76ers (1-3) at Celtics (3-1) Round 1 Game 5 4/28/26

[SparzWizard]

"2018 - Celtics defended home-court up until Game 7. They met LeBron, with the sense of urgency to comeback from double-digit and beat the Celtics at the Garden. This is on the Celtics.
2019 - Series against the Bucks. Bucks were just talented all-around, but the C's completely shafted after their Game 1 win in Milwaukee. Just flat out quit. I didn't expect them to win, but to not even show up, wow.
2020 - This one is also on the Celtics. Against a 5-seeded Miami Heat team, and they allowed the Heat to go up 2-0 before winning the series 4-2. This is on the Celtics.
2021 - Injured
2022 - Played with their food. How do you blow Game 5 at home against the Bucks? With a chance to take a 3-2 lead, instead, trail 3-2 and required Tatum to go off in Game 6 and a masterful night from Grant Williams in Game 7. Same thing with the Heat...Game 7. Then with a 2-1 series lead over the Warriors, they start with the sloppy plays and turnovers and basically choked away the series. This one is on the C's.
2023 - Humiliation. Playing with their food again. 6 games against the Hawks, 7 games against the 76ers. Down 0-3 against the 8-seeded Heat before losing Game 7 at the Garden. This one is on the C's.
2024 - The one outlier year. Ok you should win your games, but they also dumped on crappy injured teams and were fortunate enough to evade Denver and played Dallas instead. Take any championship we can.
2025 - How do you blow b2b home games after leading by 20 in each game? Idk, if you win Games 1-2, you'll ease up and stress less for Games 3 and 4 and maybe Tatum doesn't get injured. But KP and Jrue were also hurt so Idk what's going on. On the Celtics/injuries.

2026 - Here we are. Could've defended home-court but didn't. Now they find themselves up 3-2 with pressure on them instead of resting tonight getting ready for NY/ATL".

This is so spot on by CelticinOrlando.

These guys get a 2-0 lead or get a 10 point lead and they think the series of the game is over, their effort slacks and they end up getting it stuck to them. I can understand this happening over time but over and over and over again? How many times do you have to get hit in the head with a sledgehammer before you learn a lesson. They are chokers. They revert to hero ball to create horrible shot opportunities when things get tight.

Here is how it goes and this happened again in last night's game multiple times. We get a ten point lead so they start coming down the court slowly and jack up terrible, lazy three point shots, which they miss. So, instead of getting a good couple two point hoops to go up twelve or 14, they miss and the other team invariably comes back down court with a good two a few times and now it's a 6 point game again instead of a 14 point game. It's a total momentum killer.

If I were coaching this team, I would call a timeout every time they got up by 8-10 points and literally just light them up for the entire timeout, tell them they're front running chokers who couldn't win a game if their life depended on it - try to get them really p---ed off so they actually play with some intensity once they get a team down instead of jerking around every time and letting teams back into games and series. Nothing else has seemed to work for them. 

Lastly, if we're going to watch our team play with lackluster intensity every time they get a lead, I would at least play players who work their butts off and play with maximum effort at all times; Garza, Pritchard, and Gonzalez specifically. I don't know why Hugo can't get any minutes but he does very important things that are required in playoff games such as maximum defensive and rebounding effort, loose ball effort and he plays with some emotional fire. When Tatum and Brown get in tight game situations they trot up the floor or dribble walk the ball up the court so we're already at 15 seconds on the shot clock by the time we get into our offensive sets. Let Pritchard run the pace of the game and tell him to push it - and demand Tatum and brown keep up by actually running up the court after made shots by the other team. Give our offense maximum shot clock time to create a good shot with ball movement rather than the god awful hero ball.     

That timeline was mine actually, but you are absolutely right. Yeah, if it happens once every three series or so here and there I get it. But for it to happen multiple times each series and esp at home b2b is nauseating. These b2b home losses should mostly apply to far inferior teams, so does that mean the C's are very inferior?

If White can only muster 6 points in 36 mins, I would've just benched him for Pritchard. And yes, call those timeouts when the opponents go on a run or if sloppy play is detected.

[celticinorlando]

Just an all around bad performance on offense that led them to quit on the defensive end.

[Banner18now!]

I thought Tatum, Brown and even White have had enough experience now not to melt back into the deer in the headlights and back into bad habits but I guess not.
When your offense is so dependent on hitting 3's some nights you look like you can't be beat and other nights you can be beat by anyone. They legit just curl up into a ball when they are not hitting their 3's! How about digging in on defense when your shots aren't falling?
Joe could have sat all the starters in the 4th and played Garza, Pricthard, Hugo, Walsh, Shierman and the game would have been closer in the 4th. I'm sure those guys could mustered up 11 points but their hustler and defense would have made the  game closer.

You just wait for this team to fall back into bad habits, you know they are coming you just don't know when. I thought the J's would grow out of this by now and be able to find a way with their talent to overcome a bad quarter like that.
The Celts still win the series because one out of the next two games their 3's will be falling again.

[celticinorlando]

Reminds me of the Hawks series in 2023. Up 3-1 at home for game 5 and they got beat. Went on to win game 6 in Atlanta

[Celtics4ever]

The refs were in full subsidize mode with Embiid.  They called fouls that crippled our bigs on defense later in the game.  We all know the refs like to extend series, help certain stars, etc.  They evened out the free throw attempts once the damage was done.

The Sixers, made adjustments in the second half.  Embiid went inside, and stop bombing threes which was not working for them.  They played faster, and they pushed the ball and played high pressure defense.  Credit to the Sixers!   Embiid still looking in misery the final quarter.   The Knicks showed people last year that playing hard and high pressure against us causes us problems.    We need to learn how to over come that.  Nick Nurse is he biggest whiner/crybaby I have ever seen.

The Celtics, kept bombing away missing shot after shot.   This team doesn't seem to have the ability to switch up styles of play when the three is not falling.   I though Brown and Tatum were almost in panic mode.   They are paid millions to score and be our best players.  They took tons of bad shots, did not adjust to the game and kept using what was not working.   No one stepped up to help them either.    This loss was maddening.  We have all seen this script before time and time again.  When will this team get a killer instinct.   Our ball-handling issues were evident.  We missed tons of free throws.   I love this team, but they are very disappointing at times.  We literally make things harder than they have to be.   If your shot is not falling, DRIVE!

I picked us to win in 6 and I am standing by that.   This is not panic mode on my part but rather anger and disgust.   We flat out got outplayed last night.   It is time to set matters right tomorrow night, no excuses, man up and win!

[Vermont Green]

This is today's NBA.  A team can shoot 25% from 3 one night and 40% the next game.  A team can miss a bunch of 3s in the first quarter and then shoot better the rest of the way.  I don't see it as you have to change your game plan if you don't shoot well from 3 in the first quarter or the first half.  You do have to adjust to how the defense is playing you though, or based on the personnel that the other team is putting out there.

This last game, many of the BOS 3PA seemed rushed or forced.  That was the result of PHI playing feisty defense but also a result of the Celtics just not executing well enough.  They only had 39 3PA making 28%.  They had been averaging over 48 the previous 4 games at 37.6%.  In the 2nd half, PHI shot 45.5% on 22 3PA.  BOS 29.4% on 17 3PA.  In the first half, PHI was 25% on 20 3PA, BOS 27.3% on 22 3PA. 

[86MaxwellSmart]

Last night it seemed that Philly was ready to go on vacation. They almost begged the C's to put them out of their misery...then, they just said screw it if you're gonna give us the game, we might as well take it....seemed fishy to me.

[Larry for 3]

This is today's NBA.  A team can shoot 25% from 3 one night and 40% the next game.  A team can miss a bunch of 3s in the first quarter and then shoot better the rest of the way.  I don't see it as you have to change your game plan if you don't shoot well from 3 in the first quarter or the first half.  You do have to adjust to how the defense is playing you though, or based on the personnel that the other team is putting out there.

This last game, many of the BOS 3PA seemed rushed or forced.  That was the result of PHI playing feisty defense but also a result of the Celtics just not executing well enough.  They only had 39 3PA making 28%.  They had been averaging over 48 the previous 4 games at 37.6%.  In the 2nd half, PHI shot 45.5% on 22 3PA.  BOS 29.4% on 17 3PA.  In the first half, PHI was 25% on 20 3PA, BOS 27.3% on 22 3PA.

And guess who?s not good or won?t even adjust at all?  That would be the head coach of the Boston Celtics.

[ozgod]

I must ask - is there a possibility our expectations of this team were too high? They over-excelled in the regular season, but the playoffs was always going to be the true test of whether we were contenders or not. And we did trade away a lot of experience. Plus we have a guy who came back from an Achilles tear just a month or two ago.

Conversely, did we underestimate a full-strength Philly team?

The regular season was a ton of fun because our expectations were low and we were planning on a gap year and those were exceeded. Now on the basis of that we're expecting to win the East, possibly win the championship since we split our regular season matchup with OKC 1-1, and the Sixers, who had to get through a play-in (like Miami a few years ago) are giving us a hard time (though to be fair they've only given us a hard time in 2 games but that's 2 too many). We're calling for our coach to be fired, Brad to be punished for punting the season, Jaylen Brown to be traded for Giannis...is it possible we are overreacting due to unreasonably high expectation?

There?s an argument to be made that the Sixers are just better than we are. We had a better regular season, but Embiid only played 38 games and George was suspended for 25 games. Instead of being rusty, they are actually just well rested. Their depth is more proven than ours as well.

Nobody wants to admit it, but we lost a lot of talent in the offseason and we made it up with great coaching and low ceiling young players. Some who aren?t really playing. We should still win the series, but there are no guarantee moving forward. The Knicks aren?t exactly lacking in talent either.

Last night was bad, but it?s not that we are always choking. Tatum is still getting right from his Achilles injury and I don?t think anybody really should have thought that Brown was truly a 1st Team All-NBA caliber player. And now one of our most trusted reliable guys in Derrick White is suddenly awful

Sure, you can argue that.  But it is not true and the Celtics will win this series.

I know last night "felt different" for a lot of fans, because the team dramatically laid an egg in a closeout game. And it was in the same exact way that many thought they had learned and moved on from.

It's a little sobering and makes it feel like this isn't a championship team.

This comes back to what I talked about, expectations. The team had very low expectations going into the season, they exceeded them, everyone loved it, their expectations went up, somehow we were all of a sudden a "championship contender". Now we're in the playoffs where every game is a battle because every team is desperate, we're not meeting expectations and all of a sudden the team is trash.

Personally I never thought they were as bad as people said they would be at the start of the season when people were calling for a tank year. But I also didn't think they were good enough to be championship contenders after we put together an awesome regular season. Our flaws were going to be exposed in the playoffs, especially against a team like Philly who has three All Stars, they just have no bench and their team was ravaged by injury. But their injured stars are back, and their role players shone in their wins (Edgecombe in G2, Grimes in G5). I still think we're the better team but I think a lot of it is part of unrealistic expectations.

All that said our losses in G2 and G5 were largely self-inflicted because we led both games going into the 4th but collapsed, which tells me it's more of a mental issue than anything else. Maybe they're feeling the expectations when during the year they were playing much more freely.

[SparzWizard]

Expectation is one thing, but Derrick White going MIA all season long is another.

And DWhite has been with the team since 2022. What gives with the sudden drop off? He looks as bad or worse than his 2022 slowly-developing form.

[ozgod]

Expectation is one thing, but Derrick White going MIA all season long is another.

And DWhite has been with the team since 2022. What gives with the sudden drop off? He looks as bad or worse than his 2022 slowly-developing form.

I took a closer look at Derrick White's metrics to see if there was anything there to explain things. Here are his splits from Basketball-Reference - the ones I highlighted are his +/- in wins vs losses and his April performance (playoffs) vs regular season.

(click to enlarge)


This confirms what I've felt for a while - Derrick White's value is in the fact that he's a force multiplier. He makes other players around him better but he can't carry a team when its stars are not playing well. He is a +21 in wins and a -7 in losses. That's why I always felt expecting him to be a No2 option is unrealistic - his shooting is inconsistent and he can't really create his own shot. But he can come off screens or off flare actions and shoot, or he can drive and kick the ball, and obviously all the other things like rebounds and defense, like his rebound that led to the Tatum 3 that led to the win in G3.

But the data also shows while his ppg has dropped to 10.3 in April, and while his FG% is actually better in April than it was in March (47% x 39%) his usage has dropped off. It's gone from 22% to 12%. He's just not shooting the ball as much, or they're not running actions that end with him taking a shot. His +/- is still high at 25 which is probably beacuse of the two 30-point wins.

Then I looked at his percentiles from Cleaning the Glass, and that Usage number is supported by their data too. Here is his usage in the regular season and in the playoffs. In the regular season he was in the 70th %ile (top 30%) for combo guards in usage, and in the 86th %ile in turnovers committed (that's basically top 14% of players in terms of taking care of the ball). His PSA (Points Per Shot Attempt) was in the bottom 35%, an indicator of his poor eFG%.

(click to enlarge)


Then you look at the playoffs. His usage has dropped to the bottom 18% of combo guards in the playoffs, and his turnover rate is has dropped to the bottom 35%. Then his PSA is at the very bottom - 0 %ile.

(It's also worth noting that it's probably Tatum's increased usage that has taken shots from DW. Because Brown's usage has always been in the 100th %ile throughout the season, but they've been using Tatum a lot more these playoffs.)



His Game Score, which is an NBA advanced metric that John Hollinger created to try and calculate the overall impact a player has to a game, taking points, rebounds, assists, turnovers, FG%, fouls into account, it's been trending downwards, meaning his impact on the game has dropped to actually below his position average.



So I think the following things can be true: a) White is an additive player, he makes his team play better when there are players he can influence; b) he can't be relied on to carry a team himself; c) his impact on the game has dropped, mainly because his usage has dropped.

Now how to solve it? That's for smarter minds than I  Though if I had to put my 2c in I think he's just really lacking confidence, the team needs to involve him more to get his confidence back. They're trying to run actions for Vuc to get him more involved and aggressive too and it might also be affecting DW's usage.

[tenn_smoothie]

Joe wore out the starters, too tired to shoot in the 4th...I dunno why he didn't use the bench more, they've been great all year.

Because Joe is an incompetent coach who has a stubborn streak to prove he is right and his critics are wrong.
Seems so obvious that the formula for this year's Celtics success has been the additional component that the bench guys have brought.
But it's the playoffs and Joe panics and plays the starters into the ground and leaves all that hustle and energy sitting on the bench.
I sometimes wonder what his assistants are telling Joe - you know at least a couple of them have to see what we are seeing. Maybe he ignores them.

[Larry for 3]

Joe wore out the starters, too tired to shoot in the 4th...I dunno why he didn't use the bench more, they've been great all year.

Because Joe is an incompetent coach who has a stubborn streak to prove he is right and his critics are wrong.
Seems so obvious that the formula for this year's Celtics success has been the additional component that the bench guys have brought.
But it's the playoffs and Joe panics and plays the starters into the ground and leaves all that hustle and energy sitting on the bench.
I sometimes wonder what his assistants are telling Joe - you know at least a couple of them have to see what we are seeing. Maybe he ignores them.

Players panicked too. I thought Brown was not good at all. George played him tough and he just kept forcing.