Boston Celtics
Jaylen Brown’s first showdown against his old team landed with the dullest of thuds.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown faced off for the first time since Brown was traded in the offseason, but Paul George took the game over in a 123-101 Celtics victory.
Here are the takeaways.
Paul George has been a perfect fit
Set aside the primary story entering Tuesday’s game, and the obvious storyline that emerged was, in fact, one of revenge, but it wasn’t by Brown or Tatum.
Instead, the revenge belonged to Paul George who walked into the Wells Fargo Center and coolly doused the building with gasoline, set it ablaze and walked out with a middle finger in the air.
In the highly emotional opening moments of the game, it was George who got the Celtics going — he floated in an iso jumper over Tyrese Maxey, then stepped back and canned another over VJ Edgecombe.
George didn’t push the issue — after the first quarter, Tatum led all scorers with 11 to George’s four — but when Tatum went to the bench, George calmly took the reins once again and propelled the Celtics to a double-digit first-half lead with 13 points in the second quarter.
In the second half, however, George erupted — scoring 14 points in just eight minutes in the fourth before the Celtics sat him with five minutes remaining, their work done for the night.
During that stretch, George found space around the perimeter multiple times for wide open 3-pointers, but he was also brilliant handling the ball — most notably on one finish when he snaked a pick-and-roll with the agility of a man 15 years younger and finishing with ease as Joel Embiid trailed far behind him.
George finished with a staggering 36 points, including 14-for-22 from the field and 6-for-11 from behind the arc. When the Celtics acquired him, much was made of how he would help space the floor for Tatum as a 36-year-old wing, but not enough was made of how well George would age — there are shades in his game of Paul Pierce, whose skill level and basketball IQ helped him age far more gracefully in basketball than he has in retirement.
As George launched his final 3-pointer of the game, Tatum didn’t even watch: He walked away from the play with his arms and three fingers extended. When George saw him, both players broke into big smiles and chest-bumped each other as Brown — whose defensive lapse left George entirely open — stood behind, watching the Celtics’ lead tick up to 24, and any hope of a Sixers comeback imploded entirely.
After the game, George told NBA TV his goal this year is “to alleviate any pressure, any friction,” for Tatum.
“Like I’m here to help you,” George said. “I’m in a way here to serve you, make you become the best player that you can become.”
We have done — and will continue to do — our best to avoid these types of comparisons for most of the year, but on Tuesday night, the symbolism of Tatum and George co-existing so perfectly both on and off the floor in a way that often felt forced with Brown was hard to miss.
Jaylen Brown did not start the rivalry with aplomb
We do have to cover this, despite what a large faction of the Celtics’ fanbase would seemingly prefer.
For all of the noise before the game — much of it generated by a “cap” emoji, followed by the now infamous “lamb chops” comments, followed by weeks of media noise that he himself stirred up — Brown’s first showdown against his old team landed with the dullest of thuds.
Tatum and Brown spent the layup lines locked in a cold war — neither acknowledging the other, both seemingly trying to keep up the charade that Tuesday’s game was nothing more than one of 82, despite the eyes of an entire arena on them.
Tatum tried to greet Brown before the game, but Brown shrugged him off (only for LeBron James to greet him warmly), and a somewhat amused Tatum could be seen shrugging as he looked back at Derrick White.
Once the game finally tipped off, Brown looked sped up and very overhyped. He picked up two fouls — one of which was a really questionable decision after he got ripped by Tatum. He probably could have picked up a third on one drive when he inadvertently smacked Jordan Walsh in the face — a flailing tendency that Celtics fans saw the other side of frequently over the years — but instead he picked up his third in the second quarter, bumping into George as he elevated to knock down an easy bank shot. When Brown and the Sixers went to the locker room, the former Celtics star was -15 against his old team.
Things didn’t improve in the third: Brown picked up his fourth foul almost immediately, reaching across Derrick White for inscrutable reasons and making the officials’ decision easy.
In the fourth, Brown rattled in a 3-pointer and got a wide open dunk, but the Celtics were rolling by that point.
The toughest look for Brown may have been the aforementioned 3-pointer by George, which was the Celtics’ final play before both coaches emptied their benches. The Celtics dumped the ball to Tatum in the post, and Brown was forced to double his former teammate, but he looked uncertain about what he should do since a scorching hot George was waiting above the break. Brown shuffled back and forth a bit, and Tatum simply dished back to George — who was Brown’s defensive assignment. A dejected-looking Brown stopped short and watched as George lined up the wide open triple and canned it.
Brown finished with 13 points on 4-for-9 shooting and four turnovers in just 25 minutes, and he was a -27 in the box score. In a game that he tried to make about himself and his own redemption, he wasn’t just a non-factor, he was actively damaging.
Jayson Tatum re-enacted his iconic 2018 LeBron poster dunk
Tatum was relatively quiet by his standards — 21 points, 8-for-17 shooting, six rebounds, four assists — with one major exception: A thunderous one-handed poster on James, which looked strikingly similar to the dunk he hammered home on James in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2018.
Early in the game, Brown picked up Tatum and face-guarded him, but Tatum slipped free and scored repeatedly. In the second half, when the Sixers continued to ramp up their defensive pressure on him, Tatum got off the ball whenever necessary and used his gravity to help the Celtics rack up a ridiculous number of 3-pointers (more on that in a minute).
Afterward, when interviewed by NBC, Tatum stuck to his talking points — the game was one of 82, the Sixers are a good team, etc. — but he looked genuinely relieved to have put all the drama behind him for the time being.
The Celtics overcame a massive free-throw disparity
The Celtics won despite a somewhat ridiculous-looking stat: The Sixers shot 28 free throws. The Celtics shot five.
That disparity was mitigated by the Celtics’ shot-making — they finished 22-for-49 from deep, to Philadelphia’s 11-for-37. A gap of 11 3-point makes is more than enough to make up most free-throw disparities, and that was the case on Tuesday (although just barely).
The Sixers did benefit from some friendly whistles, but the Celtics also — it should be noted — took a lot of jumpers and never really looked comfortable trying to get into the paint. But the Sixers will probably want to rethink whether their defensive rotations made sense before they face Boston again, because the Celtics were open a lot.
Payton Pritchard played really well (against a good team)
We expressed some mild concerns here about Pritchard’s slow start against decent teams, but he was excellent in the Celtics’ toughest Eastern Conference test since Opening Mid-Afternoon against the Pistons — 18 points on 7-for-15 shooting, 4-for-8 from deep and five assists.
Pritchard started his scoring inside the arc — all three of his first buckets were drives in the first half before he started making 3-pointers in the second.
He also made what was quietly one of the biggest shots of the night: After Maxey tied the game at 79, Pritchard started a 12-3 run to end the third quarter by bouncing a 3-point attempt off the back of the rim, off the camera at the top of the backboard and in. According to NBC, that broke the backboard camera. Fortunately, it was after Tatum’s dunk on James.
The Sixers have some question marks
Maxey is a no-holds-barred superstar — the kind of franchise building block that, with time and attention to the rest of the roster, could potentially lead a team to a championship.
Edgecombe is a very fun young player who is genuinely good already and occasionally breaks out some of the most brilliant highlights you’ll ever see.
Other than those two, the Sixers have some real question marks. One is James, who is still as mentally brilliant as ever but who can no longer stay in front of a player like Tatum (which is jarring to see).
The biggest question, however, is Embiid, who looked neither particularly healthy nor in shape. Is there any way he holds up through a grueling regular season until the playoffs? Is there any way he plays for four consecutive series?
The talent on this Sixers team is undeniable, but the roster construction presents a lot of questions.
Hugo González doesn’t believe in garbage time
In a funny moment late for anyone still paying attention, González scored five straight points in the final 38 seconds, all of which were completely unnecessary.
The first was a 3-pointer in the corner after he slapped the ball away from Jabari Walker and saved it to keep a possession alive.
Then, when the Sixers tried to pass the ball over half court, González picked the ball off and slammed it down one more time for good measure. When the Sixers scored in answer on the other end, Baylor Scheierman could be seen waving off any further instigation by González, who squatted down on his haunches and waited out the clock.
The Sixers didn’t appear too angry about González’s late hustle plays — Maxey hugged him first as he shook hands with Celtics players, and González was one of several players Brown greeted on his way off the floor who were not named Jayson Tatum.
What’s next
After all of that, the Celtics have to play again in less than 24 hours — they face the Raptors in Toronto at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
Following their game against the Raptors, the Celtics can go home and rest for two days before taking on the Mavericks at TD Garden on Sunday.
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