{"id":176387,"date":"2026-04-26T07:03:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/176387\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T07:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:03:42","slug":"celtics-76ers-takeaways-jayson-tatum-delivers-dagger-3-haunts-philadelphia-once-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/176387\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics-76ers takeaways: Jayson Tatum delivers dagger 3, haunts Philadelphia once more"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> might have had Jayson Tatum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They traded up to No. 1 in the 2017 NBA Draft, taking Markelle Fultz<\/a>, leaving Lonzo Ball<\/a> for the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> at No. 2 and Tatum for the Boston Celtics<\/a> at No. 3.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

To say it has come back to bite them is an understatement.<\/p>\n

Tatum, who once scored a record 51 points in a Game 7 to close out the Sixers in a second-round playoff series, drilled a dagger 3-pointer over Philadelphia<\/a> center Adem Bona<\/a> in a 108-100 win<\/a> on Friday. Tatum scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, as Boston took a 2-1 series lead entering Sunday\u2019s Game 4 of the first round.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here before,\u201d Tatum told the broadcast in the game\u2019s aftermath.<\/p>\n

Reminder: Tatum is less than a year removed from rupturing his right Achilles tendon. It is easy to forget that as the playoffs wear on, considering how well he\u2019s played. He appeared in only 16 regular-season games. Tatum should not be doing stuff like this:<\/p>\n

But he is. And it\u2019s glorious to witness. Unless you\u2019re from Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Now, for some takeaways.<\/p>\n

Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown<\/a> close it out<\/p>\n

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Celtics and Sixers were locked in a one-possession game. A goaltending violation had just given Boston an 86-85 advantage.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Celtics co-star Jaylen Brown took over the game for a spell. He stole a pass intended for Paul George<\/a> and found Derrick White<\/a> for a layup, and then scored the next eight points by himself, pushing Boston\u2019s edge to 96-92 with 3:14 remaining.<\/p>\n

But Philadelphia would not go away.<\/p>\n

So, that\u2019s when Tatum took over. He scored or assisted on Boston\u2019s next 10 points.<\/p>\n

A Tatum 3 gave the Celtics a 100-96 edge with 1:57 left. He found Payton Pritchard<\/a> for one of his five 3-pointers and a 103-98 advantage on Boston\u2019s next possession. Then, after the Sixers cut it to 103-100, Tatum drilled the dagger over Bona. Ballgame.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Boston makes its 3s<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a make-or-miss league, they say. Make shots, and win. Miss them, and lose. And Boston has made shots more often than Philadelphia all season, which is why the Celtics are the second seed, and why they were heavily favored to win this series.<\/p>\n

Well, the Celtics didn\u2019t make shots in Game 2, missing 37-of-50 3-point attempts. Only once all season did they miss more. Meanwhile, the Sixers made their shots in Game 2, converting 19-of-39 3-point attempts, one of their three best shooting performances of the season. That was the difference in Philadelphia\u2019s 111-97 victory.<\/p>\n

Maybe it was anomalous.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

After all, the Celtics nearly equaled their output from all of Game 2 in the first half of Game 3, ripping 12 triples, staking themselves to a 54-47 advantage at the break. Eight different Celtics converted 3-pointers on the night. Five made multiple 3s.<\/p>\n

In the end, Boston finished 20-of-47 from deep, far better than its Game 2 effort.<\/p>\n

And still the 76ers were in the game, even though they couldn\u2019t match Boston\u2019s firepower from deep. Philadelphia finished 12-of-35 in this one and lost. Go figure.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t let Maxey beat you with his scoring and let him beat you with his passing. But that\u2019s exactly what he wants to do in the pick-and-roll \u2014 either score or create a bucket for one of his teammates. And it doesn\u2019t matter what coverage you give him.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Drop in coverage, and he\u2019ll pull up over you. Get too close, and he\u2019ll blow by you. Hedge with a second defender, and he\u2019ll fire off a pass so quick it\u2019ll reach a shooter before you can recover. Either commit two to slowing him, leaving open shooters, or play him man-to-man, praying he misses one on one. These are your difficult choices.<\/p>\n

So, the Celtics opted to let Maxey beat them one on one. And he nearly did, scoring 31 points, albeit on 12-of-31 shooting. Boston will take that math, especially if it means the Celtics can stay home on Philly\u2019s shooters. That they did, and Maxey managed six assists a few nights after saying he needed \u201c9, 10 or 11\u201d per game to stay in the series.<\/p>\n

Sixers not named Maxey or George finished 3-of-15 from beyond the arc. A far cry from Game 2. Rookie VJ Edgecombe<\/a>, who totaled 30 points and 10 rebounds in the Game 2 victory, came back to Earth on Friday, missing all seven of his 3-point tries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia 76ers might have had Jayson Tatum. They traded up to No. 1 in the 2017 NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23937,9512,59250,14670,58958,78935,30547,78934,15352,58959,69,1002,71,70,12920,10795],"class_list":["post-176387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-adem-bona","tag-boston-celtics","tag-derrick-white","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-lonzo-ball","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-markelle-fultz","tag-paul-george","tag-payton-pritchard","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-tyrese-maxey","tag-vj-edgecombe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}