By Michael Donovan
It wasn’t that the 76ers were good last night in their 89-80 victory.
They shot 46 percent, committed 22 turnovers and were reeling late in the fourth quarter.
The Celtics were that bad.
It was a pathetic performance for the first 42 minutes when the Kyrie Irving-less Celtics scored 66 points and had zero offensive rhythm.
Joel Embiid (26 points) scored at will most of the evening, and the past two games are an indication that the Celtics need a better or more imposing interior defender. Aron Baynes couldn’t deal with Embiid or New Orleans’s Anthony Davis, who scored 45 on the Celtics on Tuesday.
Baynes lacked the strength to push Embiid away from the basket and when Embiid chose not to back Baynes in, he simply shot over him. Al Horford needed to be in takeover mode but managed 11 shots in 35 minutes. Jayson Tatum was timid at times and was unable to even get a shot off in traffic at others.
And it took until about the six-minute mark in the fourth quarter, trailing by 18, for the Celtics to play with any passion. They missed a handful of 3-pointers that would have cut the deficit to 4 in the final two minutes, but they really didn’t deserve to rally.
“We didn’t play hard enough on offense,” Stevens said. “Again, we played really hard on defense. It’s a testament to (the 76ers) that we knew coming in that you have to play with great intensity on offense because they deny you, they switch, they’re long, they’re athletic. Very rarely to people talking about the motor, how hard you have to play on the offensive end.
