BOSTON — Jaylen Brown used his public platform before Sunday afternoon’s game to deliver a clear message to Celtics fans: Be loud. He said the energy at TD Garden for the team’s home games during the Eastern Conference Semifinal series with the Philadelphia 76ers was just fine.
On Sunday, the Browns got what they wanted in Game 7. It was noisy early, noisy late. The crowd cheered every dunk and 3-pointer, every defensive stop and offensive rebound.
By the time Boston’s Jason Tatum stood near the center circle late in the fourth quarter, in the final moments of the power run and the best game of his career, he called out to the crowd for more noise. They were happy to oblige.
The crowd was still cheering as the Celtics left the court with a 112-88 victory that clinched the best-of-seven series and assured Boston that their championship dream would live on.
Tatum, an NBA first-teamer who did not play flawless basketball during the series, was exceptional on Sunday, scoring 51 points — an NBA record in Game 7. Brown added 25 points in the win. Celtics led as many as 30.
“That’s when I’m at my best, when I’m having fun,” Tatum said, adding that he tried to channel his childhood love of the game. “When you go out there and just relax and kind of think about those days when you were at the YMCA or whatever, you open up the game.”
The upset loss will certainly create off-season uncertainty for the 73rd-ranked players, who had their own NBA title hopes. But Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, who was recently named the NBA Most Valuable Player, struggled in Game 7, finishing with just 15 points while shooting 5-of-18 from the field. Six James Harden players scored only 9 points.
The Celtics, the second seed in the East, put the game out of reach with a strong third-quarter run that included back-to-back three-pointers from Brown and Tatum. The fourth quarter was a binge masquerading as the closing stages of a hotly contested playoff series.
“When GT plays like that, it’s going to be very difficult to beat us,” Brown said of Tatum.
In the process, the Celtics earned a meeting with the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, starting Wednesday in Boston. After surviving a play-by-play bracket, the Heat knocked out the top seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, then eliminated the Knicks in six games in their conference semifinal series. Boston defeated the seventh-seeded Atlanta Hawks in the first round.
The Heat have a superstar in Jimmy Butler, who, year after year, seems to raise his game in the postseason – a fearsome two-way player who rarely has nights out.
The Celtics, of course, have an explosive star of their own in Tatum, but he’s had his battles against the 76ers. On Sunday, he was the MVP on the block. He shot 17-of-28 from the field and 6-of-10 from 3-point range, and finished with 13 rebounds and five assists.
“We just dealt with the ebbs and flows of the series,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzola said. “We never got too high emotionally or too low emotionally. We managed to keep our emotional coherence intact.”
Missed opportunities will haunt the 76ers, who lead 3-2 in the series with a chance to finish it off at home on Thursday. In that match, Tatum missed 13 of his first 14 field goal attempts. But the Celtics were solid defensively and Tatum trailed to extend the series with a 95-86 win.
“Honestly, they put us on the ropes,” Tatum said.
The final on Sunday was preceded by some first-class games. about two hours before the edge, ESPN reported The official NBA review of Game 6 showed that 13 official fouls hurt the 76ers while only four hurt the Celtics.
Prior to the game, 76ers coach Doc Rivers acknowledged the veracity of the report. The review was shared with both teams.
“It was honestly disappointing to see,” said Rivers, who knocked out a shortlist of foul calls he felt held his team back. He added, “Having said that, it’s a human game, and you have to play it.”
The 7s are inherently important, but a lot seems to hinge on this game for both teams. For the Celtics, a loss would have represented a stark undoing of everything they achieved last season, when they advanced to the NBA Finals before losing to the Golden State Warriors in six games.
But progression is rarely linear, and the Celtics have faced an unusually rocky road this season: an unexpected coaching change before training camp began, a season-ending injury to Danilo Gallinari before he appeared in a game, and a defense he lacked. Familiar cuteness.
For the ’76ers, Sunday’s game was, fair or not, a referendum on the process, the team-building exercise that, as one of the foundational parts, got them into the 2014 NBA Draft. But now it’s time for a deep playoff run. Rivers admitted the pressure before the game.
“But that’s what it’s about,” he said. “You put yourself out there because you want to win, and you know if you do, you have to put yourself in those situations, over and over again. And he deserves it.”
At the same time, Rivers anticipated the importance of his key players pushing themselves “to the limits of exhaustion”. Embiid spent his final few moments of calm before the terminal dribble near the half-court circle. He even lifted a few fake shots before handing the ball over to teammate Therese Maxi.
The rest of Embiid’s afternoon was bleak. The 76ers have now gone six straight playoff games without advancing to the Conference Finals.
The series was filled with uneven performances. At the top of that list was Harden, who scored 45 points in Game 1 before instantly disappearing, shooting 5-of-28 from the field in a pair of losses. He reappeared in Game 4, scoring 42 points, but was negative again in Games 5 and 6. So the question: Which version of Harden will appear in Game 7?
He was working early in the second quarter when he appeared to lose his grip on the ball while throwing the ball. Harden hung in the air, swinging an elbow that hit Brown’s face. He was whistled for a flagrant foul. The Browns made two free throws, then Tatum threw a ball to Robert Williams for a dunk.
“Nothing like a shot in the face to wake you up right away,” Brown said. “The energy in the building was through the roof.”
The Celtics were continuing to run when Brown, who already had a cotton swab stuffed in his left nostril, fell in front of the opponent’s bench. As the Browns huddled and turned to run into the uppercourt, the 76ers’ George Niang reached from his folding chair to grab Brown’s left leg.
Brown yelled at Niang, and the players were evaluated for technical fouls. At that time, Boston was already behind. But the crowd was rowdy, and the Celtics made sure they stayed that way.