PHILADELPHIA — As Marcus Smart walked off the courtroom after a triumphant season-saving win, 76ers followers greeted him with a four-letter phrase on the tunnel again to the locker room.
After struggling via many of the recreation, the Celtics took over crunchtime to beat the Sixers 95-86 to drive a Game 7. The enviornment went from ballistic to boos in minutes, because the Sixers did not hit a shot for the ultimate six minutes of the sport earlier than a meaningless rubbish time bucket.
So as Smart heard the F-bombs from the Philadelphia crowd, he was comfortable to embrace the hate.
“This one guy kept yelling, ‘F—- you! F—- you!’ Well, yup, ‘F— me, I guess,’” Smart informed The Athletic.
Before the sport, Joe Mazzulla mentioned he was “ready for war.” Smart mentioned afterward it was “do or die.” The F-bombs had been the reward for a job nicely carried out.
“It’s gotta be a dogfight,” mentioned Smart, repeating what he mentioned after the Game 5 loss 48 hours earlier. “You got to be ready to scrap, you got to be able to bleed, you got to be willing to take a shot to the face to do whatever it takes to win.”
So Smart took over on offense. He dominated on protection. He even coached a bit of. He has at all times confirmed there is no such thing as a restrict to what he’ll do to win, and this was the prime instance.
“My teammates look for me for that. My coaching staff looks to me for that,” Smart mentioned. “That’s one of the greatest things about me, is to be able to come in and change the game with just the way I play both offensively and defensively.”
He was the engineer of this season-saving victory, driving the offensive aggressiveness within the first half and fixing the defensive puzzle within the second half. He dictated the tempo of play and arranged the offense. When the spacing wasn’t proper, he would name for guys to chop to completely different spots on the ground. If they wanted somebody to place his head down and get to the rack as Jayson Tatum endured one of many worst chilly streaks of his profession, Smart mentioned gimme the rock.
“Just (to) play with that level of toughness, it was contagious,” Mazzulla mentioned. “So he’s one of our emotional leaders. He does that for us.”
As they tried to determine a method to shut down the James Harden–Joel Embiid pick-and-roll, Brown and Smart known as an adjustment of their very own. They had been going to peel change, the place the defender on the ball peels off to the weak aspect and the following defender on the perimeter intercepts the motive force. If you may’t include Harden by yourself, go him off to somebody in place to get the cease and go get better to a shooter earlier than Harden could make the learn.
And earlier than they peeled off, they made positive to get a hand down by their aspect to remove the pocket go again to Embiid on the roll. They’ve been rudely reminded by this collection that stopping the league’s finest pick-and-roll duo requires layers of element to work.
“Playoffs is a game of chess,” Jaylen Brown mentioned. “It’s adjustments, they watch the game and make adjustments. We take stuff away and they come back the next game and make adjustments. It’s all about a chess match and now it’s 3-3. Game 7, we got to come with it.”
It all traces again to Smart, who’s the roaming quarterback of the protection. He would go from guard to middle to wing multi functional play, sprinting in circles to ensure when the Celtics despatched assist towards the ball, they didn’t get uncovered on the again finish.
“His ability to guard different guys, and recognize where the help should come from on the floor,” Mazzulla mentioned. “It was him, but it was Jaylen, it was all of them. Like I said, there was a level of intensity and a level of togetherness and connectivity that the guys had to where we were able to communicate stuff throughout the game and change matchups, change coverages.”
This is a bunch that is aware of one another nicely. Brown, Smart, and Tatum have been enjoying collectively their complete careers. Malcolm Brogdon mentioned this crew has at all times received on the defensive finish, and to win a championship, it’s going to must win with protection.
Brogdon knew this when he joined this Celtics core earlier than the season. Once he got here in halfway via the third quarter, he performed primarily the remainder of the night time. He understood if he needed to shut out video games, protection is the place he needed to lock in.
“Defense has been the story for us,” Brown mentioned. “I think in all of our wins, (we) have been around 100 points or under, so we figure out how to get stops. They’re tough, their pick-and-roll is hard.”
This recreation was bodily and uptempo, which performed into Boston’s fingers. It was in the slightest degree stunning to listen to Brown deliver up the officiating unprompted, as he has been in a position to efficiently toe the road of expressing his frustration with the calls with out catching a fantastic from the league. But Thursday, he was effusive in his reward.
“I thought the officials did a great job tonight by not letting some of those guys flop,” Brown mentioned. “They’re known to do that, they didn’t give them some of those plays, and they thought they were going to get them because they were at home and the refs stayed solid and that’s great because that’s not basketball. Let the tougher team play, keep playing the game, and we were able to figure out how to get stops down the line.”
They don’t get these stops with out Robert Williams III.
After The Athletic reported before the game that Williams would substitute Derrick White within the beginning lineup, there was loads of shock among the many viewing public. But not for Doc Rivers, who mentioned the Sixers spent shootaround Thursday morning getting ready for Williams to begin.
But when the Celtics discovered Wednesday the change was occurring, the crew’s pillars had been thrilled.
“I was excited,” Horford mentioned.
“I was ecstatic,” Smart mentioned.
“It don’t take a professional to see the difference that Rob makes,” Brown mentioned. “You put him similar (to) that role he played last year where he can trust his instincts, make plays, even him tipping the ball out on rebounds and stuff like that. I feel like Rob felt a lot more comfortable out there in that double big.”
It’s simply that it’s been so lengthy since they’ve performed this fashion. Derrick White has been one of many crew’s finest gamers all season. Would there be some rust placing Williams in with that group?
“But I’ll tell you what, I’m glad that Joe made that adjustment and we did it because what a difference,” Horford mentioned. “It didn’t surprise me. I was happy that that happened. We just know the impact that Rob has.”
Horford talked about how a lot strain Williams takes off his shoulders, permitting Horford to stand up into the ball on the pick-and-roll to restrict Embiid and Harden’s makes an attempt on the rim. It labored, because the Sixers solely took 10 photographs on the rim — and likewise drew three fouls — whereas going 3-for-17 within the midrange.
When requested Wednesday if he was going to offer some fiery speech to inspire the crew, Mazzulla demurred, pointing to this crew as a collaboration and that he wouldn’t need to do one thing inauthentic to the atmosphere they’ve created.
But the place was the urgency from Mazzulla? Why wasn’t he attempting to encourage confidence in followers who’ve been questioning him for months?
Throughout the season, this crew has lacked urgency till it was “do or die.” But as Smart mentioned, for some purpose, they thrive after they really feel that wall behind them. It’s why Mazzulla mentioned he didn’t have to remind them of the stakes.
“Whether you’re a player, a coach, any time your back is against the wall, you just rely on your locker room, rely on the people around you, each other,” Mazzulla mentioned. “And so, I haven’t been in that position as a coach, but I have as a player, and I know what it feels like.”
When Mazzulla has made errors, he’s mentioned it’s a part of the training course of. He was given the job beneath tenuous circumstances, being informed to steer a crew with title hopes when he hadn’t even sat on the entrance of an NBA bench. But Smart mentioned they’re going to work exhausting for him identical to he’s going to work exhausting for them.
“That just goes to show you Joe’s learning just like all of us. I know he’s been killed a lot, rightfully so,” Smart mentioned. “He needs to make some adjustments and he did that. And that’s all you can ask for. Just continue to be the best he can be. And it takes everybody. It’s a full team effort.”
Last 12 months was the Celtics’ likelihood to develop from their previous shortcomings and study what it takes to be a champion. Now they’re attempting to use that have, exhibiting they’ll play their finest and discover their id when it issues most.
Mazzulla has talked about attempting to develop as lately as the beginning of the playoffs, a fairly late second of the season to nonetheless be determining precisely who you might be. The Game 6 win confirmed that whereas Mazzulla can set them up for achievement, it’s on the gamers to make it occur on the courtroom.
So Mazzulla made the lineup change, then Smart and Brown made the schematic adjustment.
“When you think about in the grand scheme, we’re teaching him, as well, we’re teaching ourselves,” Smart mentioned. “We get to learn more about ourselves. It allows Jayson, it allows Jaylen, it allows me to be more vocal on the court and to go figure things out. We’re doing it together.”
(Photo: Bill Streicher / USA Today)
