Forsberg: Three non-Tatum Celtics who left their mark on the Sixers series originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
BOSTON — Jayson Tatum will dominate the headlines in the aftermath of the Boston Celtics’ Game 7 shellacking of the Philadelphia 76er. And rightfully so.
Tatum put the Celtics on his back over the final five quarters of a conference semifinal series with the Philadelphia 76ers and rallied them out of a 3-2 hole. Tatum generated a staggering 67 points on 21-of-36 shooting with 10 3-pointers. Tatum was +44 over 44 minutes of total floor time in that stretch.
Tatum deserves every drop of ink he receives today. He produced the loudest Game 7 in NBA history. Twice in four quarters he singlehandedly outscored the Sixers, this after erupting for 17 third-quarter points Sunday while the Celtics ran away with Game 7.
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“JT just got it going and then, get out of that man’s way,” said All-NBA running mate Jaylen Brown. “Just got it rolling, and there’s nothing they could do to stop (him).”
But one player alone cannot win you a series. The Celtics needed each of their core players to lift them at one point or another. Highlighting some of the below radar impacts from a longer-than-expected series:
Horford perpetually boxed out Father Time
Four years ago, the Philadelphia 76ers gave Al Horford a four-year, $109 million contract to buy the so-called “Joel Embiid stopper” from Boston. After just one forgettable season in which Horford took heat for Philadelphia’s underperformance, the team dumped him to Oklahoma City.
Fast forward to 2023 and Embiid is the league MVP, but Horford may still be the best in the league at slowing him down. Horford spent Sunday trying to muscle Embiid away from the basket and making his life difficult with every touch.
The NBA’s matchup tracking data suggests Horford was the primary defender on roughly half of his total finished possessions in the series. Embiid got his fair share of buckets, but Horford really embraced the challenge of defending him, especially over the final eight quarters as Boston rallied to advance.
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Al Horford saw a majority of the minutes as Joel Embiid’s primary defender and put the clamps on the NBA MVP.
Just look at some of Horford’s handiwork against Embiid on Sunday:
“Just try to make everything as difficult as I could,” said Horford. “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.”
Horford credited his teammates for their help in corralling Embiid, and some well-timed double teams (the end of Game 4 notwithstanding) helped create 26 turnovers. But the Celtics don’t have a chance in this series if Horford doesn’t turn back the clock and make Embiid really work for his offense.
Mazzulla pushed the right buttons
Joe Mazzulla got off to a bumpy start in this series. He took the blame for his team’s lack of focus while kicking away Game 1 and eventually admitted he erred in not calling timeout to steady his team as they gave away Game 4 in Philadelphia.
For much of the series, the buzz was that Doc Rivers, with his abundance of postseason experience, was running circles around the rookie Mazzulla.
Jayson Tatum’s epic Game 7 performance started with a mindset shift
But Mazzulla made some key changes late in the series that helped Boston steady itself. That included:
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Going big: With Boston’s season on the brink, Mazzulla elected to revert to last year’s double-big lineup with Horford and Robert Williams III in the frontcourt. It provided a much-needed energy jolt for a Celtics team left shell-shocked by Philly’s Game 5 beatdown at the Garden. Horford in particular seemed energized by the move and the presence of Williams III allowed Horford to really lock in defensively against Embiid over the final eight quarters.
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Leaning on the core: When Embiid returned to action in Game 2, it opened a door for Grant Williams to jump back into the rotation. But Williams struggled in Game 5 and Mazzulla ultimately elected to lean fully into Boston’s top seven players over the final two matchups. Much like the starting lineup decision, Mazzulla seemingly reasoned that his team’s best chance to keep the season alive was to lean on the players most responsible for this year’s successes.
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Bottling up Harden to win chess match: All three of Philadelphia’s wins in this series could be traced back to James Harden. After the Beard’s Game 1 outburst, the Celtics deployed Brown and had him attached at the hip while taking Games 2 and 3. The Sixers eventually stopped having Harden bring the ball up the court and found more ways to get him involved in pick-and- roll actions with Embiid. Their reward was a 42-point outburst that included the game-winner in Game 4 and a free-throw heavy night that helped Philly in winning Game 5. But some defensive tweaks bottled up Harden over the final two games, as he shot just 7 -of-27, and 1-of-11 on 3-pointers, in Games 6 and 7.
Stepping up big time (Lord)
Shuffling Williams III to the starting lineup might have helped Boston save its season, but Time Lord was impactful throughout the series.
In his 148 minutes of floor time, the Celtics had a team-best net rating of +19.4 (next closest: Malcolm Brogdon, +13.6). That included a defensive rating of just 101.4, which was 6.5 points better than Boston’s series average. In fact, Boston’s defensive rating spiked to 109.8 in the 193 minutes that Williams III was off the court.
After shuffling Williams III to the starting lineup, the Celtics posted a +30.2 net rating with a defensive mark of 85.2 over the final two games of the series.
Overall in the Philly series, opponents shot 39.5 percent when Williams III was the primary defender, or a staggering 8.3 percent below expected output.