A lot went wrong for the Celtics on Tuesday night, as they got punked at home by the Sixers, 111-97, to even that series at 1-1. But their biggest issue was a simple one, and one they’ve run into many times before. Outside of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they got next to nothing on offense.

Brown didn’t have his best game, but battled as you’d expect from a superstar and finished with a hard-fought 36 points on 11-24 shooting, 5-12 on threes, and 9-12 from the free throw line. Tatum was solid as well, running the show to the tune of 19 points and 9 assists on 8-19 shooting, 2-8 on threes, and 1-2 from the charity stripe.

Those numbers aren’t anything special for these two superstars, and we’ve been spoiled enough to expect more than a combined 55 points, 21 rebounds, and 13 assists, but it should be enough to win a home playoff game against this 76ers squad.

The Jays got no help on offense

The problem is that nobody else showed up to join the party. Literally. There wasn’t another Celtic who reached 10 points in this one. Derrick White had just 8 points on 3-12 shooting, Payton Pritchard came up small with just 4 points on 2-8 off the bench. Sam Hauser hit two early threes and finished the night with 6 points on 2-8.

The Celtics got some easy pick-and-roll buckets for Neemias Queta, but didn’t lean on that nearly enough, and Neemy finished with 8 points on 3-4 shooting. The third leading scorer for Boston was actually Nikola Vucevic, who was far from brilliant, but added 9 points on 3-7 shooting in 18 minutes, spelling Queta.

97 points in a playoff game is terrible for the Celtics. 43 in the second half is downright pathetic. And the 76ers are far from an elite defense. The mismatches were there to attack; the shots were there all night, they just didn’t hit them. It’s a scary situation, and it’s one Cs fans know all too well. In many ways, it felt like a carbon copy of their similar Game 2 loss to the Heat en route to the 2024 title.

But with this style of play, this is the kind of thing that can happen. They were generating plenty of looks, but finished 13-50 from the three-point line. Outside of Tatum and Brown, the rest of the team scored just 42 points on 16-46 (34.7%) shooting, 6-30 (20%) from three, and generated only 4 free throws.

Celtics need more from Pritchard, White, Hauser, & Queta

That’s just not a recipe for success. The Celtics are good enough that they still had chances to win this game down the stretch. And perhaps, if Philly doesn’t shoot the lights out and bang home 19-39 threes, we’re not even having this conversation. But here we are.

With guys like Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and now Anfernee Simons gone, we knew we were going to need others to step up more consistently. Pritchard and White need to be legitimate third- and fourth-options. Queta needs to be a real scoring threat inside. One of the role player wings has to get hot from deep. 

When all of those things happen, the Celtics are damn near unbeatable. When some happen, they’re still an elite team. When none happen, they’re extremely vulnerable, and unfortunately, in Game 2, that’s exactly what happened. It’s frustrating and disappointing, but it’s time to move on. This just can’t happen again.

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