PHILADELPHIA — Jayson Tatum caught to his routine.
The Celtics star wasn’t on the courtroom moments earlier than Friday night time’s Game 3 right here at Wells Fargo Arena. Not even Joel Embiid’s MVP ceremony made him stray from his standard routine, when he goes to the again of the world after the ultimate pregame buzzer sounds and earlier than the nationwide anthem is performed.
“Nothing different today,” Tatum stated. “I could hear it. They had it on the TV and I saw it.”
The Celtics knew and anticipated what was coming Friday night time in Philadelphia. The 76ers hadn’t performed a house sport in nearly two weeks, they usually have been coming again with home-court benefit in a playoff collection towards a rival. That would sometimes be sufficient for his or her passionate fanbase to be juiced. Add Embiid’s MVP ceremony to the equation, and there was sufficient vitality to blow the roof off.
The cheers have been piercing and deafening. The ceremony was emotional.
It didn’t have an effect on the Celtics.
“They’ve been here before,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla stated.
“We were locked in,” Al Horford added. “We knew what we had to do.”
Tatum emerged from the again, and perhaps much more locked in than standard.
“It just really got me ready to play, right?” he stated. “You could feel the energy from the crowd and the building. … As a competitor you like being a part of games like that.”
The Celtics have been undeterred. They have been unfazed. They anticipated all of it. The ceremony, the gang, the 76ers utilizing that as gasoline for a response to their 34-point loss in Game 2. It didn’t matter. The C’s silenced the gang early, then shut them up for good with dagger after dagger late. They had each reply for the 76ers and their followers en path to a 114-102 victory as they retook management of this second-round collection.
“It was just about us doing our thing,” Horford stated. “We understood that when the ball went up it was time to go, time to play, and that’s what we did.”
It was Tatum who set the tone, and it made sense. He solely performed 19 minutes in Game 2 due to foul hassle, and he regarded contemporary to begin Game 3. He scored 10 factors inside the first 4 minutes – outsourcing his manufacturing in Game 2 – because the Celtics hit their first 5 photographs and took management early. And even when the Sixers punched again and took a lead, the Celtics all the time had a response prepared.
On an evening that the Sixers have been imagined to play with extra vitality, it was the Celtics who had the convincing edge in that class. They have been making all of the hustle performs, a number of from Marcus Smart, after all. Jaylen Brown led the cost as they have been locked in once more defensively and pissed off James Harden (3-for-14, 16 factors) for a second consecutive sport. Embiid scored 30 factors, however appeared to fade down the stretch.
“A team that’s more focused and has more attention to detail usually wins in any sport,” Brown stated. “So we wanted to make sure we came out and were locked in.”
Brown (27 factors) had one other large sport on each ends as he continued his spectacular postseason. He shook off a tricky offensive begin to lead the Celtics to a halftime lead, then stored the stress on. The Celtics efficiently attacked Embiid early within the third, which included Brown’s three-point play on him. They took a number of photographs from the Sixers however took a double-digit lead into the fourth quarter.
The Celtics led by as many as 13 early within the fourth quarter and staved off a number of Sixers rallies with clutch photographs. Grant Williams was inadvertently stepped on by Embiid, bloodied by the stomp, however got here proper again in. Boston continued to have a response for every thing, each time the Sixers and their crowd threatened to take over.
When De’Anthony Melton’s 3-pointer minimize the Celtics’ result in 97-92, Malcolm Brogdon answered with a triple from the left wing 17 seconds later. When Embiid made it a four-point sport with 3:51 left, Brogdon grabbed an offensive rebound and located Horford for his fifth 3-pointer, after which Tatum hit a tricky turnaround jumper.
When Harden made a 3 to chop it again to 6 with 2:05 left, Tatum responded by draining a step-back 3-pointer on the finish of the following shot clock. That sealed an enormous street win.
“We definitely had some timely shots and if those don’t go in, maybe the game is a little closer,” Brown stated. “But big players make big shots.”
Several Celtics, together with Mazzulla, spoke of the poise they displayed – particularly from Tatum – throughout crunch time, a interval that has gotten away from them at occasions, together with this postseason.
“It’s the playoffs,” Mazzulla stated. “We’re playing against a great team. And it goes back to just managing your expectations. What’s our expectation? It’s to win the game and to weather storms and to handle adversity. Every possession is a round and an opportunity. Our only expectation is to be winning at the end of the game. It doesn’t matter in between that.”
Friday night time – as an emotional ceremony, an electrical crowd and a hungry Sixers staff challenged these expectations – the Celtics handed an necessary take a look at. They have been undaunted in doing so.
“It’s not difficult really,” Brogdon stated. “We’re so locked in right now. We’re really connected, we’re competing at an extremely high level. We’re not really worried about anything else other than what we got in this locker room. We’re not letting anything distract us.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com