The Philadelphia 76ers lost Game 1 of their playoff series matchup with the Boston Celtics in convincing fashion. The Celtics, led by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, cruised to a 123-91 victory over the Sixers on Sunday. The Sixers struggled all game long. Amid an abhorrent shooting performance, a stale offense and turnovers, the Sixers learned some hard lessons from the results.
The first thing the Sixers learned is that they will be unable to win any games in this series if they lose the turnover battle. According to ESPN, the Sixers committed 15 turnovers in their last outing, compared to Boston's 10. While, at first glance, this might seem comparable, the truly jaw-dropping statistic here was that the Celtics scored 22 points off these turnovers, while the Sixers scored only 3.
Unless the Sixers start sprinting back to the basket after every turnover, the best way for Philadelphia to address this discrepancy is simply to turn the ball over less. In the third quarter, there were a few consecutive possessions that, however slowly, started to swing the momentum toward the Sixers. Then, after the Sixers got a quick stop on Boston, an underthrown outlet pass was stolen by Boston, resulting in a quick score and swinging momentum back to Boston. While I wouldn’t recommend completely removing the transition opportunities for the Sixers, as they are one of their best qualities, it was plays like this that killed the Sixers on Sunday.
The second lesson here for the Sixers is that they can’t be afraid of driving into the paint. The Celtics' defense was suffocating for much of the game, and the Sixers quickly learned they cannot rely on their jump shooting to win any of these games. While the Sixers struggled to get the ball in the basket at any level, their jump shooting was historically bad. Missed open three after missed open three led the Sixers to a 4/23 shooting night from beyond the arc as a team.
The Sixers smoked their fair share of layups in the game, but they did do one thing semi-well in the first half. The Sixers were relentless in their attacking of Celtics big man Neemias Queta. Queta got into foul trouble early, forcing Boston to lean more on Nikola Vucevic. Vucevic is not a bad player by any means, but his rim protection is far less intimidating than Queta’s. If the Sixers focus on getting Queta into foul trouble again, look for them to attack the driving lanes more aggressively.
George finished the game with 17 points on 4-of-8 shooting. However, the team desperately needs him to be a major source of offense. Tyrese Maxey has to be more than a 20-point scorer for the Embiid-less Sixers. The fact that four players took more shots than Paul George for the Sixers in that game is inexcusable, especially when not a single one of them shot 50% from the field.
Maxey did not play a perfect game on Sunday, but his 21 points on 20 shots led the Sixers in scoring. However, his transition buckets and stepback jumpers are not going to be enough to save them this series. The Sixers desperately need George to step up if they are going to stand any chance at being competitive this series.
The Sixers were unequivocally outmatched in Game 1, but they have the chance to turn the tables in Game 2. While the Celtics are objectively a talented team, the Sixers had many self-inflicted wounds that truly cost them the game. The turnovers, the transition points, and the missed open shots came back to bite them in the end. However, if the Sixers can focus on eliminating those small self-inflicted plays, they still have a chance in this series.
MORE: Flyers, 76ers host joint playoff pep rally
