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Tim BontempsESPN
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – While the Boston Celtics have built their team into an Eastern Conference candidate in recent years, they have done so around the idea that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown will become franchise cornerstones for years to come.
Monday night, Tatum and Brown showed how that vision began to come together. Tatum’s 32 points and 13 rebounds and Brown’s 29 points – including 15 in the fourth quarter – propelled Boston to a 109-101 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series in the NBA bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort.
“We just have to fight,” Brown said afterward. “That comes down to it. Who wants it most? Who wants to fight?
“Today we came out and we fought. We were the physical team and we came out on top. I was proud of us. We have to keep that fight if we want to win this series.”
The Celtics needed every exploit of Tatum and Brown to survive against the 76ers, who got 26 points and 16 rebounds from Joel Embiid, but were forced to convert into 18 – that was 21 Celtics points – because of Boston’s speed and athletic defense used to make up for his lack of size against the much larger Sixers.
Brown also unexpectedly fell to former teammate Al Horford in the streak, including a key moment when Boston took the lead for good with a 6-0 run powered by Brown blowing through Horford, prompting Brown to bounce Brown for a flagrant level one . Brown made both free throws, and then drove through Tobias Harris to earn two more free throws, which he made.
When Philadelphia chose to stick with Horford in its starting lineup – as opposed to novice rookie Matisse Thybulle – it chose to try to use the measure to punish Boston, hoping it could take advantage of Brown giving him protected. Instead, it was the other way around, with Brown either shaking free for 3-pointers – he shot 5-for-8 from deep – or using his speed to sneak through the defense for layups.
“Al is a great defender,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “And I think we’re just doing our best to try to get a good appearance from the court every time. We’ll continue to see what we can do to play better offense.”
A good place to start is to give the ball to its two young wings and get out of the way. Tatum scored 21 points in the first half – a playoff career high – and finished with three blocks en route to a game-high plus-19 in 41 minutes.
Although Ben Simmons did a great job completing Tatum when the teams met in the regular season, he kept to just a 28% effective field goal percentage in those matchups – the second worst mark of any player against a defender facing them protected more than 30 shots, per Tracking data from Second Spectrum – his absence was a significant problem for the Sixers, as Tatum had no trouble getting to his spots.
It was particularly notable late in the game when he was isolated against Josh Richardson on the wing and rode to the rim and easily pulled a birdie, making two free throws to extend Boston’s lead to five with 41 , 4 seconds left.
“Yeah, he was really good,” Stevens said. “I thought he was irresponsible the whole game, talking and helping, and communicating and reading, and he’s just making a band of – he’s making an enormous impact on that goal. Then, offensively, it does not feel like he got 32 on ‘ the end of the night.
“He just plays the game in himself and finds the next good game. He did a lot of good things last night.”
The Celtics will need more of that from their young wings when Gordon Hayward, who is the game late in the fourth quarter with a straight ankle injury, is out for significant time. They still have to deal with the big mismatch inside against Embiid, who dominated early on before Boston was able to swarm the Philadelphia ball dealers and prevent him from getting the ball – like raging and taking the ball when he tried to place.
But Brown and Tatum have been here before. While both are on rookie contracts – Brown is in his fourth season and Tatum his third – both have won at least one playoff series each year that they have been in the league, and both have been to the Eastern Conference- finals. That experience was evident when they shut down the Sixers.
“Experience is everything,” Brown said. “That’s the best teacher. I’ve been lucky enough to be at two Eastern Conference finals, so I feel like a lot of experience. [Tatum] has also been to a conference finals, so continue to feed and play to our young boys like you’ve been here before. “
They did that Monday. And after his first playoff game next to them, point guard Kemba Walker saw everything he saw from his young running mates in his first season in Boston transfer to the playoffs.
“It’s special,” Walker said. “Those two dudes are super special talents. They showed it today. Every big moment they made great plays. Every time we needed a great play, they made it.
“It’s just fun to watch. It’s really fun to be a part of their growth.”
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