Celtics thrash the 76ers in Game 2, despite Joel Embiid’s strong performance in return.

Celtics Superstar Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers had a good 24 hours leading up to Game 2 of this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Boston Celtics. He celebrated being awarded the NBA’s Most Valuable Player on Tuesday night. He also returned to Philadelphia’s starting lineup after a roughly two-week absence with a damaged lateral collateral ligament in his right knee on Wednesday after experiencing no setbacks throughout the course of the day.

But what about the nearly two hours that he and his 76ers teammates played Game 2? Not really.

While Embiid appeared to be physically unharmed while moving around on his right knee and finished with 15 points and five blocks in 27 minutes, that was pretty much the only bright spot in the Celtics’ 121-87 drubbing.

The 76ers were defeated so badly that they didn’t have their starters on the court for the whole fourth quarter.

Embiid said of the Celtics, “I simply think tonight they made a lot of shots. They played with greater desperation than us and beat us to every lost ball. We need to improve because we didn’t carry out the plan we had in mind.

After we won the first game, we anticipated that they would try to respond, but we weren’t prepared enough. However, we’ll fix it.

Celtics thrash the 76ers in Game 2

Embiid was back in his usual spot in Philadelphia’s starting lineup for Game 2 after successfully completing his exercises on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, the Celtics became the 15th consecutive team to win Game 2 of a series after losing Game 1 at home after the 76ers were propelled by a spectacular 45-point performance from James Harden in Game 1. Harden, who is expected to win the MVP award, watched in street clothes.

After Philadelphia limited Boston to just 26 attempts in Game 1, its lowest total in any game this season, the C’s responded by returning to their roots, making 20 of 51 3-point attempts.

“I believed that dribble penetration was something that we could control. They inhabited the paint, which produced 3s.

However, Rivers asserted that he believed his offence to be the night’s biggest issue. Philadelphia was unable to make a shot. The 76ers failed to reach a winning percentage of 40% overall and shot a pitiful 6-for-28 from outside the arc, including 6-for-21 from the field in the third quarter as Boston blew open a close game at the half.

After a stellar Game 1, Harden had a poor effort on Wednesday, shooting just 2-for-14 from the field and missing all six of his three-point tries.

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When asked if Boston changed anything in Game 2 to slow him down, Harden responded, “No.” We had poor space, and this is a make-or-break league. We need to be more aware of our positions on the court so that we can give each other room and create easier shots.

While Embiid only made 4 of 9 field goal attempts, including both of his 3-point attempts, he made 7 of 8 foul shots and generally looked nimble when moving around the court. In Game 2, Embiid had all five of his blocks in the first 13 minutes of play after Boston had a nonstop string of attempts to get to the basket in Game 1. He also blocked a Jaylen Brown slam attempt.

Additionally, Embiid looked impressive when he went around Al Horford for a dunk and snuck through the lane on a pick-and-roll from Harden for a layup.

He didn’t appear to be publicly disturbed by the knee other than for a brief period in the second quarter when he grasped at the brace on his leg and flexed.

The first time Embiid has truly gone up and down in two weeks was on Tuesday. “But I’ve developed a lot and learned how to care for myself, so I now know what to do [in these circumstances].” Even though you may occasionally feel exhausted, I believed tonight was alright and I’ll get better as the days pass.

Philadelphia saw this as a very good road trip, despite the terrible performance in Game 2. The 76ers won Game 1 to take the home-court advantage away from the Celtics, and Embiid was able to participate after missing the first two postseason games due to a sprained knee.

Now that the series is moving to the City of Brotherly Love for Game 3 on Friday night, where Embiid will almost certainly be honoured prior to the game in front of what will undoubtedly be a boisterous crowd at the Wells Fargo Centre, Embiid will spend the next few days enhancing his conditioning, and Philadelphia will try to maintain its control over home court.

Tyrese Maxey, a guard with the Sixers, stated, “It’s going to be great for us.” Philadelphia will appear for us. They’re going to work hard, I can tell. I’m confident that we will work to safeguard home court.

“It will be crucial that we go there and attempt to obtain two. Very significant. That was one of our goals, so we stole home court. Although we were hoping for two, we only managed to secure one.