Brown goes down, C’s don’t stumble
Shorthanded Boston shows fight in win
Already down three of their starters to begin the game, the Celtics were thrown another wrench at halftime.
Jaylen Brown collided with an errant elbow from Jayson Tatum, and was knocked out of the game, a brutal blow against Joel Embiid and the surging 76ers.
But these Celtics seem focused on heading into the All-Star break on a high note. Not even losing nearly their entire starting lineup deterred them.
As shorthanded as they’ve been all season, the Celtics survived. Tatum only scored 12 points, but on the eve of the trade deadline, Boston’s depth showed itself again as one of the biggest reasons why they’re firmly atop the Eastern Conference. Behind their hottest outside shooting night of the season, the Celtics held off the Sixers with a 106-99 victory at TD Garden.
The Celtics, though, might be without one of their All-Stars for a chunk of time.
Brown was knocked out of the game with 1:27 left in the first half, when he and Tatum went up simultaneously for an offensive rebound on the baseline. Tatum inadvertently elbowed Brown in the face, sending Brown to the floor for several moments before he got up immediately headed straight to the locker room holding his face. Brown was ruled out at halftime with a facial contusion.
Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla said he tried calling Brown after the game but he didn’t answer. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Brown suffered a facial fracture and could be sidelined through the All-Star break.
“He was quiet. He was in a lot of pain,” said Malcolm Brogdon. “Just told him to feel better. There’s nothing I think we can do for him. But he was in a lot of pain when he left, so we’ll pray for him.”
The Celtics, for at least one night, persevered without him.
The C’s shot 54.3% from 3-point range, their best mark of the season to fuel this win. Blake Griffin made five triples, and Sam Hauser and Grant Williams each hit four. Brogdon and Derrick White both scored 19 points, and that was even more important in the face of absences and a slow scoring night from Tatum, who shot 5-for-15 from the floor and was mostly a non-factor in the fourth quarter. But he still made an impact with nine assists, which Brogdon thought was critical.
“I thought everybody who touched the floor tonight played well. It’s really that simple,” Brogdon said. “I thought J.T. honestly had an extremely well-rounded game. Super unselfish. If he wasn’t as unselfish as he was, everybody couldn’t have contributed the way they did, and we wouldn’t have won the game.
“To have a superstar, an MVP candidate be that unselfish, not that worried about his points, especially an ESPN game against Joel Embiid. There’s a lot on the line, a lot going on. If he was selfish, he could have got his 40 points, but he wants to win. My hat goes off to him, especially.”
In addition to the continued absence of Marcus Smart, the C’s were missing starting big men Al Horford and Robert Williams — a tall task against Embiid. But with the likes of Griffin, Grant Williams and Luke Kornet, they limited the Sixers star to 28 points, with only 14 coming after the first quarter.
After the undermanned Celtics led at halftime, the
Sixers fought back to tie the game at 64 on James Harden’s layup. But the C’s responded with continued hot shooting from their unlikely source. Griffin knocked down two more 3-pointers wrapped around a Tatum dunk to complete an 8-0 C’s run.
The Celtics stayed in front behind their hot shooting. The Sixers cut it to one on Embiid’s layup with 1:21 left in the period but the C’s regained their cushion with triples from Hauser and White to give them a seven-point lead entering the fourth.
Then, without Tatum, the
Celtics’ second unit continued to survive. They led by seven with 8:30 remaining when White ignited a huge sequence, chasing down Tobias Harris for an absurd block before Hauser drained a corner 3 the other way to give the C’s a 10-point lead. They led by 11 after Brogdon’s three-point play before getting sloppy on offense. Tatum missed a pair of 3s and Brogdon committed a turnover, opening the door for a Sixers run. They cut it to three when Harden made one of two free throws after a questionable foul call on Brogdon.
But the C’s had answers.
With a half-second remaining on the shot clock, White found Luke Kornet for an alley-oop and White hit a 3-pointer to restore the lead to six with 2:09 to go, and they didn’t look back.
Their depth, once again, withstood a huge test.
“Depth is what people talk about in the playoffs,” Brogdon said. “The deepest team is going to win. I think we go, 8-9 deep, like starters type level of depth. On nights like tonight, that’s what we really can prove how deep we are, how good our team is, how well-rounded we are, and we did.”