PLAYOFFS 2023 POST GAME PHILLY 76'ERS GAME 4 - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: James Harden Sparks 76ers Past Boston In OT To Even Series
The Celtics couldn't close out their comeback

NESN by Greg Dudek

The Philadelphia 76ers got the bounce-back win they desperately needed in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, but needed overtime to obtain it in, pulling out a 116-115 victory over the Boston Celtics at Wells Fargo Center.

The 76ers even up the best-of-seven series at 2-2.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Even after dominating in the first half and opening up a 15-point lead in in the second half, the 76ers never felt comfortably in control as they left the door open for a Celtics comeback.

The Celtics barged through that opening midway through the fourth quarter and had leads at the end of regulation and in overtime, but they couldn’t close things out. They overtook the 76ers in the fourth quarter, had the final shot of regulation and held a lead with less than 30 seconds left in the extra frame.

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But it still wasn’t enough. The Celtics also nearly stole a win when Marcus Smart drilled a 3-pointer as time expired in overtime. But the Celtics paid the price for taking too long to get into their final set as Smart just barely didn’t get the shot off in time. And many will question Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla for not calling a timeout in that situation and keeping them in his pocket.

Instead of a thrilling victory and taking a stranglehold on the series, the Celtics are now in second-guess mode by not closing out their comeback.

STARS OF THE GAME
— James Harden shook off back-to-back rough games — he shot a combined 5-for-28 in two straight Philadelphia loss — with a game-changing performance. The 10-time All-Star guard poured in a game-high 42 points, including hitting the game-winning 3-pointer from the corner with 19 seconds left, on 16-for-23 shooting. He also dished out nine assists and grabbing eight rebounds.

— Joel Embiid gave the Celtics plenty of issues once again. The NBA MVP posted a double-double of 34 points and 13 rebounds as he was aided by a 12-for-15 showing at the free-throw line. It’s his second straight game of at least 30 points.

— Jayson Tatum got off to an incredibly slow start, but was key to Boston’s comeback. He scored 22 of his 24 points after halftime while totaling an eye-popping 18 rebounds. He also registered six assists and four blocks.

WAGER WATCH
Malcolm Brogdon continues to be the catalyst for the Celtics off the bench. FanDuel Sportsbook set Brogdon’s over/under for total points at 14.5 with -106 odds on the Over. Brogdon finished with 19 points as a $100 wager on this pro bet would have netted a total of $194.34.

UP NEXT
The Celtics and 76ers face off in a pivotal Game 5 on Tuesday night at TD Garden. Tip off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

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Now it is the best 2 out of 3.

Big credit to Tatum for doing multiple things in an off night shooting. Rebounding, blocking shots, and trying to draw fouls!

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This is the worst Celtic team I’ve ever seen in the clutch. Complete disgrace, the pathetic shots and execution with NO timeouts in 4th and OT. The coach has no plays at all, Doc got key baskets after every time out down the stretch; how ugly were the no time out plays, no strategy, no nothing. Jaylen took 3 shots in 4th and OT combined. We should be up 3-1, could have swept them with proper coaching. Should have won despite Tatum ice cold in 1st half.

What a mistake hiring dumba$$ Joe as our head coach, no time outs twice…???? Aimless offense, no one knew what to do, pathetic. I wish we could make a coaching change. I don’t care if he’s a nice guy, he blows games that are playoff games and the way we do it is so unbecoming of this franchise. Fire his a$$ please!!!

So close, so very close.  Up two we swarmed Embiid and left Harden alone in the corner for the most valuable shot in basketball and we ended up losing by that one additional point his shot gave them.  A mental breakdown.  Having said all that I would be feeling happy but VERY uneasy if I was a Sixer fan (of course, if I was a Sixer fan I would have drained a bottle of Drano years ago).  This was a must win game for them, at home.  They were up 15 points and barely survived OT.  From our perspective, bigger picture, Embiid played 46 minutes and Lard-en played 47 out of a total of 53.

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 27 minutes ago
Not getting a final shot off on last play will get all the attention after that loss but Jaylen Brown helping off Harden from strong side to double-team Embiid while up 2 on the game-winner was a very bad choice.

Tatum was 1-9 for 2 points at the half.  He had 9 rebounds and 2 blocks, but his shooting was killing us.  He ended up 9-20, 24 points, so a 8-11 22 point 2nd half + OT.  He put us in the hole and then he pulled us out of it.  He ended up with 18 rebounds, 4 offensive and 6 assists and only 2 turnovers.  4 blocks.  4.  In the end that's a superstar's boxscore.  24/18/6/4 is a boxscore Larry would be proud of (especially the 4 blocks).  He had an obvious push off on Maxey for our final go-ahead 3 but Harden and Embiid have been doing them all series.  Embiid was positively bulldozing people out there.

Jaylen scored 10 of our first 12 points and then sorta disappeared.  He scored 3 points in the 4th and OT.  I realize he had his hands full guarding Harden but Harden had trouble guarding him too in the first quarter.  I'm not running Jaylen down, but he put a lot of pressure on his teammates by becoming passive later in the game.

Al was unbelievable.  Only 3-9 from the field but 5 blocks, at least 3 on Embiid one-on-one.  He was unbelievable.  Sixer fans loathe Al, so this is going to give them dyspepsia.

Malcolm with 19.  A great game and he guarded Harden a lot too.  We threw everybody at Lard-en at one time or another, he got no shortage of different looks.

Fritos were 16-22 for us vs 19-22 for them.  RWill 2-4 and Tatum 5-7.  We hit our fritos and we win.  Hell, if RWill hits 3-4 and Tatum hits 6-7 we win.  Tatum is almost an 86% frito shooter, so 6-7 isn't asking for more than he normally does.  RWill?
He's a 61% frito shooter.  We missed 6 fritos and there's 4 of them.  Embiid with 15 of their 22.

Harden with 42, Embiid with 34.  That's 76 points for the 76er's duo out of their total of 116.  They're not going to keep doing this.  

RWill barely showed up.  4 points, 4 rebounds and a block in 14 minutes.


Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
3 minutes ago
Al Horford said the Celtics have been going into the final play without calling timeout all year, so he thought it was the right call by Joe Mazzulla.

Just because that's how it's been doesn't mean that's how it should be now.  This is the playoffs, every game is precious now.  We should not be doing the "learn to figure this out" thing now.

Jay King @ByJayKing
about 22 minutes ago
Joe Mazzulla on the final possession: “We just had to play with a little more pace there.”

Joe, call a time out.  You can still call that play but by calling the time out you get to inbound the ball at half court, which maximizes our time.  It's ridiculous we couldn't get a shot off with 19 seconds left on the clock after Harden's 3.  Saving seconds by not burning clock bringing the ball up would give Smart that extra second or two and the shot would have counted.  Ok, I'm done with this, at least here.  I'll be stewing about it offline the rest of tonight but I won't burden all of you with it.


On the positive side we outran them 22-9 and out blocked them 12-3.  However they had 9 steals to our 3 and steals are live turnovers.  


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401545114




Bob


.

See Magic Johnson’s tweet…

The reports of James Harden’s demise were greatly exaggerated.

He even played some defense.

I will not point any fingers for this game. Great fight.

It is unfortunate that the Celts have lost 3 games in playoffs on clutch 3s. Hoping that the law of averages now tilts things in our favor.

This team is 0-3 in one point games and 4-8 in OT games.

Barkley had a really good comment…On a team with 2 players like Tatum and Brown, wouldn’t you want them to take the last shot? With all due respect to Marcus Smart, is this the best you can come up with? We didn’t learn anything from game 7 in Miami last year when they left Smart open in 4th and he bricked every jumper over and over, blowing the lead back then….if Jimmy Butler

Do J’s not have the stamina or balls to do it in the clutch? They should have simple end of game plays where one J is primary option and if the play gets bogged down, go to the other J immediately. We had 18 seconds left, 2 time outs and blew it.

Game 1 we had the lead and threw it away with seconds left, how do you blow games like this? I don’t get it

Post Game Pouting:

Me thinks everyone here is convinced that the only way we lose a game or heaven forbid a series to the 6ers or anyone else is if we beat our own a$$.
It happened in game 1 and it happened again on Sunday.

We didn’t play very well for the better part of this game but we hung in there and almost pulled it off.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here when I say Philly cannot and will not beat us. They ain’t good enough, but we can.

-Extending the game:

Let me get Coach Joe out of the way.
Agree or disagree, we are all fans of the coach but If you’re an unremitting fan of Joe’s and are wearing blindfolds, you might want to keep them in place or just keep scrolling.

Joe not calling time out during that last possession is appalling.

There were :19 seconds left on the clock and we still had 2 timeouts left.

Think about it. If he calls a time out after the Harden 3 we take the ball out at half court. 19 seconds and we possibly get a good look and maybe 2 attempts to go ahead and win the damn game.

Worst case scenario, we miss and have to foul right away. The 76ers make 2 free throws. We are down by 3. 2nd time out. Ball at half court and still can possibly tie the game.

So instead of extending the game with a time out, Joe says go and we tick off pressure seconds even before we get to half court and the end result is what it was.

A last minute prayer that didn’t count. We didn’t need a 3 being down one ya know.
Extend the game Joe by using your timeouts wisely. Bad decision on his part. Just plain bad.

Our beloveds worked their tails off, escalating the D to get back into this game and take the lead only to be stifled at the end by our head coach. No sense in playing nice here he blew what was up until then a well coached game.

Someone please prove my theory wrong. To me it’s common sense but it’s mine and maybe yours is more common. If so, I’m all ears.

A few more noticeable’s:

-Al Horford was a beast out there. Amazing.
He gave us 37 minutes and had his very own block party. He then went completely old school with an Antoine shimmy.
I usually despise that kind of stuff but today was different because I would never expect that out of Al. As a matter of fact, do it again Al!

-Smart was wicked psycho knocking down 3’s and taking that all important charge near the end that could’ve seen his head severed off and headed for the cheap seats upstairs.

-Brown was vicious until he wasn’t because for some reason they forget about him in 4th quarters and he’d like to forget that he left Harden in the corner all by his lonesome. Bang! Still gave us 23.

-Brogdan brought it again but for some reason wasn’t on the floor in the last few minutes. 19pts

-Grant was nearly a victim of a double header after getting his face smashed the other day. This time instead of smashed he was bashed and his only saving grace was that his melon ended up being planted on the ball. Too close for comfort.

-Tatum = The tale of 2 quarters. Jason, Fitty cents ain’t gonna get it done. We need 4 quarters. Gotta do better your boys and the entirety of New England is depending on it.
Jason, you led us in scoring tonight but Please, no more expectation violations.

-Raise your hand if you believe that Jelly Roll James will morph back into Jelly Belly James come game 5.

C;s will win in 6 so loss #2 was imperative. No worries.

Post Game Pettiness:

-When Doris Burke opens her pie hole she sounds like she’s reading a bed time story.

-Mark Jones who I praised last game appears afraid to disagree with Doris so he often changes his opinion to appear that he agrees with her.
They must be married.

-To 76 year old Anthony Leon “PJ” Tucker:
Tuck, please don’t bother showing up next game and instead stay at the nursing home where it’s Tuesday Double Jello Night.
Besides the fake tough guy in your face motivation antics are a waste of time. Nobodies listening.

-George Niang: Charles River. Jump in.

Ya ktron

Also if had the time out with the possession at half court, also when running the play, if it blows up and need another time out to run another play with 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 seconds left you can do that too. What you can’t do we just did, total collapse. We should have swept them, they didn’t win IMHO, we blew it and gave it to them. We had 2 GD time outs!!!!

Folks, the coach made a call. At the end of regulation what could have been a cleaner look than what Marcus got?

At the end of OT, the shot was made but was late. A TO would have allowed them to send in all defensive minded players. Perhaps the shot would be harder and would not go in?

We could smell it and it slipped away. Would have been a heck of a win.

I don’t know how much NBA you’ve been watching, but the best players take the last shot. Can’t have it both ways, you want all NBA status, do what Hondo, Larry, Magic, Jordan, Kobe, Pierce, Kawhi did, take the last shot. We have 2 stars afraid to take it, or bad coaching if he can’t figure out how to get his stars to carry the team in crunch time. So either our guys aren’t really that good or they’re scared of the moment or the coach sucks. Marcus Smart should not be taking 3’s everytime, especially when it’s a one point game.

Guys and Gal, I come here to be an honest broker (which means I'm most probably as full of it as anyone else - but, 'I'm doing it my way') ... First, don't you already know why Jaylen doesn't demand the ball at the end of the game? Well, I don't know exactly why either - could it be the scheme of the coach? JT and Smart hog the ball and play a two man game? is Jaylen intimated by the moment?  But I do know he misses a lot of foul shots late in the game; that's his track record. If you were the other team's coach would you foul Jaylen on purpose to put him on the line with the game on the line and your team up by two? As to coach Mazzulla not calling a time out in OT - malpractice! First, if his keep it going no TO strategy is such a great idea how come no other coach has copied it and more importantly why has it never been popular before in the NBA. Does coach Mazzulla think he's the first coach who ever thought this was a good idea, or is he just the first one who has tried it and stubbornly stuck with it through thick and thin and in all instances? It doesn't work because it doesn't work and I have to assume hundreds if not thousands of basketball coaches in the history of the sport have tried it and moved on because of the data/evidence, etc. A tip to coach Mazzulla, it's called evolution, Darwin, look it up; the right adaptations are the ones that work for survival and the wrong ones are the ones that fail for survival. Brad I'm hoping must be sick of this. Lastly, I defended Mazzulla in the past because the NBA is a player's league and baring malpractice by the coach, they essentially don't matter. And I'm not a fan of mob mentality, even at the level of a team rooting website and I did see him getting blamed for player failure. But, in my opinion, he did materially hurt the team's chances of winning last night by not calling the overtime TO as his brethren in basketball history have done basically for the history of the sport.

Do not blame Smart, HE SANK THE LAST SHOT! Problem, they got the ball to him on the weak side too late.

If you want to blame anyone, blame Tatum. 0 points is the first 24 minutes and 1-6 from the 3 arc.  I however thought he turned a lemon shooting night into lemonade by scoring 24 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and had 4 blocked shots.

Bottom line, the Celtics do not know how to close out a game.

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Appropriate this game was on ABC/ESPN. Back in the day Saturday afternoon show ABC's Wide World Of Sports became known for it's intro/play-in overdub to the show with the skier careening off the long jump. I changed it over the years to "The thrill of agony and the victory of defeat!" That's what yesterday's game was for us and the team.

I'm not too worried. PHI had to go all-in and have their two superstars go absolutely batshit crazy in OT to beat us. Let's face it...they were lucky. But now we've used up two brain farts leaving only one more with 3 games left potentially.

We played the right way. In the end, this recent league fascination with two stars both going off exponentially will return to the norm of team basketball and they will be watching the next rounds from home. What it does is it leaves the other 3 standing around getting cold. It also opens them up to what we see with Tatum having off nights. Your stars can't and won't play like that enough to win 4 games in a series. Just ain't gonna happen.

So PHX and PHI enjoy the victory. We had a chance to win and missed it by a half a second. We'll be fine. Make no mistake, it was a punch in the gut. But again, we didn't have to win. Next game? Yeah, we have to win. That's all we can ask is to be in a position to win on the road.

You wanted melodrama? This team LOVES it. It kills fans like us. Not like past championship Celtic teams although I keep referring to the 2008 team's first two rounds. Each went 7 games with all home game wins if I'm not mistaken. That could be perceived as melodramatic in its own right.

Let's hope this team does not make the ultimate melodramatic move and blow G5 tomorrow setting up 2 must wins, but don't sweep that under the rug just yet.

I was throwing up by the end with Harden playing out of his brain and then rolling the kid in the wheelchair out on the court from the shooting. Would they have done that and showed all that had Marcus gotten that shot off just a half second earlier? I don't think so, Tim. PHI must be taking notes from us on the melodrama. Again, press playing PHI on both sides as the media wins either way.

Boston let one get away vs. ATL, then they came back and took care of business. Time to dig deep and do it again. We'll need Joe's calmness and team's focus but I saw what I needed to see. We have turned the corner.

BTW, my son is 4-0 on order of this series. Now the fun part...

db

One more thing about Joe's deciding to not call a time out at the end (notice: I didn't say "his failure to call a time out". Oh, I just did) but he thought we should have "played with more pace." Uh, Joe, you do know this was the end of an overtime game where you core players of the Js and Smart all had already played over 40 minutes each, right? There's this thing called "fatigue" and, as HOF Coach Vince Lombardi once said it "makes cowards of us all". Let the boys sit for a minute, catch their breaths, gather their thoughts. It was a network game and you know network would use that time out to do a commercial, maybe two.

As I said, the silver linings here are:

1. Embiid, Harden, Harris and Maxey all played 40+ minutes each. Embiid's knee is sub 100%, Harris is almost 31, Harden's almost 34.

2. Their performance wasn't impressive given this was a must win game. They had a 15 point lead and lost it.


The storm clouds are:

1. We're making mental mistakes in crunch time.

2. We have a rookie coach, and it's becoming obvious.


Bob


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The Celtics fought hard yesterday and turned the game into yet another OT opportunity for a great comeback and win.

Unfortunately closing the deal was not in the cards yesterday afternoon.

Throughout the entire game, I felt like the Celtics could pull off a win.

Most of the comments that I have read here on this forum and other places points to the decision of CJ not to call timeouts in the 4th QTR with the score knotted at 107-107 after a Harden make and again in OT after Harden put the Sixers up by 1.

Marcus Smart had a heck of a game.  He helped to put the team in a position to win.  He played the part of the set up guy and did his job well but then he  morphed into a want to be closer.  He is no closer.  Never has been and never will be.  

Marcus took the last shot (a missed 3 pointer with the clock winding down in regulation)  And followed that up with another (too late) 3 point attempt in OT.  Marcus ended up going 4-10 from deep.  His last attempt was not a legal shot because the shot clock expired.  That shot will never be recorded as a shot attempt.  If he took the shot fractions of a second sooner he is the hero.  

The closing plays were just plain awful because Marcus ended up being the only guy to take the last shot attempts.  

Why did we see a heavy dose of a two man game between Marcus and JT?  I don't get it.  JB was not a part of the offense.

JB was our most efficient scorer in the game 10/16  or 63% and he also hit 3 of 8 from deep.  He does not get a touch.  Nothing...

So guess what?   I blame our coach for this.  How the hell do you allow one of your two allstar players not to be involved down the stretch in two close out situations?

No timeouts to set things up?  I blame the coach for this.  That is his job.  

Horford said...Well did you expect him to say that CJ should have called a timeout or two?

CJ, your team fought back like warriors and your job was to put them in a position to win the game.  You failed to do that.  You failed to do your job.  

The Celtics are a very talented team and maybe they can drag SIASJ across the finish line.  But don't count on that to happen.  All of the great talent on this team needs to be coached and coached well.

prakash wrote:Folks, the coach made a call.  At the end of regulation what could have been a cleaner look than what Marcus got?

At the end of OT, the shot was made but was late.  A TO would have allowed them to send in all defensive minded players.  Perhaps the shot would be harder and would not go in?

We could smell it and it slipped away.  Would have been a heck of a win.

Marcus got a clean look but it wasn't during the game.
The game was over before he hoisted it.
It’s the same as if he hits that shot this morning. Doesn't count.
Agree, nice clean look and it probably would have counted if we hadn’t wasted a second or 3 getting the ball past half court. That is why that time out was vital at that point.

Also, why worry about the Sixers
Putting their best defenders in.
We won 2 games playing against their best defenders. Could have been 3. We also have prolific scores on our side.

So frustrating not to get the W.

I love Jaylen, but his decision to double Embiid was brutal. Your up 2, worst case is a tie with a last shot opportunity. I appreciate the fact he took responsibility for the mistake.

I don’t have a big problem with the last possessions. Obviously, you want JT or JB taking the shot but they are going to take the ball out of their hands. Marcus a clean look on both shots. It just didn’t fall.

Bottom line is we have outplayed them and have 2 of the next 3 three games at home. If we can’t beat them , then we didn’t deserve to move on.

bobheckler wrote:One more thing about Joe's deciding to not call a time out at the end (notice:  I didn't say "his failure to call a time out".  Oh, I just did) but he thought we should have "played with more pace."  Uh, Joe, you do know this was the end of an overtime game where you core players of the Js and Smart all had already played over 40 minutes each, right?  There's this thing called "fatigue" and, as HOF Coach Vince Lombardi once said it "makes cowards of us all".  Let the boys sit for a minute, catch their breaths, gather their thoughts.  It was a network game and you know network would use that time out to do a commercial, maybe two.

As I said, the silver linings here are:

1.  Embiid, Harden, Harris and Maxey all played 40+ minutes each.  Embiid's knee is sub 100%, Harris is almost 31, Harden's almost 34.

2.  Their performance wasn't impressive given this was a must win game.  They had a 15 point lead and lost it.


The storm clouds are:

1.  We're making mental mistakes in crunch time.

2.  We have a rookie coach, and it's becoming obvious.


Bob


.

We have a great deep team, but are terrible and have been all year at closing out games. It’s obvious to me the coach, while he has done some very good things is in way over his head at end of game situations. Ofcourse his team could use a breather at that moment to get a better burst of energy and know all the intricacies of what to execute. This coach needs an offensive coordinator or something like that because our guys aren’t smart enough to execute what needs to be done and again do we want Smart taking the last shot when we have 2 all NBA players that should take it upon themselves to get it done? Coach has major flaws in this area.

prakash wrote:Folks, the coach made a call.  At the end of regulation what could have been a cleaner look than what Marcus got?

At the end of OT, the shot was made but was late.  A TO would have allowed them to send in all defensive minded players.  Perhaps the shot would be harder and would not go in?

We could smell it and it slipped away.  Would have been a heck of a win.

Yes, agree that the coach made a call. Also agree that the end of regulation time his call was OK because the failure to hit the shot did not result in an L. The end of OT the conditions were different most notably failure to hit the shot would result in an L. Second, as noted elsewhere player fatigue - physical and mental. And the crowd, the wall of noise in Philly (and bringing the ball up full court) resulted using 13 of 19 seconds leaving Tatum very little time to operate and the team not getting a shot off. Other than that …

I hear you Cowens, but the defense is going to get the ball out of their hands. They have to make the right play. Now I would much rather see Brogdon taking the final shot than Smart. Jaylen made a terrible decision, Harden made a clutch, Marcus misses a game winner and is a spilt second late on the other. Things just didn’t go our way, but your right we have to find ways to close these games. Letting PJ Tucker getting a rebound, hoop and foul was inexcusable

Woulda, shoulda, coulda...

So do we blame Joe, Tatum, Jaylen or Smart?

Did all chip in with a move we can second guess? Sure. All also contributed big positives. I'm not here to level criticism at any of them.

The apparent elephant in the room that no one outside of Eastern Pennsylvania wants to address is that the 6ers had the lead most of the game and never got far behind because they have a damn strong lineup. The series is tied because Philly's playoff rotation is in many ways Boston's equal. I read opinions here and elsewhere that Harden was done and Embiid's knee was going to drop him down several notches. Wrong and wrong.

We're playing a lineup that, like ours, is among the best when healthy. It's a tough series following a challenging first round against a surprising Atlanta team that was on the upswing in talent and momentum.

It's now at most a three game deal with the possibility of two at home. That improves the odds. I still like our chances.

+1 NY Celt

I've been mostly defending Joe, and I still think he must be a decent coach since the Celtics had a pretty good season overall. The thing that worries me though, is that I'm afraid his refusal to call timeouts has turned into a type of stubbornness, like - "nobody is going to tell me how to coach". If he's letting perception affect his decision making in anyway, then that's a problem.

Celtics also need to keep Brown involved in Crunch time. Seems like Smart or JT had the ball for all of crunch time.