Sixers vs. Celtics: Doc Rivers Explains Turning Point on Saturday

On a five-game win streak, the Philadelphia 76ers faced one of their toughest opponents of the year as the Boston Celtics came to town.

Doc Rivers and the Sixers tend to avoid looking at single regular season games as barometer matchups for where they are as a team, but Saturday’s game was a real test for the Eastern Conference’s third seed, whether they wanted to admit it or not.

The Sixers came out hot on Saturday. In the opening minutes, they led by as many as nine points as Tobias Harris and Joel Embiid put impressive offense on display.

But the Celtics have proven many times throughout the year that they are the Eastern Conference favorites for a reason. In the second quarter, the lead changed twice, as the Celtics got out in front and put the Sixers in a seven-point hole.

Philadelphia bounced back and created a six-point lead before halftime. In the opening minutes of the second half, the Sixers built their most significant lead of the night by gaining a 15-point advantage over Boston. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t maintain the lead.

And former Sixers center Al Horford was a primary reason why the Sixers couldn’t control their lead in the second half of Saturday’s game.

“That was a turning point,” Doc Rivers said of Horford’s second-half shooting. “He was wide open.”

In the first half, Horford took just three shots in 16 minutes. With each of his attempts coming from beyond the arc, the Celtics’ big man came up empty.

While Horford struggled in the first half of the game, defensive miscues from Philadelphia helped Horford bounce back and catch a rhythm on Saturday. After a zero-point showing in the first half, Horford wrapped up the night with 15 points. He knocked down five of his eight threes.

“Clearly, we did something wrong,” said Rivers. “I haven’t watched the film yet, but he got threes that he didn’t get all game. We clearly lost guys. I thought a lot of them were in transition where we didn’t match up, and then we didn’t rotate. I thought in the first quarter and a half, that was as good as defense that we’ve played. They made shots still, but we were in the right plays, we rotated, they made shots over top of us, but I was very happy with that. I thought the third quarter, the last six minutes of the third quarter, the game changed.”

For the second-straight game, the Sixers played a top-tier playoff-bound team in an intense battle that went down to the wire.

“It's a game that comes down to single plays,” Rivers explained. “That was a very playoff game-ish atmosphere.”

While the Sixers came out on top against the Memphis Grizzlies two nights earlier, they found themselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard against the Celtics, as they failed to prevent a three-point play on defense in the final seconds. While Jayson Tatum’s successful game-winning shot ultimately put the Sixers away, Rivers will look at other sequences as learning experiences rather than zeroing in on the final play.

“You know, I can look at little plays, not the last one — the last one — I'll live with that,” Rivers finished. "Tatum makes a tough shot going right. You know, you live with that, but just little plays throughout the game. Free throws, rebounds, they score, you know, transition threes. That was the game to me — for us. It is what it is.”

With a 110-107 loss, the Sixers fall to 39-20 on the year. While they remain in the East’s third seed, they once again came up short against the Celtics, proving they might struggle against the reigning Eastern Conference Champions in a seven-game series.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.