
La Fábrica tiene 'máquina' nueva
Jacobo Ortega, el nuevo talento del Real Madrid, asombra en Valdebebas.
The Boston Celtics lost to the Philadelphia 76ers 109-100 in Game 7, struggling with shooting and lineup changes. Key players like Jayson Tatum were absent, and the team failed to effectively counter Joel Embiid's performance.
BOSTON — It felt like the Boston Celtics had open shot after open shot down the stretch against the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night. But when it mattered most, those good looks — especially from beyond the arc — did not find the net. It's a major reason why the C's ended up falling 109-100 to the Sixers in Game 7 at TD Garden, however, it feels shortsighted to blame the shooting woes and move on.
There was more to the loss than missed 3-pointers. The Celtics did shoot an abysmal 26.5 percent from deep, yet they had 2 more triples than the 76ers (13-11) and were 0-2 in the first-round series when their Atlantic Division rival won the 3-point battle, which isn't exactly egregious.
After squandering Game 5 at home and Game 6 on the road, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla knew he had to try something new in Game 7. Or, at least he was compelled to when Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum was unexpectedly ruled out for the contest with left knee stiffness just a few hours before tipoff. As a result, and to the surprise of many, the Celtics trotted out a starting lineup consisting of center , wing , and guard They joined usual starting guards and to round out a first five that the Sixers surely didn't see coming. This change didn't work though, as the Celtics quickly fell into a 9-0 hole and the three aforementioned players who had never started in a playoff game before tallied 0 points, 1 assist, 1 turnover, and 2 steals altogether in the first quarter. "We had to adjust throughout the series," Brown stated postgame. "Different lineups, different adjustments, and it just didn't go our way." Mazzulla realized his experiment wasn't working and pulled all of the new starters by the 5-minute mark. Unfortunately for the Celtics, a fair amount of damage was already done and things continued to spiral. They ended the first quarter down 13 points in a do-or-die game where they really could have benefitted from a hot start.
The Celtics struggled with poor shooting, ineffective lineup changes, and lacked sufficient offensive support for their key players.
Tatum's unexpected absence forced the Celtics to alter their starting lineup, which contributed to their slow start and inability to recover.
Joel Embiid dominated the game with 34 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists, proving difficult for the Celtics to defend effectively.
The Celtics introduced new starters including Luka Garza and Baylor Scheierman, but the changes were ineffective, leading to a quick deficit in the game.

Jacobo Ortega, el nuevo talento del Real Madrid, asombra en Valdebebas.
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While a double-digit deficit after the first frame wasn't ideal for the Celtics, it was still manageable. Their largest issue, figuratively and literally, lied with 76ers star center Joel Embiid. The 7-footer dominated in Game 7 with a game-high 34 points to go along with 12 rebounds and 6 assists. The Celtics threw their big men at him, but Embiid craftily found a way to get them in foul trouble (with the help of a few questionable whistles). Then Boston went small against the 2023 MVP, using Brown and even 6-foot-6 rookie Hugo Gonzalez to try to slow him down. This worked at times and Embiid did struggle a bit in the fourth quarter, yet he still drained a couple of huge shots in the clutch and visited the free throw line. Simply put, the Celtics didn't have a great defensive answer for him. They were more so waiting for him to physically decline and lose stamina later on since he did have an appendectomy in early April. However, that strategy wasn't as effective in Game 7 when Embiid already had 3 playoff games under his belt this series and was seemingly trending upwards in terms of health. "What changed in this series is Joel Embiid came back," Mazzulla admitted.
Perhaps the Celtics could have made up for Embiid's mid-series return if they had enough scoring support from those without the last names Tatum, Brown, and Pritchard.
Besides said trio, no Celtic was averaging more than 8.7 points per outing prior to Game 7. Some help finally arrived in the winner-takes-all showdown from guard Derrick White, yet his 26 points came on 26 shots and were far from efficient.