The Philadelphia 76ers entered last night's game against the injury-riddled Boston Celtics as heavy favorites to win the series. The Sixers had multiple days of rest whereas the Celtics were coming off a gruelling, seven-game series against the Bucks. But, that's why they play the games.
The Celtics got off to a hot start in Game 1 at the TD Garden and really poured it on late as they secured a 117-101 victory to kickoff the second round series. After the game, Sixers big man Joel Embiid didn't mince words when speaking about his, and his teammates', performance.
He told reporters, "It starts on defense. I thought I was shitty. I thought we were all bad tonight. That's not who we are, definitely. When everybody is on, we're the best defensive team in the game. There's a lot of stuff that we game-planned that we didn't execute.""
The Celtics connected on 17 of 35 shots from three (48.6%), while the Sixers missed 21 of 26 3-point attempts and shot 42% from the field overall.
Embiid, who finished with a game-high 31 points to go along with 13 rebounds and five assists, says he's looking forward to more trash talk from Celtics fans when the two teams take the court again on Thursday night.
"I think our fans are louder than that," Embiid said. "It didn't bother me. They were great. They supported the team tonight. It was good. I love that type of atmosphere because it kind of elevates my game. ... I love when people talk trash, so keep bringing it on and we're going to see how it goes."