The Boston Celtics gained another win and took a 2-0 series lead against the Philadelphia 76ers, 128-101.
One of the major concerns of Boston as they entered their second game in the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs was the absence of Gordon Hayward who suffered a sprained ankle injury late in the fourth quarter of Game 1.
Yet, that was not really the situation as the Celtics stormed Philadelphia in the second and third quarter of the match.
The biggest reason is the continued dominance of their young superstar, Jayson Tatum who once again gave 30+ points but most importantly another victory for coach Brad Stevens.
Tatum scored 33 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists while Kemba Walker and Jaylen Brown had 22 and 20 points respectively.
Enes Kanter and Marcus Smart took the scoring slack left by Hayward where both of them had 10 markers.
For the Philly, it’s now apparent that their main-man Joel Embiid needed scoring support as Ben Simmons is expected to be out in the remainder of the series.
Likewise, coach Brett Brown needed to make another tweak his strategy particularly on how to stop Tatum from scoring. Today, his experiment to insert rookie defender Matisse Thybulle wasn’t fruitful as the Celtics third-year man became the third player in its franchise history to make eight or more three-pointer during the playoffs.
Game 3 of the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers will resume on August 22 at 6:30 AM (PHI time).