Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla couldn’t have been more direct during halftime of his team’s bout with the rival Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night.
The team was trailing by 17 points at intermission. His players showed little signs of life. The team’s second-year coach asked his guys if it was time to turn to the bench. After all, the team had a trip to Cleveland scheduled for Tuesday. They were set to face the NBA-leading Cavaliers. Mazzulla wasn’t opposed to simply cutting his losses.
“We just had to be honest with ourselves at halftime,” Jayson Tatum told reporters of conversations in the locker room. “They had 20 points in transition. We just — our competitive spirit wasn’t where it needed to be, and Joe was like, ‘Yo, if you’re tired, then just tell me. I’ll sit you guys down and let the ‘Stay Ready’ group play.’ We just had a choice to make.”
The defending NBA champions chose to compete, turning what was a 26-point deficit at its worst point into 118-110 victory. The comeback ties the largest in the NBA this season — the Los Angeles Clippers erased a 26-point deficit in a win over the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 4 — and the biggest for Boston since it climbed out of a 32-point whole in a game against the Spurs in 2021.
Tatum, who was named an All-Star starter for the fifth consecutive season earlier in the week, sparked his team’s second-half resurgence. He scored 25 of his game-high 35 points over the game’s final two quarters. Tatum connected on back-to-back three-pointers midway through the fourth quarter to give the Celtics their first lead since the game’s opening minutes amid what amounted to a 41-10 run for the visiting team.
“It didn’t go our way right away and we just had to keep fighting,” said Tatum, who finished with 11 assists and seven rebounds. “But it brought the best out of us. It brought — that’s how we’re supposed to play. It took a little bit from everybody. Our competitive joy was there on both ends. And it was just fun to be a part of.”
Jaylen Brown tallied a double-double for the Celtics with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Kristaps Porzingis added 18 points and seven rebounds. Derrick White scored 17 points and had nine assists. Jrue Holiday contributed nine points. This rounded out a productive effort from the starting five. Boston also got productive minutes from Sam Hauser (12 points) off the bench. Together with Tatum and White, he shot 7-for-8 from beyond the arc in the final quarter.
Philadelphia was without stars Joel Embiid and Paul George due to injury. All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey led the team with a 34-point effort. Actually, all 76ers starters finished in double figures, with Guerschon Yabusele (21 points, six rebounds), Kelly Oubre, Jr., (18 points, 13 rebounds), Justin Edwards (12 points), and Ricky Council IV (11 points) also playing well.
The 76ers will be back in action Tuesday against the Dallas Mavericks in what could be Anthony Davis’s first game with the Mavericks. The Celtics, meanwhile, will travel to Cleveland to take on a Cavaliers team riding a four-game win streak.
But until then, Brown and his Celtics can revel in what was a comeback of historic proportions.
“We rallied back, we put the effort in, we turned it up, we stayed together and we persevered through a win even though we probably shouldn’t have been down that much in the first place,” said Brown, who learned earlier in the week he had been named to a third-straight All-Star team. “I think it’s a credit to us that we was able to get it back on track in a hostile environment.”
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