Nick Nurse, Sixers address what was unacceptable in loss to Celtics

BOSTON -- The Philadelphia 76ers dropped Game 1 to the Boston Celtics by a score of 123-91 on Sunday afternoon as they find themselves in an early hole in this Round 1 series. The Celtics got whatever they wanted as they played with much more intensity and focus than what the Sixers played with in a playoff game.

Coach Nick Nurse revealed after the loss that there were some good moments for Philadelphia--notably a stretch from the middle of the second quarter to the middle of the third--but other than that, Nurse called the effort "unacceptable".

When asked to expand on that thought, Nurse pointed to a few issues such as transition points as the Celtics got out and ran a lot off Philadelphia's turnovers. The Celtics had 22 points off Philadelphia's 15 turnovers in that respect.

Another big issue for Nurse was the 3-point attempts. Boston shot 16-for-44 compared to 4-for-23 for Philadelphia.

"I think that there's a few things," Nurse stated. "I mean, we certainly can't give up that much in transition. That's a big one. We got to take care of the ball better. Too many turnovers that also were live ball that led to some of that transition. I think we've got to generate more 3s against this team. We got to generate them, and we got to take them. Obviously, we have to make some, which I'm sure we will."

To echo Nurse's sentiments, star guard Tyrese Maxey believes there are some immediate things that the Sixers can clean up heading into Game 2. Most notably, slowing down Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum who had a lot of success getting into the paint and downhill.