What do the Celtics need to do to break out of their persistent playoff lapses?
BOSTON – The news Tuesday evening that Philadelphia center Joel Embiid was voted the NBA’s 2022-23 Most Valuable Player should, in theory, have made the Boston Celtics feel even worse.
Blowing Game 1 to a playoff foe missing its best player was bad enough. Twenty-four hours later, it turned out the Celtics dodged the league’s MVP and still managed to lose.
Rarely has a team been so set up to seize controlling interest in a best-of-seven series – already favored, at home, deeper, more seasoned and then freed from the back-breaking work of coping with the Sixers’ 7-foot, 280-pound two-way threat – only to fall flat on its face.
But ahead of Game 2 on Wednesday, reports began to drop that Embiid reportedly will make a return (8 ET, TNT) at TD Garden.
The Sixers already have swiped home-court advantage in this East semifinals, guaranteeing at least a split of the opening games in Boston. They bought Embiid, his knee and the training staff more recovery time before they’ll face anything approaching a must-win game.
Meanwhile, Boston dares not let an MVP-less opponent off the hook again. Now the Celtics are on the spot to make happen what might have seemed like business as usual a couple days ago. And there’s evidence to suggest Game 1 was more than just a one-off.
Throughout the season, coach Joe Mazzulla’s crew has shown a tendency to relax or at least not lock in when its opponent is undermanned. At one point or another, the Celtics faced the Cavaliers without Darius Garland, Denver without Jamal Murray, Oklahoma City without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Miami without Jimmy Butler, Phoenix without Devin Booker, New York without Jalen Bruson and Washington without Bradley Beal – and lost them all.
For Charles Barkley, Game 1 was a matter of Boston not respecting a wounded foe.
“Playing with your food” is a saying for it now. Every postseason game a team doesn’t nail down when it can is a fresh chance for the opponent – and extra exposure to injuries or mishaps for its own players.
Boston’s inability to contain Harden was obvious, though certainly not shameful. The 2017-18 Kia NBA MVP has torched teams of all quality under the most pressurized circumstances. The fatal flaw was letting Tyrese Maxey, De’Anthony Melton and Tobias Harris all get rolling offensively on the same night.
The Celtics ranked second in defensive rating (110.6) in the regular season but are dead last among the remaining playoff teams, allowing 116.3 points per 100 possessions. Sixers coach Doc Rivers moved his team’s pick and rolls out toward midcourt to give Harden room to isolate and Maxey a runaway to race toward the rim.
Mazzulla told reporters Tuesday “our strength is our offensive management.” But Philadelphia’s zone defense messed with some of the Celtics’ timing and preferred passes, and after averaging more than 42 attempts from 3-point range during the regular season, the Celtics got off only 26 in Game 1, hitting 10.
In sum, Boston blinked with Embiid absent, got out of character and paid a heavy price.
“I think we expected that, guys to step up, but we still struggled with it. We just gotta be prepared,” Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon said. “Whether or not Embiid comes back, we’ve got to understand that these guys are gonna make shots, these guys are gonna play with the green light.”
The big man’s right knee sprain is a yellow light, maybe even a red one for the Sixers. Rivers said Embiid worked out Tuesday before the team went into a film session, a little running for the first time since he tumbled badly to the floor against Brooklyn on April 20.
The prospect of going from zero-to-playoff mode with a Most Valuable asset such as Embiid is daunting. An attempted return in Game 3 Friday or Game 4 Sunday, both home in Philadelphia, might make more sense.
“He has done some pool work and stuff,” Rivers said. “It’s just not basketball. Even our guys yesterday, even though we had a whole week off from playing, I though the first five minutes we were gassed. If you don’t play playoff basketball for a week and you get in there, they’re flying and you’re exhausted.
“Whenever he does come back, he’s going to be tired. We’re going to have to monitor that as well. That’ll be a new thing.”
Nobody seems willing to suggest Philadelphia is a better team without Embiid or can win the series. There’s just too much missing at both ends of the court when he’s not on it.
“Joel is our guy,” Sixers reserve Georges Niang said. “What’s understood doesn’t need to be said. … How great an impact he has on us on the court but also off the court. He has a huge heart, he’s a giving human and we’re all blessed – even you guys, the media – to have him around, because he’s a real treat.”
As James Harden warmed up in Game 1, the Celtics had no answers or adjustments.
Asked about Embiid’s development from an injury-riddled, junk food-eating young player to an All-Star, two-time scoring champ, back-to-back MVP runner-up and now the winner of the new Michael Jordan Trophy, Rivers focused on the three seasons they’ve worked together in Philadelphia.
“Starting with conditioning,” the coach said. “The first talk we had, hey listen, if you want to be all these things we just said at the table at dinner, you can’t be that without putting an amazing amount of time on the floor.
“The second thing, forget offense, let’s go to defense. You’ve got to be a dominant fourth-quarter defender. The third thing was offensively, we have to figure out where to put you. And then the fourth thing was the go-to shot. Each year, he kind of added that. And passing was the fifth.”
There was no denying Embiid in the MVP balloting, with 73 voters casting first-place votes for him to 15 for Denver’s Nikola Jokic and 12 for Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo. Those three got all but one of the first-, second- and third-place votes cast, with Boston’s Jayson Tatum getting a lone third.
The 29-year-old native of Yaounde, Cameroon, by way of stops in Florida and Kansas, was a clear but also sentimental choice this year.
“This year was a big step for him,” Rivers said. “As great as he was last year, this year – being at the elbow, seeing double teams, being a better passer – that just doesn’t come because you watch film and do it. You watch film and then you work on it hundreds and hundreds of times. Alone in a gym, by yourself.”
Getting Embiid back in the arena, alongside his teammates, on the floor is the big step now for the Sixers.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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