What did we do to deserve this? Celtics are stunned at home by 76ers less than 24 hours after record-setting Bruins were bounced at the Garden.
Celtics #Celtics
At what point, precisely, did TD Garden become Boston’s House of Blues?
Seriously.
Less than 24 hours after the bottom-seeded Florida Panthers drove a pipe through the greatest regular-season team in NHL history (your Boston Bruins), the heavily-favored Celtics submitted an NBA meltdown of epic proportions and kicked away Game 1 of their conference semifinal, 119-115, against a Philadelphia 76er team playing without presumed league MVP, Joel Embiid.
I mean, what did Boston do to deserve this?
Our former home of champions has become Causeway Street’s House of Pain.
The home-for-the-summer Bruins lost only four “real” games here in 2022-23, then dropped three straight at home to a Panthers team that produced the 17th-best record in the NHL.
Now the Celtics — by attrition the best team still standing in a league riddled with sidelined star talent — dropped Game 1 at home less than a week after losing a potential closeout home game to the forever-500 Hawks.
Mercy.
Boston is officially traumatized. This was supposed to be the spring of back-to-back duck boat parades. It was going to be B’s and C’s and a June festival of confetti.
Now we are beginning to wonder about some new (Tom Brady?) curse. It is as if an occult hand has turned all the sports karma away from New England.
After the Sunday hockey horror show, folks filled the Garden assuming the Celtics would make the world right again. Given all the bad things that have happened to NBA elites (Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard all wounded), the Celtics are clearly the most talented team still standing. Their path has been cleared. The Bucks were taken out. The Heat are hobbled with injuries to three key players. The West is wide open.
When the 76ers announced that Embiid, who sprained his right knee in Game 3 of Philadelphia’s sweep of the Nets, was officially out for Game 1, we looked forward to the Celts feasting on backup center Paul Reed. This was supposed to be like Greg Kite filling in for Robert Parish. The Sixers are not deep even with Embiid, and without him, figured to be an easy opponent.
Wrong, Iavaroni Breath. Reed played 37 quality minutes and ripped four critical free throws when the Celtics were melting into a puddle down the stretch.
This was a ridiculous game on many levels.
James Harden (remember him?) shot the Sixers to an early lead (19-13), but there was no stopping a Celtics tsunami as Boston made 14 of its first 15 shots (most of them dunks) and led, 38-31 after one. The Celts shot a stunning 85 percent and had 26 points in the paint in the quarter. Neither team took a free throw, which tells you everything you need to know about the compete level of the teams.
We didn’t see a foul shot until the final minute of the first half when Tatum went to the line for a pair. Hideous. In the good old days of Celtics-Sixers, Jim Loscutoff and Cedric Maxwell would have been in foul trouble before the opening tip.
Boston went ahead by as many as 12 in the second, but it should have been more. A 66-63 halftime lead became an 87-87 tie after three.
Then Tatum (39) and Jaylen Brown (23) turtled in the fourth (each made only three buckets after halftime) and watched Tyrese Maxey and Harden (45 points) take over the game.
Boston led, 113-110, with less than a minute left (just like the Bruins led Florida, 3-2, with less than a minute left Sunday). When Marcus Smart fouled Reed with 57.1 seconds left, Reed drained both to make it 113-112.
Then came the epic meltdown. A crazy possession resulted in Malcolm Brogdon (as the shot clock expired) throwing the ball directly to Maxey, Fred Brown style (look it up), resulting in a breakaway layup by Maxey. After a couple of Tatum free throws put Boston back ahead, then Harden pantsed Al Horford, draining a 26-foot pullup to make it 117-115 with 8.4 seconds remaining.
It’s tough to describe what the Celtics did after a timeout. It was not Joe Mazzulla’s finest hour. Brogdon inbounded to Smart, who panicked, and tried to dump it off to Tatum. It was kicked around and Tatum fouled Reed, who calmly ripped another pair. Ballgame.
“The environment is different here,’’ said Rivers, a man who knows. “It’s an amazing environment.’’
Indeed.
But it used to be a place where the home teams won and the fans left happy.