Without Gordon Hawyard and Kyrie Irving the Boston Celtics weren’t supposed to have alot of playoff success. Someone forgot to tell the rest of the team. Trailing by 22 to Philadelphia in the second quarter Thursday night, Boston rallied for a 108-103 win in game two of an Eastern Conference semifinal series at TD Garden. The Celtics are now 6-0 at home in the playoffs, and lead the best of seven series 2-0.
Duke rookie Jayson Tatum who led the Celtics scorers in game one with 29 points, had 21 to lead the team Thursday night. Terry Rozier continued his success with 20 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists. Marcus Smart had 19 points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Al Horford added 13 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists. Marcus Morris also chipped in 11 points, six rebounds, and three assists. Boston, after making 17-35 from three point range in game one, made 15-36 from the arc Thursday night.
J.J. Reddick led Philadelphia with 23 points. Robert Covington added 22 points and nine rebounds, while Joel Embiid chipped in 20 points, 14 rebounds, and five assists. Rookie Ben Simmons, who had been averaging 18.2 points per game in the playoffs, finished with just one point on 0-4 shooting in 31 minutes.
The 76ers led 48-26 with 6:41 left in the second quarter. The Celtics ended the first half on a 25-8 run, to cut it 56-51 Philly at the break. Boston took their first lead at 64-63 with 7:45 left in the third on a three pointer from Aron Baynes. The C’s built the lead to as many as eight in the stanza. In the fourth Philadelphia regained a five point lead at 93-88, and their last lead of the game at 95-93 came on an Embiid jumper with 4:42 left. The Celtics rallied again and pushed the lead back to seven points 104-97 with 1:57 left. Dario Saric layup with 5.5 seconds left cut it to three at 106-103, before Tatum made a pair from the foul line to end it.
Boston is 36-0 all time when leading a best of seven series 2-0, while Philadelphia is 0-11 when trailing in a best of seven 0-2. Game three will head to Philadelphia with tipoff scheduled for 5 pm Saturday.
