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The Boston Celtics were less than two minutes away from taking a 3-1 series lead over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series on Sunday afternoon. If everything ended up going Boston's way in this series, they likely would have already dispatched Philly and moved onto the Eastern Conference Finals.
Instead, they wasted a fantastic comeback effort in Game 4, and put together their worst performance of the postseason in Game 5 to fall behind in the series 3-2. The C's will now head back to Philadelphia for Game 6, playing in front of what is sure to be a fired up crowd with their season on the line.
Given how Boston lost winnable contests in Games 1 & 4, and turned in an absolute stinker in Game 5, it seems like everything is caving in on them. The vibes surrounding the team aren't great right now, and it's not exactly hard to see why that's the case. While most of the media will focus on all the negatives (and usually, we are right there with them) let's buck that trend and look at three reasons for optimism for the Celtics right now, despite the atrocious performance we just saw from them in Game 5.
3. The Celtics have proven they can defend the Sixers when they want to
The Celtics did not have a great defensive outing in Game 5, but it also wasn't the worst we have seen from them either. The Sixers were hitting tons of tough shots throughout the night, while the C's were missing everything (more on that in a minute). Nights like this happen, even when you play fairly solid defense.
When you consider that Philly hit 50.6 percent of their shots on the night, it's probably a bit surprising to hear that they only scored 115 points. Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey did most of the damage, combining for 63 points, but the Sixers also spent much of the night not having operating a half-court offense thanks to the C's woeful offensive outing.
When the Sixers have to go against the Celtics in a full-court setting, Boston has done a great job defending them, and with their season on the line, you can expect them to ratchet things up another level in Game 6. Pressuring the Harden/Embiid pick-and-roll is going to be particularly important, and limiting Maxey after his big outing will be key if Boston intends on extending their season on Thursday night.
2. The Celtics missed tons of shots they would normally make in Game 5
On the other end of the shooting spectrum in Game 5, the Celtics hit just 39.8 percent of their shots, with many of their misses coming on wide open looks from three, where they shot just 31.6 percent. Boston had shot the ball well throughout this series prior to Game 5 (49.2 percent from the field, 38 percent from three) and the expectation is that they won't shoot this poorly again in Game 6.
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The inability to hit threes was particularly irritating for Al Horford, who has quickly become the key to this series for Boston. When Horford hits his threes, it forces Embiid to respect his shooting and come out of the paint. But when he is missing shots, as he was in Game 5 when he shot 0/7 from the field (all of which were threes) Embiid can just sit in the paint and disrupt the Celtics drives to the rim.
Bad shooting games happen in the NBA; these players are human, after all. The problem is that it came at a particularly awful time for Boston, and their margin for error has immediately become perilously thin. The Celtics should be expected to have a nice bounce-back game when it comes to hitting their shots in Game 6, because if they don't, chances are the 76ers will bounce them from the playoffs.
1. The Celtics have familiarity with their current situation
Boston's current series against Philadelphia has a lot of similarities to their Eastern Conference semifinals series with the Milwaukee Bucks from last year. Both teams split the first four games with Boston, before winning Game 5 at the TD Garden. These games were both crushing losses, but for completely different reasons.
As we all know, the Celtics would go on to win their final two games in their series against the Bucks to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, with Jayson Tatum stepping up in Game 6 on the road to deliver a world class 46-point performance to keep Boston alive. That experience should help Boston in what figures to be an equally difficult environment in Philadelphia.
On the other end of this, the Sixers don't have a history of being able to close out opponents in the Embiid-era, and this is likely going to be Philly's toughest playoff task yet. Maybe they are finally up to the task, but in this series, we have seen that Boston has a much higher ceiling than Philadelphia. Boston's previous playoff experiences guarantee them nothing in this upcoming Game 6, but they know they can win in these situations, and that could serve them well in a time where their outlook is increasingly bleak.
