An undermanned Boston Celtics squad somehow found a way to take down the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of their series Monday night at TD Garden, 117-101. Without Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, and Gordon Hayward, the Celtics leaned on their top remaining healthy players to draw first blood in the series.
Terry Rozier, Jayson Tatum, and Al Horford each had huge scoring nights to propel the Celtics to a victory as the trio combined for 83 points. To put how great the trio’s performance was into perspective, Micah Adams of ESPN revealed that it was higher than the highest point total in any game by the legendary Celtics triumvirate of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen.
How about that?
Rozier exploded anew by dropping 29 points with seven 3-pointers just a game after pounding out 26 points in last Saturday’s Game 7 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. Jayson Tatum provided 28 points on 8-for-16 shooting from the field and was aggressive all night long, resulting in an 11-for-12 line from the charity stripe. Horford, meanwhile, held his own against the bigger and younger Joel Embiid down low to finish with 26 points on an almost flawless 10-for-12 shooting, while adding seven rebounds and four steals.
As a team, Boston shot 48.2 percent from the field and made 17-of-35 attempts from distance. The Celtics’ 3-point shooting made a huge difference as Boston had 12 more made triples than Philly had in a game.
Rozier and company will look to go up 2-0 in the series this coming Thursday at home, where Boston has yet to lose in these playoffs.
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