BOSTON — The Philadelphia 76ers went into TD Garden in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Monday having to take on the Boston Celtics without the services of Joel Embiid who has been dealing with a sprained LCL in his right knee.
In the past, this would have been a sure loss. The Celtics jumped on the Sixers early making 17 of their first 20 shots and they shot 71.8% in the first half.
Yet, the Sixers stuck with it instead of wilting. In the past, they would have laid down and taken the loss. Not this time. They rallied to win it 119-115 and steal home-court advantage.
“It’s just the difference in us this year and last year,” coach Doc Rivers said. “We’ve had practice at it, No. 1, and we really believe. James (Harden) has missed games; we win. Joel has missed games; we win. That’s the difference between this year’s team and last year’s team. We have a bunch of street fighters.”
Harden led the way. All week at practice, The Beard was instilling confidence in his team to ensure they would walk away with the win. He stepped up to the plate on Monday by dropping 45 points.
This was a win the Sixers would not have had in the past.
“Just our focus level all throughout that game,” Tobias Harris said. “It wasn’t going our way pretty much early on in the way that they were playing and were able to score the basketball but for us, all week, we were able to get some good work in. Obviously, without Joel there — we kind of knew that he wasn’t going to be able to go in today’s game and our focus was the confidence in the mindset that we were going to win these games.”
Along with Harden’s big game, the Sixers received a big game from Harris and a big second half from Tyrese Maxey. Paul Reed had a double-double, including huge free throws late, and De’Anthony Melton had 17 off the bench. It was an overall impressive win.
“I think guys like Paul Reed and Tuck (PJ Tucker) about playing that 5 position stepped up for us,” Melton said. “As a group, we stepped up for each other. Like I said before, James in that fourth quarter, Tyrese in the second half, those type of performances, we’re going to need to continue to win games like this.”
Now, the Sixers have to be ready for a response by the Celtics in Game 2 on Wednesday, but Harris is confident that Philadelphia will get the job done amid the Embiid questions.
“We didn’t let a lot of the outside distractions like is he playing or is he not,” Harris added. “For us, we were like listen, whoever’s ready to go right now, let’s get ready to come out and get a victory. That should be our focus and emphasis.”
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