Boston Celtics
A truly mature team would recognize the importance of taking care of business right now — and not giving bad karma a chance to get involved.
Jaylen Brown loses control of the ball while he is defended by Philadelphia guard Quentin Grimes during the fourth quarter on Tuesday at TD Garden. Barry Chin/Globe Staff
April 29, 2026 | 7:51 AM
3 minutes to read
Unless they decide to make the kind of ignominious history that ought to be left to lesser franchises, the Celtics will win their first-round NBA playoff series with the Sixers.
The Celtics, as pointed out by NBC Sports Boston statistician/researcher Dick Lipe, are 32-0 in series when they have a 3-1 lead. Eleven of those times, they lost Game 5.
Sometimes Game 5 hiccups happen, and the Celtics had them for most of the second half in their messy 113-97 loss to the Sixers at TD Garden Tuesday night. The Celtics led by 13 early in the third quarter, but poor shooting — 11 total points in the fourth — poorer decision-making, and a rejuvenating trip in the Wayback Machine for preternaturally rickety Sixers big man Joel Embiid (33 points, hitting 11 of his final 16 shots) did them in.
Game 6 is 8 p.m. in Philadelphia on Thursday. If recent Celtics history is any indication, they’ll play well in enemy territory after punting away a golden opportunity at home. They’ll win, probably.
But that doesn’t make what unfolded Tuesday night easier to accept, if even it was something less than shocking. Generations of Celtics fans have believed in ethical basketball long before it became a trendy way for the current generation of players to describe playing the right way.
The Celtics did not play the ethical game — let alone an efficient, inspired, or particularly intelligent one. They played like Game 5 wasn’t all that important, that they know they have wiggle room.
And they do, to a degree. But a truly mature team would recognize the importance of taking care of business right now, and not giving bad karma a chance to get involved.
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Well Philly faithful, you wanted the Celtics … so, how do you like them now?
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Bruins were no-shows in a got-to-have-it game against Sabres
The Celtics could use an extra day or two of rest that wrapping up their series ASAP would allow. And no one needs to be told how injuries — even one — can turn a playoff series upside down.
The Celtics didn’t shoot well, especially from 3, where they were 11 of 39 (28 percent). That happens sometimes. But sometimes, much of it is self-inflicted by poor shot selection.
That was the case with the Celtics superstars, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, from the get-go Tuesday night. Both activated the most aggravating aspect of the offense, which I assume in the playbook is called ‘Three Guys Stand Around On the Perimeter While One Guy Waves Off A Screen and Goes One-on-One.’
Brown (22 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) and Tatum (24, 16, and 4) got their numbers, but they a shot a combined 17 of 42 . . . and they deserved to shoot 17 of 42. There were too many casual tee-it-up, side-step 3s from Tatum, and too many bulldozer plunges into traffic for Brown.
I bet you could pull 10 screenshots from this game where one or the other of them was “hunting a mismatch” while their teammates stood sessile near the 3-point line. Maybe a dozen.
Derrick White, a star in that quintessential selfless, savvy Celtic kind of way, is dealing with a different issue, one that has plagued him for most of this season: He can’t find his shot, and now he doesn’t look confident in taking it. White was 2 for 8 overall and 0 for 4 from 3 in Game 5, including a corner 3 that ricocheted off the iron with 7 minutes remaining and the Celtics down just 97-94. White is 14 of 47 in this series and 7 of 33 from 3. If ever anyone needs to see one go in, and then another, it’s White, right now.
Other gripes? I’ve got a few. After a strong first quarter in which he grabbed 9 rebounds and didn’t commit a foul, Neemias Queta committed four in a span of 6 minutes, 41 seconds over the second and third quarters.
The second one, an absentminded, Mark Blount-like hack of Andre Drummond after a basic defensive rebound, was particularly egregious. Queta now has 21 fouls and 16 field goals through five games.
Perhaps coach Joe Mazzulla was so distracted by Queta’s fouling spree that he forgot to properly utilize his bench. Hey, I’m yet to hear a better explanation for why Payton Pritchard — who had 9 points, six assists, and was plus-16 in the first half — played just 11 minutes in the second half when the Celtics desperately needed to play at a faster pace to counter Embiid.
So much went wrong for the Celtics in Game 5 that it’s hard to believe that one play epitomizes it. But one does.
Trailing, 100-94, with 5½ minutes, as Brown struggled — dribble-dribble, crossover-crossover — to advance the ball past halfcourt against Quentin Grimes’s defense, no Celtic came to help him out. Brown got the ball past halfcourt, and as his apparent reward, fired up a contested 17-footer.
Thud. The shot missed, just like every single shot the Celtics took in the final 7 minutes.
Common sense says they’ll shoot better Thursday in Philly. They’ll win, probably.
And we’ll forget all about this self-inflicted loss in a series they seemed to have under control, right up until it happens again.
Chad Finn
Chad Finn is a sports columnist for Boston.com. He has been voted Favorite Sports Writer in Boston in the annual Channel Media Market and Research Poll for the past four years. He also writes a weekly sports media column for the Globe and contributes to Globe Magazine.
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