Tyrese Maxey torches the Celtics defense on Christmas: 9 takeaways

Celtics

A lackluster defensive effort failed the Celtics.

Tyrese Maxey AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

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Tyrese Maxey gave the Celtics more than they could handle in a Christmas Day showdown Wednesday, as the 76ers cruised to a 118-114 victory over their defending champion rivals.

Here are the points to remember.

The Celtics defense was horrible.

The Celtics defense hasn’t been as good as last year leading up to Christmas, and that trend continued on a big stage on Wednesday.

We got a glimpse of the Celtics’ ceiling. Their first steal of the game came with just under four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but the defense rallied at times as they recovered from two double-digit deficits – one each in the third quarter and at the end of the fourth. After essentially being allowed to do whatever he wanted for much of the game, Tyrese Maxey turned the ball over repeatedly against a significantly stronger Celtics defensive sequence in the final minutes.

But perhaps the Celtics’ worst play of the game came with 1:09 remaining – after working to rally, the Celtics got the Sixers down to 1.1 on the shot clock, entering the ball at the line touch. Maxey flew over a screen and caught a pass that flew unhindered to the basket. Jaylen Brown took a half-hearted step toward him at the rim, but Maxey finished the layup and gave the Sixers a seven-point lead with just over a minute to play, putting the Celtics in mode despair for the rest of the way.

“We just came out too casual,” Brown said. “I just think we were walking to our locations. Nobody was sprinting down the field, they were just hanging around, just trying to move backwards to get the ball instead of just pushing it down the field and just being aggressive. I feel like we started the game slow, and they took advantage of it.

Brown added that he thought recent struggles seemed worse than they are, and Joe Mazzulla agreed.

“We had two 25-point quarters last game,” he said. “It was our attack [that struggled] because of our live turnovers. This match was the inconsistency in our efforts.

“So I think these are small samples. We have to play harder. But if you look at the sample size of 30 games, you see where we are. But yeah, these are definitely times where we have to play harder.

Wednesday’s game was the first time the Celtics lost two games in a row all year, and they kept that two-game losing streak at bay longer than anyone. This small slowdown probably won’t mean much in the long run, and we have plenty of evidence that the Celtics are better than the team that delivered iconic wins over both the short-handed Magic and the Sixers.

But the defensive slippage is starting to become a little more visible than before, and showing they can nip it in the bud could instill some needed confidence.

Kristaps Porzingis took a weird step and missed in the second half.

On one of the first possessions of the game, Kristaps Porzingis took a very weird step, slipped, crumpled a little and limped back.

The TD Garden crowd made a strange and obvious noise, but Porzingis played the rest of the first half and knocked down three 3-pointers.

On the other side, however, Porzingis looked very limited as Sixers players ran around him, and he started the second half in the locker room. A closer look showed that he twisted his left ankle uncomfortably, and the Celtics deemed him “questionable” to return all the way (which, given the Celtics’ emphasis on health for the playoffs and Porzingis’ injury history, was as much as ruling him out).

“I asked him how he was,” Mazzulla said afterward. “He said he was fine, then he was re-evaluated at halftime, but I didn’t hear anything.”

Tyrese Maxey might be the best player on the Sixers right now.

The Celtics looked poised to regain control and take control of the second half after a strong third-quarter performance, and Joel Embiid and Paul George started the final quarter on the bench.

But rather than take and extend the lead against the short-handed Sixers, the Celtics – who then had their entire roster of stars on the court – slipped thanks to a strong stretch from Maxey. The speedy guard tore the Celtics apart in the pick-and-roll and punished them for Sam Hauser’s minutes, barking up the bench after a particularly soft rotation and finishing around the high wing.

For years, the Celtics had a great answer for the Sixers because Al Horford could match up against Joel Embiid, which caused a lot of problems for a Sixers team built around Embiid’s singular physical dominance in 1 against 1.

Maxey solves a lot of these problems by being the kind of explosive guard with a deadly jumper who can scramble the Celtics defense, especially when that defense is in a compromised state.

“It’s in our individual game, and it’s also in our team,” Mazzulla said. “You just have to take your trend. Some of those he’s going to do, but the stuff we gave him to his right hand in the first half, Maxey’s minutes in the second quarter where he kind of loosened up in transition, he got released by going to his right hand, you I have to remove some.

“So it’s just a detailed, ongoing effort on the trends, especially those from the first half. I would say the things he had in the first half because of our transition and our [lack of] attention to detail is worse than some second-rate things.

The Celtics were without Jrue Holiday, which obviously means a lot, but Maxey’s ascension is a very important transition for the Sixers, and on Wednesday he already looked like their best player.

Maxey finished with 33 points, four rebounds and 12 assists, and he was a team-high +20 in box scoring. Embiid and Paul George, for that matter, were -18 and -16, respectively. The plus/minus score is not always a particularly useful tool, but it sometimes reflects the eye test perfectly.

Joel Embiid made a mistake during warm-ups (but he was fine).

In a bizarre moment before the game, Embiid did a flip 3-pointer and fell backwards, apparently stepping on a TD Garden security guard and falling to the ground, clutching his lower leg.

Embiid started and looked good for much of the game, but he also twisted his left ankle in the second half while maneuvering around the basket without contact.

As injuries mount for Embiid, it’s hard not to wonder if the idea of him staying healthy through the playoffs is realistic.

Still, he scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds despite his nicks and bruises.

Caleb Martin continued to torture the Celtics.

Celtics fans may remember – although they would probably rather forget – the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, when the Heat became unsustainable just long enough to knock them out of the playoffs (but not long enough to constitute a serious threat against the Nuggets, who cruised to the title that year).

Somehow, in all of those games, Caleb Martin never made seven 3-pointers, even though it felt like he was averaging 13 or 14 per game. On Wednesday, Martin — who is shooting 30.5 percent from behind the arc this season — went 7 of 9 from deep, setting a new career high for 3-pointers made in a game.

“That was the game plan,” Brown said. “We just stuck to the game plan. We trusted the game plan. Martin hit, what? Seven 3. It’s hard. He has done this to us in the past. At first we felt comfortable letting him take all the shots. He just knocked them over that time.

If the Celtics and Sixers meet in a playoff series, limiting Paul George will likely be more of a priority for Joe Mazzulla, but Celtics fans might be more concerned about Martin – the absolute definition of a Celtics killer.

Jaylen Brown started in the second half.

Brown’s first half was a confusing mix of offbeat and seemingly disengaged – he didn’t seem to have a good feel for the game or the 76ers, and as a result he started 1 of 8 from the field with four turnovers in the First 24 minutes.

In the third quarter, however, Brown scored 16 points, leading the Celtics’ comeback into the game. He repeatedly ran into the Sixers defense and scored around the rim with a variety of creative finishes before knocking down a few big 3-pointers that continued to narrow the gap.

“That game just wasn’t a great game, it wasn’t my best game,” Brown said. “But I’m just trying to do whatever it takes to help our team get a win and get us closer.” […]

“We just couldn’t put together a good 48. I don’t really know why. It was a bit weird. But I guess we’ll look at it, break it down and go from there.

Brown’s final stat — 23 points, 10-for-23 shooting — wasn’t particularly effective, but he gave the Celtics big minutes offensively and was part of the reason they rallied in the second half ( his defense in the first half, meanwhile, was part of the reason they fell behind in the first place).

The Celtics wasted a huge performance by Tatum.

Tatum, meanwhile, posted MVP numbers for his second straight performance – 32 points, 15 rebounds and four assists. This performance follows his monstrous 43-point triple double on Saturday.

Tatum also received some love from Deuce during the Celtics’ first timeout.

If players have to work over Christmas, letting their families chip in during downtime seems fair.

Al Horford did his part.

As is so often the case against the Sixers, Horford contributed a lot – he was +22 in a game the Celtics lost by four. In the first half, he helped keep the Celtics afloat by bombing three-pointers, and he finished with 17 points on 5-for-10 shooting from deep.

“You must give [the Sixers] credit. They played well,” Horford said. “When you come here, when you play here, we know we get the best shots from the teams. Even though they didn’t play well, they were going to play well. And I felt like we responded, but ultimately gave them credit. They got the victory and that’s it.

The Celtics must now bounce back.

The Celtics really don’t want to lose three in a row after losing two in a row for the first time. They’ll try to avoid that with a win against the Pacers on Friday at TD Garden – the first of two in a row against Indiana in Boston. “We don’t like to lose. We don’t particularly like losing here at home,” Horford said. “So we just have to be better.”