The Celtics were always going to make a run. You knew it, I knew it, and everyone knew it. No safe lead, no level of comfort, no loosening of the sphincter.

Nobody should have been surprised by the turd burger the Sixers cooked up in the fourth quarter, scoring a grand total of 15 points and getting five of their shots blocked in the process. It was so bad that Joel Embiid got spooked by Al Horford of all people, resulting in James Harden having to save his teammates’ bacon.

Only in overtime did they somehow prevail, getting dicked twice by the refs, just for Harden to hit a crucial corner three, followed by a shot clock violation to end it for Boston. As much as we talk about Doc Rivers being a liability in the coaching department, Joe Mazzulla’s decision to not call a timeout and let his guys play ultimately backfired. They couldn’t get into their set fast enough, resulting in the clock hitting 0 before Marcus Smart’s dagger, which would have won the game and given Boston a 3-1 series lead:

The Sixers needed some kind of break to go their way, and in the end it turned out to be an execution/clock mistake from the opponent. You could also point to the Harden dagger, in which Jaylen Brown left the corner to double Embiid, so add both of those things together and you can breathe a little easier knowing that the Celtics aren’t an invincible machine, even if it sometimes feels that way.

Nightmare fuel

Here’s a sampling of what happened in the fourth quarter, beginning right around the five-minute mark:


  • Embiid denied at the rim by Horford
  • Maxey denied at the rim by Tatum
  • Horford runs down the lane for a dunk after a Boston offensive rebound
  • Embiid blocked by Horford for a second time
  • Smart hits a wide open three
  • Malcolm Brogdon hits a wide open three
  • Embiid gets  punked by Horford again, gives the ball to Tobias Harris for an air ball, aved by a P.J. Tucker putback and foul
  • Smart flops for a foul
  • Embiid blocked again by Horford

Doc Rivers partly blamed fatigue for the dip, which was paralyzing to watch in real time.

“We fought man, like this is the way it’s gonna be,” the head coach said. “It’s gonna be a game of runs and we have to sustain the runs. We gotta keep our composure. I was proud of our guys. I thought we lost our pace and part of that was due to fatigue. We really shortened our rotation and I thought that was the right thing to do. Having said that, I thought that one stretch we were running on (empty). We couldn’t get the ball up the floor, and that’s when they made their run. When we were playing at our pace all game, we were getting whatever we wanted.”

Yeah well, it’s the playoffs. You gotta gut through it in the fourth quarter. Tired or not, they looked stagnant and passive on the offensive end and Doc wasn’t exactly going deep into his shallow playbook. They were lucky to get to overtime playing essentially with seven men. Paul Reed only got six minutes in this game, so we are truly into playoff rotation trimming mode (which was probably the right decision anyway).

Blatant push off

Clear foul here, no whistle from the refs of course:

Rivers called it “awful” after the game.

“The reason why it bugs me is at the end of the game there are these touch fouls,” Doc explained. “At the end of the game Tatum has a 360 (spin and) foul. Marcus Smart and Tuck get tangled up? Touch foul. So if we’re gonna call it that way, then you have to call that (push off). You gotta call that. I know it’s a big play and I’m a big fan of refs not deciding the game, but that could have decided the game.”

Tatum gets away with this shit all game long. The right forearm over and over again. The tell for everyone watching that clip should be Tyrese Maxey keeping his feet, because he didn’t sell it, didn’t flop, and didn’t embellish. He got shoved backwards, recovered, and tried to contest the shot.

Time for robo umps in every sport.

Elite Harden shows up again

Jekyll and Hyde act for James Harden in this series. He singlehandedly won the Sixers game one, pretty much singlehandedly lost game three, and then won game four in much the same fashion as last Monday. He finished with 42 points and was the only guy who didn’t seem scared down the stretch, which is the minimum you’d expect for a veteran former MVP.

That’s games of 45 and 42 points for Harden in the series, so Nick Friedell has to continue to eat shit for laughing at him on ESPN.

Pagan noted that Harden plays better when he wears goofy-ass clothes, so I’m all for him looking like a Dr. Seuss character in the postgame presser:

“Ten apples up on top. We are not going to let them drop.”

A sort of MVP Performance from the MVP

Joel Embiid looked like the league’s Most Valuable Player through three quarters, obviously not 100% and playing on a compromised leg. He finished with 34 points and 13 rebounds.

The fourth quarter was REALLY disappointing though. Gassed or not, you can’t get punked by Al freaking Horford to the point where you’re afraid to go at him. Thankfully Embiid snapped out of it after 3-4 sequences, but man that was pretty pitiful and concerning at the time, especially the “I don’t want anything to do with this” pass to Harris and airball that Tucker had to clean up.

To Embiid’s credit, he recognized it and owned up to it:

It’s fine. Get the big man some rest. Put him in bubble wrap and load him on the plane to Boston.

Harris griping

Nine points on 3-10 shooting, seven rebounds and two assists.

Some Tobias Harris thoughts:

  • him losing the ball out bounds while driving to the rim in the first quarter was one of those “if they lose this game, put that in the notebook” moments
  • same with the terrible turnover coming out of the 4th quarter timeout (when Boston cut the lead to 7)
  • You knew that fast break was gonna be blocked, go figure he would come right down on the very next sequence, be aggressive and just lay it right in
  • he was all over the place on the perimeter, a couple of times just slow to address three point shooters while trailing, then followed by some frenetic closeouts (one of which did result in pushing Tatum off the line for a long two instead)

It’s tough with Harris, because if we were evaluating him as some ~$15 million a year player, you would expect these kinds of things from him. It would be whatever. But he’s a ~$35 million a year player, so the performances have to be measured against his salary. We’re gonna look back years from now and say what we’re saying now, that he’s not some terrible player but consistently underperforming against that contract.

Tyrese Maxey

Good in game one, 14 points in this one, but still not firing on all cylinders. He hasn’t shot the ball particularly well (6-17 Sunday) and his decision making hasn’t been fantastic, perhaps exemplified by the “box out” attempt where he decided to just bear hug Derrick White instead of making an actual basketball play.

Other notes:

  • I loved the sequence leading to Jaylen Brown picking up that second quick foul. Embiid went uber-aggressive on the offensive glass and then went right back up with it, getting to the line and putting Brown under the gun early.
  • Georges Niang is a double-edged sword out there. Doc trimmed the rotation to 7.5, and so Niang is really the only guy who can consistently hit an open shot among the Melton/Reed/Niang trio. He went 3-6 in this game, but the problem is that Boston is going small as soon as Niang enters, forcing him to guard on the perimeter and hurting the ability to hide him defensively. It’s a small wrinkle the Celtics have been doing a good job with.
  • Melton missed another fast break layup in this one.
  • Can only laugh at the Doc timeout that took place in the middle of a Harden full-court lob to a wide-open Harris under the rim.
  • Tatum and Horford started 0-11 and 0-6 from three. Big part of why the Sixers were able to push the lead to double digits.
  • Grant Williams is getting beat up like crazy in this series. Dude spends half the time getting knocked to the floor, curb stomped, etc. He’s earning his money.
  • Harden and Embiid scored 76 of the Sixers’ 116 points. Maxey was the only other double-figure player.
  • I personally am not a Mark Jones fan. His play-by-play is perfectly fine, but every so often he just says something weird or adds a dumb opinion. Don’t think he’s overall horrible, but obviously we prefer the TNT crew of Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller. Maybe we meet somewhere in the middle and exchange Reggie Miller for Doris Burke, then pair Harlan and Burke and Reggie and Jones. Then we all listen to Tom McGinnis on the radio.
  • Can you imagine how insufferable Anna Horford would have been had the Celtics held on to win? Jesus.