers couldn’t get it going from the perimeter
In addition to Embiid’s struggles in the low post, Philadelphia built a house with all of the bricks it threw up Wednesday night. Harden, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris combined to hit on just 3-of-15 from three-point range. Philadelphia’s bench missed on 12 of its 14 attempts from beyond the arc, too.
As the best three-point shooting team in the Eastern Conference, this is a big part of the 76ers’ game. Struggles from outside against a team as talented as Boston is going to be a recipe for failure. After connecting on 17-of-38 (45%) from distance in Game 1, the 76ers hit on just 20% of their threes Wednesday evening in Boston.
Malcolm Brogdon once again leads the Boston Celtics’ second unit
Recently named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year, Brogdon has been absolutely brilliant off the bench in his first season with the Celtics. He actually scored 20 points on 9-of-16 shooting in Boston’s Game 1 loss to Philadelphia.
Brogdon was back at it again on Wednesday, scoring 23 points. That included hitting on 6-of-10 from three-point range. If Boston is getting this type of production from the sharpshooter, it’s going to be difficult for Philadelphia to come out on top in a seven-game series.
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Boston Celtics need more from Jayson Tatum
Despite Boston’s win Wednesday night, it gave up home-court advantage by losing the opener. The Philadelphia 76ers remain in the driver’s seat heading back home for Game 3. The backdrop here was Tatum coming up small in Game 2. He scored just seven points on 1-of-7 shooting after dropping 39 points in the opener.
The Celtics can’t rely on Philadelphia shooting 20% from distance once the series heads to the City of Brotherly Love. They also can’t rely on a deep Philadelphia 76ers bench shooting 10-of-28 from the field.
In short, Boston needs Tatum to be more consistent if the team is going to come out on top in what promises to be a lengthy series. He did not do that Wednesday despite Boston pulling away and winning by 34 points.
Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid is not 100%
If this were the regular season, Embiid would likely be out for multiple weeks after suffering an LCL sprain to his knee in the first round of the playoffs. The projected recovery time for this type of injury is generally 4-6 weeks.
Obviously, Embiid is playing through a ton of pain and is not 100%. That was magnified with what we saw from the NBA MVP Wednesday evening in Boston. He was seen limping throughout the game and struggled to do anything of substance. In fact, Philadelphia finished minus-23 in his 27 minutes of action. We give Embiid credit for suiting up, but one has to wonder if it will have a negative impact on Philadelphia moving forward.