An early wasted chance to catch Celtics at right time
90 minutes, Brad Stevens would have to coach more than just a game. He would have to solve the NBA’s most pressing recent mystery. At that point Monday, the next-to-last thing on the mind of the Boston Celtics’ coach was what had happened in the past. The last thing was what might happen in coming years.
Those were the 76ers he was about to try to solve, winners of 20 of their last 21, usually with A-list-celebrity panache. And he was going to do so with a team down two starters, three if it would include his highest-paid player, BOSTON » In the one who broke his leg five minutes into the season.
So, he would table the discussion, even if it was relevant. He would dismiss the notion that it would likely not be the last time the Celtics’ young core and the Sixers’ young core would play in the spring for high pro-basketball stakes.
“One of the things I’ve learned in sports is that you never take anything for granted,” Stevens said. “So you could say that with our roster and with their roster, our paths may cross again. But you better take care of the opportunity that you have. And I’m just thinking about how to play tonight.”
The one-game-at-atime tune is standard sports postseason karaoke. So Stevens performed it well, and in every sense. First, he rejected the idea that this Sixers-Celtics series could be the first of plenty. Then he concocted a defense able to slow the Sixers down, to force them into too many tough shots, and to fuel a roaring crowd by winning the early momentum. With that, the Celtics would win Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, 117-101, and would thrust the Sixers into an uncomfortable reality.
Simply, if they don’t eliminate the Celtics this time, they may have to wait a while.
Though the Sixers’ process was designed to flourish later, and more, to addict customers with the sedative of believing that there would always be something better, they knew they had stumbled this season into unusually fortunate circumstances. That’s part of the process, too, to be ready when the opportunity hits. And with a roster that can provide matchup trauma for opposing coaches, they were, and they remain, capable of fitting Embiid with one of those Jason Kelce tam-o’shanters.
The issue after Game 1 is that they were incapable of taking early control of a series on a night when the Celtics were without starter Jaylen Brown, who had a hamstring issue. And since superstar Kyrie Irving and $29 million free agent forward Gordon Hayward were also out, it was a jarring reminder that the Sixers still must find a way past Boston in the rebuilding race.
Brett Brown, who grew up in Maine, played basketball at Boston University and often attended Celtics-Sixers games as a fan. He has long acknowledged that circumstances still demand that one franchise is measured by the other. With both having enough young players to expect continued growth, there has been a rampaging assumption that the two operations will be regular playoff opponents.
“I think so,” Ben Simmons said. “I hope so.”
Brown, though, was careful not to consider that an entitlement.
“You know, I think all of us would be curious about what is going on in the East,” he said. “But you still have LeBron (James) in the East. You still have a strong Toronto program, and I think Coach (Dwane) Casey has done a great job of growing that. But I hear the question. And I personally grew up with this rivalry, and it was a big part of my basketball life as a young kid, and it sure seems that both programs are going in the right direction to give that a chance.”
Before the game, Simmons, just off a trainer’s table muscle-loosening, sat in front of his locker relaxed, and borrowed Jeffrey Lurie’s favorite plural noun: Championships. A rookie, and a classic one, he had been conditioned to feel that the Sixers were so capable. But opportunities don’t always happen more than once, so the Sixers would be smart not to waste one at a time when the Celtics are so less than whole.
“Whatever opportunities I get at this,” Simmons said, “as long as I go out and play as hard as I can and do what I can for my team, for me, that’s just the way I play.”
The Sixers do play hard, and they have won 20 of their last 22, and they did answer that rust-vs.-rest riddle in Game 1. They were not at their best after nearly a week without a game, and it particularly showed around the three-point arc.
If they win Thursday, they will be about where they should be after two games.
If they don’t, it won’t be a mystery why they could regret it for years.