Boston Celtics
Boston’s Jayson Tatum-less lineup brought it to a No. 2 seed, but was no match for Philadelphia Saturday.
Jaylen Brown carried the Celtics all season, and he did his best to will them into the second round on Saturday night. (AP Photo/Jim Davis)
The Jayson Tatum-less Celtics were a true Cinderella story in the NBA this season, reaching a No. 2 seed and 50-plus regular season wins. But on Saturday night, in true Cinderella fashion, the horse-drawn carriage turned back into a pumpkin.
It wasn’t a star-based issue either. Jaylen Brown did exactly what he did all season. He scored a team-high 33 points, and added nine rebounds, four assists, and three blocks, showing up all over the floor.
Derrick White, whose playoff struggles were notable heading into Saturday night, dropped 26 points and hit five 3-pointers.
Saturday’s outcome was determined by one simple factor: Boston’s lineup was no match for Philadelphia’s.
The 76ers started a dominant big, Joel Embiid, a talented scoring guard in Tyrese Maxey and a budding rookie in V.J. Edgecombe. Boston’s starting five? Brown, White, Ron Harper Jr., Baylor Scheierman, and Luka Garza. A specific combination that hadn’t even shared any time on the floor before Game 7.
Tonight’s starting lineup for the Celtics has not played a single minute together all season.
White, Brown, Garza, Scheierman, Harper Jr.
— Dick Lipe (@DickLipe) May 2, 2026
No amount of Jaylen Brown takeover would’ve sufficed on Saturday night.
To their credit though, the Celtics made things interesting. They erased a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit with a 25-8 run down the stretch, held Philadelphia without a field goal for almost six straight minutes in the fourth quarter, and had chances to tie the game with under two minutes remaining.
But while there was plenty of fight in the fourth quarter, Boston’s lineup was still impossibly outmatched. Its latter three starters, Scheierman, Garza, and Harper, didn’t score a single point. Neemias Queta off the bench was the Celtics’ third leading scorer with 17 points, followed by Payton Pritchard (13) and Sam Hauser (11). No other Celtics scored.
If you closed your eyes and pictured the 2025-26 Celtics back in September, Saturday night is probably exactly what it would have looked like. A whole lot of production out of Brown and White, a few well-timed Pritchard threes, and a fair amount of ugly basketball in between.
But you can’t blame Brad Stevens, Joe Mazzulla, or the Celtics, either. Everyone knew Boston was just buying time to get Tatum back into the lineup. Any chance at the postseason would have been welcome if it gave Tatum a chance to come back and make a run. And that’s exactly what happened. Boston was competitive once Brown and Tatum reunited, and the duo made them a favorite to come out of the Eastern Conference.
So, despite a disappointing result on Saturday, this season as a whole shouldn’t be viewed as a disappointment. All season long, Boston’s Tatum-less lineup outperformed expectations. On Saturday night, they just happened to come back down to earth, ran into a much more talented unit, and suffered for it.
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