This series has gone pretty much the opposite of how I expected it would. I’m not a betting man, and that’s damn lucky for me, because I’d be wondering why I ever thought that putting my life savings (23 dollars and an unopened ultra-rare mint condition misprint “S’m’ores” box of Pop-Tarts, one of only 3 extant in the world) on Philly to win the series would be a good idea.
They won fifteen games in a row to end the season or whatever, but when I saw their inexperienced talent kinda struggle against the Heat (who suck), I should’ve known that the veteran savvy of the Celtics would be too much to handle.
Except, wait a minute, the Celtics don’t have a surfeit of vet savvy either. Al Horford, obviously, but then it’s just a bunch of young players. Horford is definitely savvying the heck out of the 76ers (he dominated the end of this game to give his team the win), but everyone else is just as green as Simmons and Embiid. There’s no reason that Jayson Tatum should have looked as composed and smooth as he did tonight.
His numbers this series aren’t insane or anything, well, they kind of are for a rookie, but aside from scoring he isn’t doing a whole ton. That may sound nitpicky, and it is, but I can’t just endlessly heap praise on this dude no matter how earned it is. I have to be “fair and balanced”. Let’s just go full-on in the other direction: he’s a bust, and the Celtics would be lucky to get someone like Thon Maker for him at this point. Yeah. Definitely Thon Maker.