The Boston Celtics went from favourites to win the NBA Championship to going 3-2 down against the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round of the playoffs. They lost Game 5 by 115-103 and veteran guard Marcus Smart believes that everything that could go wrong for them went wrong in this game.
The Celtics played really well in Game 4 and on some other day, the would walk out with a 3-1 lead. But Smart scuffed his shot twice with the game on the line and they ended up losing it. But now with this loss, they are on the verge of getting eliminated.
After the defeat in Game 5, Smart was asked what went wrong for them, to which he replied, “Everything.”
“Everything went wrong. They made every right play. They made every hustle play. Everything went wrong for us that could go wrong,” he added.
Despite the game being played at Boston’s TD Garden, the Celtics could not do anything but disappoint their fans. The Sixers had the lead throughout the game and their biggest lead of 21 points came in the fourth quarter. Their offense had an off day and the Sixers punished them heavily.
The MVP of this season Joel Embiid slammed 33 points, seven boards, three assists and four blocks. Tyrese Maxey also dropped 30 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Celtics were led by their superstar Jayson Tatum with 36 points, 10 boards and five assists. Jaylen Brown finished with 24 points, six rebounds and two assists.
Game 6 will be played in Philadelphia and the Sixers will have a brilliant opportunity to close it out in front of their home fans and progress to the Conference Finals for the first time since 2001.
Brown was also very disappointed with the defeat. He accepted that the team dropped the ball and they weren’t that effective with their shooting. “We dropped the ball tonight. We couldn’t stay in front of anybody, couldn’t get a stop when we needed to, we missed a lot of wide-open shots, and gave everything up that they wanted us to give up. And that was the story of the game,” Brown shared after losing Game 5.