After a brief pause for the events of NBA all-star weekend, the Boston Celtics returned to the court on Thursday night in Philly. This signals the beginning of the second half of the regular season and is usually the point of the season were the real title contenders start to solidify playoff places. The Celtics faced the 76ers on one of the rare occasions that all of their big three were off of the injury list. However, it would not matter as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown returned from the Bay with a bang. Boston racked up a 48-point advantage from three-point land on their way to a resounding 124-104 victory.
Boston exerted their dominance from the opening tip, taking the lead after two minutes and remaining ahead for the entirety of the game. Payton Pritchard caught fire in the first half and his red-hot shooting was a huge advantage to his side. He began the game shooting 5/6 from deep and ended with eight makes from beyond the arc for the night. The Celtics terrific first quarter form continued scoring 36 in the first.
Another outstanding quarter of basketball from the defending champions saw them reach 70-points by half time. Jayson Tatum was the catalyst for this tremendous Celtics performance, he may not have scored the ball at a high rate, but he certainly did everything else at a near perfect level. He has rapidly become one of the best passing forwards in the NBA with his ability to accept and pass out of the double team to the benefit of his teammates. Luke Kornet in particular benefited from Tatum’s passing in the first half as he found him wide open at the rim twice with a couple of passes that sliced the sixers defence in half. With Boston performing at such a high level there were only three people who could keep this game from becoming a blowout – the refs – they shamelessly awarded Joel Embiid with trips to the line that amounted to nine of his fifteen points in the game. The Celtics lead by 16 at the break.
There would not be a repeat of the comeback like last time in Philadelphia as the Celtics kept their foot on the gas coming out of the half time break. They drove home their advantage through some excellent play by Jaylen Brown. I felt this was the best we have seen from Jaylen this year; he did a fantastic job at driving home his physical advantage against weaker defenders like Tyrese Maxey but also made a conscious effort to make the extra pass for his teammates – which led to six assists on the night.
Boston had the game rapped up with around seven minutes to play, which allowed them the opportunity to clear the bench. This meant a second appearance for Torey Craig in a Celtics uniform, and he had a couple of fantastic blocks and defensive plays. In the end the far superior side won as the Celtics picked up win number 40 for the season.
By Will C
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