With 1:44 left in the fourth quarter and the Celtics up 18, Al Horford, Terry Rozier and Jayson Tatum checked out of the game. It wasn’t the Big 3 Brad Stevens envisioned when the season began, but it’s the crew that got the job done anyway.
The Celtics have battled injury all season long. First Gordon Hayward. Then Kyrie Irving, Daniel Theis and Marcus Smart. They found a way to win ball games all season long. Game 1 against the 76ers was no different.
Jaylen Brown sat out with a right hamstring strain that he suffered in Game 7 against the Buckson Saturday. It didn’t matter. It was next man up for Boston, as it’s been all year. And the result, against one of the league’s most promising young teams, was the same.
Rozier led Boston with 29 points, each one seemingly more electrifying than the last. Tatum was right behind him with 28 points, and Horford shot 83 percent for his 26 points. Their group performance reiterated a fact that’s been true all year:
It doesn’t matter who’s on the court for the Celtics
Give credit to Brad Stevens for creating a system and empowering his players to compete and execute no matter who’s on the floor. That’s what Boston does night-in and night-out. Monday night against the 76ers was no different.
Tatum, for example, doesn’t play like a rookie. More like a veteran scorer whose body has yet to fill into his frame. Tatum only shot 1-of-5 from three, but when the jump shot isn’t dropping, what does a scorer do? Get to the line. He made 11-of-12 free throws on the night.
Rozier absolutely lit the 76ers up from downtown. He shot 7-of-9 from three. There was no reason for him to be as open as he was at times.
And Horford was somehow the best big man on the floor in a game that featured Joel Embiid, one of the best big men in the country. That’s because Horford is an All-Star, a fact some may have forgotten because his game isn’t the flashiest. The Celtics aren’t a flashy team. Just like his team, he does what it takes to get the job done.
No Irving, Hayward, Theis or Jaylen Brown in the first game of Boston’s second-round series, but there were no problems, either. The Celtics handily dispatched the 76ers, sending Philly back to the drawing board after a convincing first-round win over Miami.
This is a Celtics team without two all-stars and a budding third. That’s the scariest part about how good they are. Boston can be lightyears better.