76ers making adjustments after Game 1 loss to Celtics
Sixers have to answer Celtics’ opening dominance in Game 2
BOSTON » For the third consecutive game, Markelle Fultz did not leave the bench Monday. Get used to it? “He’s OK, but it’s my decision to go to T.J. (McConnell),” coach Brett Brown said. “And there are times that for sure you think about it. To say he’s dead and buried, that’s not true. But I have a decision to make and I’ve made a decision. That doesn’t mean it is etched in stone. It is always something you review and think about. And the care for Markelle Fultz and his future is always on my mind.”
Fultz, who played less than five minutes in Games 2 and 3, has not scored since Game 1 of the Miami series.
*** Amir Johnson started 77 times for the Celtics last season, another nine times in the playoffs, and often enough to help push Boston into the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals.
A year later, he is a deep backup big man for the Sixers, trying to ensure the Celtics don’t make it that far again.
At 31, and despite that contribution to a fine season, the Celtics set Johnson free. He signed with the Sixers for one year and $5.5 million, and was asked to provide a presence in the lane and in the locker room. There, and gone, so quickly. “No hard feelings,” Johnson said. “It’s how the business goes. So it’s not that I am bitter or anything.”
Johnson played 74 regular-season games and averaged 4.6 points and 4.5 rebounds for the Sixers, providing a veteran’s presence to a relatively young team. But when the Sixers’ look changed around the trade deadline, it cost him status in the rotation, with Ersan Ilyasova assuming some of his backupcenter minutes.
“I’m doing all right, doing all right,” Johnson said, before the series. “For me, I always have goals going into a season. And my main goal was to definitely be healthy. From then on, it was just going through the process of a season, up and down. And we are just playing great basketball right now. At the tail end of the season, we won 16 straight. And nobody has a big ego on this team. We are just playing good basketball.”
Johnson’s last start was in Game 1 of the Miami series while Joel Embiid was still recovering from an orbital fracture. In a 117-101 loss to the Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Monday, Johnson logged 4:59 and collected neither a point nor a rebound. Depending on Brown’s adjustments, that could change in Game 2, though not by much. So Johnson does what he can, including reminding his team of the challenges of playing in the TD Garden.
“It is going to be tough trying to get a win here,” he said. “We have two young teams that are going at each other and are very resilient. I think it’s going to be a good battle for us. We have to have a business sense, knowing that we have to get some wins here. And I think that’s our whole mindset.”
Soon enough, one team will emerge from the series. That means Johnson can be either a last-laugh carrier … or victim.
“No, not at all,” he said. “I am happy for the guys and what they are doing there. It is a different team, but they have young pieces who are playing well for them. And that is because of the coaching of Brad (Stevens). He knows how to adjust to anything that is thrown at him. He was able to adjust to the young team that he has.”
Johnson also has been able to adjust to a new team, and, late in the season, lessened responsibilities.
“It’s been an up and down season,” he said. “We have been winning. I’ll just do what works for
them.”
*** NOTES » Celtics forward Jaylen Brown, who was prevented by a hamstring injury from playing in Game 1 for Boston, told NBC Sports Boston, “I’ll be back, I’m playing,” in Game 2 . ... Joel Embiid played 34:04 Monday and had 31 points and 13 rebounds. But he was caught in some switches that left Celtics’ big men open. With that, there was the question: Was he seeing everything with that mask he has had to wear since his orbital bone surgery? “I’ve answered this question so many times,” Embiid said Tuesday. “It doesn’t matter if I like it. I have to wear it. So I’ve got to do it.”