Philadelphia 76ers: 3 frustrating factors from Game 1 loss to Boston Celtics

The owners of the best match in his career he played Terry Roser – changer Kyrie Irving scored 29 points and converted 7 of 9 three-pointers.

Boston, who advanced to the semi-finals after a grueling seven-game series win over Milwaukee, have regrouped superbly after a slew of injuries, which means they are without stars Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward. Joel Embiid led the team with 31 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, JJ Redick added 20 points while Ben Simmons racked up 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists. How about the Sixers’ bench, one of the most prolific in the postseason with an average of 35.6 points in the first round, grounded with just 17 points in Game 1?

The Philadelphia 76ers entered last night’s game against the injury-riddled Boston Celtics as heavy favorites to win the series. Marco Belinelli wasn’t too bad as he finished with 11 points, but the team needs him to lift with Robert Covington’s shooting struggles continuing. Part of that was a result of unsustainably hot Celtics shooting, but Philadelphia helped them out with uncharacteristically sloppy defense coupled with an incoherent game plan at that end of the floor.

Despite Philadelphia’s rookie playmaker finishing with a decent line of 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists, he wasn’t almost as effective as he’s usually been.

“I think our fans are louder than that”, Embiid said.

Tatum was Boston’s first pick past year – third over all – after the team swapped the No. 1 pick to the Sixers and grabbed a 2018 first-rounder as well.

So many things went wrong for the Sixers. Hopefully, the Sixers can spend the next few days learning from their mistakes in Game 1 before Thursday rolls around.

It was Rozier who accidentally referred to Bucks’ guard Eric Bledsoe as Drew Bledsoe after Game 1, causing Bledsoe to say “I don’t know who the (expletive) Rozier is” after Game 2. “And it’s great to see for our team”.

It was an unlikely moment, and one Philadelphia coach Brett Brown would probably point to as evidence that his players simply didn’t meet their usual standards. It sure felt like we were playing a good team today. Boston also limited its turnovers to just 10, and the usually stout Embiid didn’t have a single block in the loss. The Celtics lead the series 1-0.

“I hope so”, Brown said.

Smart’s thumb took a pretty hard shot before halftime, but he said it’s “all good now” with “no soreness”.