Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Brown felt better Monday and tried to lobby team trainers to let him play but the team made a decision to err on the side of caution.
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Jaylen Brown, who had two breakout scoring games in the first round, tweaked a hamstring in the first half of Saturday’s game.
Sixers head coach Brett Brown knows that fight and most of those great playoff matchups happened before his players were even born. He averaged 15.8 points and 4.1 assists per game that season. Embiid was not as dominant but kept offensive playmaker Kelly Olynyk out of the game. They implemented a similar strategy against the Heat by moving Ersan Ilyasova to the five. Regardless, they still had a tough time stopping Philly’s two superstars. The Celtics hindered by major injuries all season, put everything together and played a very good game seven. Whatever the reason, the Celtics have managed to squeak by the Bucks and move on to the second round.
“I hope so”, Brown said.
Stevens added that Brown could return later in the series. “You grew up watching Celtics-Sixers rivalries, and saw incredible games when I was young”.
When it comes to great rivalries in the National Basketball Association, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers stand alone, at least in terms of their number of postseason meetings.
“You’d definitely love to have the team that you started off training camp with”, Celtics center Aron Baynes noted following Sunday’s film session. Afterwards, we heard from Brad Stevens, Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, Al Horford, and Jayson Tatum. The Celtics have not lost a playoff game in Boston, nor have they won on the road.
The teams, which first met in the playoffs when the Sixers were the Syracuse Nationals (think Larry Costello), haven’t met in the postseason since 2012 and have played twice since 1985.
The season ended for the Bucks in a Game 7 against a team without its two best players.
The Sixers led all teams in assist percentage in the first round as 67.9% of their baskets were assisted. Here’s the latest game preview with matchup odds, TV start time, channel, and how to watch the 76ers vs Celtics live streaming online Monday night.
“We took care of business, so I was fine I got to rest”, Brown told reporters in the locker room following the Celtics’ 112-96 victory. Milwaukee’s Jabari Parker and John Henson each ranked in the top-five for most efficient players on points-per-paint touch * a href=”https://stats.nba.com/players/touches/?sort=PTS_PER_PAINT_TOUCH&dir=1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Playoffs&PerMode=Totals&CF=PAINT_TOUCHES*GE*10&DateTo=04%2F27%2F2018″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener” *(minimum: 10 paint touches) during the playoffs.
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The Celtics picked up their first win of the season and it was their 2nd game after the horrific Gordon Hayward injury. While the 76ers played better than anyone thought, they weren’t able to build off their performance in the following season.
