To get back to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics had to get past the league’s MVP. It was never a sure thing against Joel Embiid.
The Celtics let an opportunity slip when they dropped Game 1 to the 76ers, who didn’t have Embiid as he nursed an injury. Embiid returned for Game 2, and though the Celtics still beat him to take a 2-1 series lead, he was still a problem. His dominance propelled the Sixers to a 3-2 lead. Joe Mazzulla had to make an adjustment to limit him, inserting Robert Williams into the starting lineup as the Celtics went big to combat Embiid.
It worked. And the Celtics ultimately outlasted Embiid. They wore him down and sent the MVP packing for the summer. While Jayson Tatum received MVP chants all afternoon inside a raucous TD Garden, the actual MVP had his worst game of the series. He was a complete non-factor, finishing with 15 points on 5-for-18 shooting, and committed four turnovers.
For the entirety of the series, Al Horford took the challenge. Though he may be aging, turning 37 in a few weeks, he succeeded and ultimately won one of the toughest battles of his career.
“Just try to make everything as difficult as I could,” Horford said. “He’s the MVP of the league for a reason and how much pressure he can put on your defense and so many things he can do. So I was just out there trying to fight for my life and trying to make an impact, and I understood that in this series it wasn’t going to be my offense. It was more defensively that I had to take that challenge and defend him for us to have a chance.”
While Horford certainly held his own against Embiid before then, the change to start Williams changed everything. The Celtics returned to their defensive identity that fueled them to the NBA Finals. Horford and his teammates were allowed to gamble, to be more aggressive with Williams as a security blanket. Embiid got too comfortable earlier in the series. Then the Celtics made his life a nightmare on Sunday by throwing multiple coverages at him.
It sparked the Celtics to their two best defensive performances of the season. Stopping Embiid, who seemed to wear down as the series progressed, was central to it.
“When we were down 3-2, we made an adjustment, but it opened up their minds,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzula said. “It opened up the connectivity to be able to do a bunch of different stuff, whether it was doubling from different locations, whether it was going small on Embiid and then switching the matchup in the middle of the possession, whether it was the rotations we made.
“So credit to our guys for just being open-minded, being connected, and you can’t guard those guys one way, you’ve got to do different things. So with their effort and communication, it really helped do that.”
About two hours before tip off of Game 7, ESPN reported that the league’s officiating game report shared with teams from Game 6 showed that there was a massive disparity in officiating errors. According to the report, there were 13 officiating errors disadvantaging 76ers to just four disadvantaging the Celtics.
Sixers coach Doc Rivers was asked about it for the game, and sounded alarmed.
“It was disappointing to see, honestly,” Rivers said before Game 7. “A 13-4 disparity … in a one-point, two-point game, it’s hard to recover from. It really is.”
If it was some kind of tactic from the Sixers to try to get some calls in Game 7, it didn’t really work. Though there were some questionable calls early on the Celtics, the Sixers were called for more fouls on Sunday.
“I saw it,” Mazzulla said of the report. “Honestly, we both shot seven free throws in the first half, I really don’t think it was that big of a deal. I think because of the reports or whatever the case may be, it seems louder. It’s like you see the report, you go out in the game, they make three calls, and it’s like, “see?” And that just wasn’t the case. The free throws were the same at half. I thought it was a well-officiated game.”
Jaylen Brown has been going back and forth wearing his face mask – the one he’s using to protect himself after the facial fracture he suffered earlier this season – in recent weeks. He ditched the mask during Game 4 against the Hawks, but put it back on for Game 5. He took it off again in Game 6 against the Sixers, but had it on again to begin Sunday’s Game 7.
After playing with the mask on in the first quarter, Brown took it off to begin the second. Then, he got hit in the face by James Harden on a flagrant foul that turned the momentum in the second quarter. So, is the mask gone?
“I mean, what you think?” Brown said. “As soon as I took it off I took an elbow right to the bridge of my nose. My mom’s probably like, ‘See, you should have kept it on.’ But we’ll see. I got used to playing with it. Feels weird kind of getting ready for a game without it. But we’ll see as the series goes on.” …
There were some special guests at the Garden for Sunday’s Game 7 with some Patriots flavor. Julian Edelman, Robert Kraft and Matthew Slater were all in attendance. Former Celtics player Daniel Theis was also sitting courtside.