It's unfair to ascribe the Celtics‘ gut wrenching 115-116 Game 4 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers to any single, particular thing that they did wrong; Jayson Tatum had a brutal shooting day for much of the game; Joe Mazzulla made some controversial coaching decisions down the stretch; self-proclaimed “elite” sniper Al Horford never settled into an offensive rhythm and Marcus Smart clanked a wide open would-be buzzer beater at the end of regulation. But the most glaring mistake of all, though, was Jaylen Brown's devastating defensive gaffe in overtime, helping off of a scorching hot James Harden in the corner and subsequently allowing him to drain the game-winning three-pointer and give the Sixers a one point lead over the Celtics with just 19 seconds remaining.
“Just a bad read,” Brown admitted after the game. “That’s it. It’s a gamble at the wrong time. Big shot by James Harden but that’s my fault. I take full accountability.”
Although Brown had noble intentions helping out Tatum against Embiid, he grossly miscalculated the relative risks and rewards of doing so. While Embiid did have a massive physical advantage over Tatum, Tatum had done a good job keeping Embiid in front of him, seemingly prepared to force the Sixers' MVP big man to attempt a tough jump hook amidst a heavily congested lane filled with Celtics players. To wit, Brown committed the cardinal sin of helping off a good shooter in the strongside corner, which gave Embiid an easy pass to Harden in the corner. In this sense, not only did Brown help unnecessarily, he was the one player on the court in the worst position to be the helper.
Outside of his massive blunder, though, Jaylen Brown had a pretty good game against the Sixers, scoring 23 points on efficient 10-16 shooting.
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