BOSTON — The Celtics didn’t take long to show they would approach the postseason with the same depth attack they did all regular season. Joe Mazzulla went 10-deep into his rotation in the first half on Sunday, and four playoff novices performed almost immediately, widening the gap the team’s veterans created on the way to a 32-point win to open the series over the 76ers.
“Everybody on our team has impacted winning, and that’s the most important thing,” Mazzulla said before the Celtics’ regular season finale. “Regardless of if it’s preseason, regular season, playoffs, it doesn’t matter. Every one of those guys has put us in position to win at some particular time, and that’s the identity that we have to continue, knowing that anyone, whether it’s one minute, two minutes, 20, could help us win, so we gotta keep that going.”
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown powered the Celtics’ series-opening win in their 122nd and 136th postseason appearances, respectively. Their experience and success showed with their rings and average playoff wins per season that trail only Magic Johnson’s 9.85 among all-time NBA players. Further down Boston’s roster, numerous players prepared to appear in a postseason rotation for the first time and while Mazzulla returned his mantra that the playoffs are the same as the regular season, smaller pockets, more time against opposing starters and subtle changes in routine create some differences.
When Baylor Scheierman received his call to begin the second quarter, Jordan Walsh had already entered the game as the team’s depth wing and Luka Garza joined him due to foul trouble. His opportunity came quickly, cutting baseline and needing to bury a floater at a tough angle — he came through. And so did everyone else who might’ve had questions around them entering the postseason regarding how their impact would translate from the regular season.
“I think it’s just high intensity,” Scheierman told CLNS Media after. “Obviously, every possession is magnified and every play is magnified, and so when you’re out there, you’re just trying to make winning plays and I felt like I came in and did that. Once I got out there and started playing, it really just feels like hoops.”
Neemias Queta picked up a pair of fouls after he scored twice early. The Sixers played away from him in a mix of early coverages and attacked him in space on defense. Tyrese Maxey went at Sam Hauser, drilling an early three, but Boston’s off-ball shifts helped slow him to a 1-for-3 start. Paul George threw a pick to Derrick White to cap the opening sequence, setting up a Jayson Tatum layup on the break and a 15-7 lead.
That expanded as the Sixers started 1-for-9 from three, squandering a pair of open opportunities from the corner by VJ Edgecombe, who began his first postseason action scoreless. Walsh capped his with a breakout layup to end the first quarter ahead 33-18. That marked his first career playoff points after 26 minutes of garbage time over the last two years. Garza (13 career postseason points) and Queta (10) also poured in 12 combined points, their first in a postseason rotation with the former starting the second alongside Scheierman (8).
“Just breathe,” Brown told them leading up to their effective playoff debuts. “Manage your emotions. They might go on a run, they might not go on a run, but just stay together, win the fight, be the harder playing team and guard. Don’t save yourself for offense. Our offense is gonna be fine if we guard. That was my message.”
While Brown struggled, starting 2-for-8 and making several mistakes on the drive, Tatum shot 5-for-7 logging the entirety of the first quarter. White and Sam Hauser, making his first career playoff start, poured in early threes before the Celtics dipped to 33.3% three-point shooting by halftime, and still led by 18 points. Scheierman’s baseline floater alongside an early Garza offense rebound and three bolstered a 15-point edge before Queta returned and picked up a third foul almost immediately. Vučević, also a playoff novice with 16 games (18.4 PPG) in 15 seasons, missed a three and lost the ball cutting to the rim before picking up a third personal foul, too.
But enough Celtics came through and enough Sixers faltered to hold the line, limiting Maxey to 5-for-14 shooting and forcing their first turnover on him late in the second quarter to feed Tatum on the break toward 21 points at the free throw line in his first playoff action since his Achilles tear.
For all the uncertainty around them, he and Brown began their ninth postseason together, and true to that form, they absorbed a Sixers run to start the third quarter, but never let the Philadelphia draw closer than 15. Vučević started a pass-pass sequence on his cut to the rim that set up White for three. Brown hit one midway through the quarter, then White found Vučević on the break with a pass that vaulted Boston’s lead back to 21. That set up a fourth quarter where Ron Harper Jr. scored and Hugo González played his first postseason minute.
Walsh, Garza and Scheierman combined to shoot only 2-for-10 after halftime, but the Celtics won their minutes. Queta poured in 13 points despite only logging 15 minutes through his foul trouble. Queta and Vučević fouled nine times, points of improvement in a game where so much else went Boston’s way. Rotations can still tighten further into the playoffs, and some of the Celtics’ approach stemmed from that foul trouble. Yet they still found out almost immediately this postseason that their depth can provide them an additional advantage over opponents on top of their high-end talent. That’s something last year’s roster, for all its strengths, didn’t show.
“I think it shows us the confidence that Joe has in me and the players have in me, and I just go out there and try to execute and make winning plays,” Scheierman said.
