Young Celtics win the day
BOSTON— Terry Rozier scored 29 points and first-year Celtics forward Jayson Tatum scored 28 to outplay redshirt rookie Ben Simmons and lead the Boston Celtics to a 117-101 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Monday night.
With much of the attention focused on Philadelphia young guns Simmons and Joel Embiid, Boston’s youth movement of Tatum and Rozier led the way. Rozier, in his third year, added eight rebounds and six assists, and Al Horford had 26 points and seven rebounds for Boston.
Embiid scored 31 points with 13 rebounds for Philadelphia. Simmons, the likely rookie of the year, scored 18 with seven boards and six assists.
Game 2 is Thursday night in Boston.
The Celtics are hoping to have guard Jaylen Brown back from a hamstring injury he sustained in the first-round series against Milwaukee. He was ruled out about a half hour before the tipoff.
Playing point guard in place of Kyrie Irving, Rozier had 10 points and six assists in the first quarter and was 7 for 9 from 3-point range overall, overshadowing the lottery picks added by Philadelphia during The Process.
The first overall pick in the 2016 draft who sat out all of last year with an injury, Simmons was heckled by the Boston crowd with chants of “Not a rookie!” In the fourth quarter, as Tatum stepped to the free throw line to protect a doubledigit lead, the chant turned to “He’s a rookie!”
Tatum was Boston’s first pick last year — third overall — after swapping the No. 1 pick to the Sixers and grabbing a 2018 firstrounder as well. Philadelphia picked Markelle Fultz; he did not play on Monday night.
With six days off since eliminating Miami, the Sixers missed 15 of their first 20 shots.