Welp, there’s going to be a Game 6 in this opening-round playoff series between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers. Boston’s energetic play fizzled out in the second half, allowing Philly to walk away with a comfortable win.
Jayson Tatum led the way for the Celtics with 24 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists. Meanwhile, Joel Embiid put up an impactful 33 points and eight rebounds, looking much more like himself than he did on Sunday.
Here’s where the game changed:
Tatum sank a three to give the Celtics an 81-73 lead over the 76ers late in the third quarter of Tuesday’s Game 5.
Then it got worse.
It felt like there was a bind on the Celtics’ offense. Good shots were hard to come by, while the 76ers couldn’t miss. They sank threes on five of their final six possessions of the third. There was a possession somewhere mixed in there where Jaylen Brown made a layup, and no one got back for the Cs. As a result, Paul George beat everyone down the floor and stepped into a wide-open three.
Philadelphia outscored Boston 12-5 over the final 2:25 of the frame, and entered the fourth trailing by just one point.
The offensive struggles followed the Celtics into those final 12 minutes. The ball stopped moving. There was significantly less creativity than there’d been earlier in the game.
Every look they fired up was contested, late in the shot clock, or both. For the large majority of closing time, Boston looked more interested in getting fouled than they were in actually putting the ball in the basket.
This fourth quarter was historically bad
Jaylen Brown, in particular, made a habit of shooting into contact. He missed all four of his attempts before the game was completely out of hand in the fourth, all of which came from the mid-range, and from underneath someone’s arm in hopes of getting a whistle.
Even on the rare occasion where Boston created clean looks, they couldn’t make them. They had an opportunity to tie the game at 97 and clanked three straight threes. Those misses were the first of many -- 12 to be exact.
The Celtics made just three of their 20 field goal attempts before clearing the bench with a minute and a half to play. Their 11 fourth quarter points were their fewest in over a decade. The last time it was this bad was April 19, 2016, when they managed just seven points in the first quarter against the Atlanta Hawks.
Their clunky late-game offense was reminscent of Games 1 and 2 vs. the New York Knicks -- two devastating losses where the Cs saw their control slip away.