Six Thoughts: Ugly Offense Gets Sixers Demolished by Celtics in Game 1

Tyrese Maxey put up a tour date to lead a very bad shooting day for the Sixers in an ugly Game 1 loss to the Boston Celtics.

Here are six thoughts on the loss.

Early mistakes put the Sixers in the hole

There were a couple lapses early in this game that spoke to Philadelphia's focus. First, no one accounted for Sam Hauser in transition, all the attention going to Neemias Queta, who had an early seal. The miscommunication led to a kickout to Hauser, who was in trailing position as the ball came up the floor. He was wide open for a walk-in 3 at the top of the key. Hauser shot 37.8% on above-the-break 3s this season on more than five attempts per game, per NBA.com.

Boston will float through games attempting more 3s than 2s. That is their well-known DNA in this era. So if you must concede a size advantage to Queta in the post to prevent an open shooter from getting his bread and butter, it may just be more important to not give that open shooter a look.

The second mistake occurred a short while later, Paul George making an outlet pass to Adem Bona in transition. Bona took the ball himself and flattened Hauser trying to make a kickout pass to Kelly Oubre Jr. in the corner, resulting in an obvious charging foul on the Sixers big man. It was his second foul, just a minute-and-a-half into the game, forcing Andre Drummond to check in.

Drummond, of course, picked up his second foul a few minutes later on a moving screen, taxing the Sixers' already thin center position. In came Dominick Barlow, who lacks the weight to consistently battle effectively in the paint.

All of those mistakes were unforced. About as bad a start to the series as the Sixers could've had.

What they will say about Maxey

The first half had everything that Maxey skeptics crave: Inefficient shooting and turnovers. He had two of the most unacceptable turnovers of his career in the first half, one an inbound pass that was tipped away for a transition dunk and the other a jumping pass right to a Celtic for a run-out. The two turnovers are Maxey's fault, full stop. He's too experienced for that nonsense.

But a lot of his shot quality spoke to the difference between these two organizations. We can talk about the difference between, say, Jaylen Brown and Maxey from a physical standpoint. One has several more years of NBA muscle mass on him. The other is shorter by four inches. Of course Brown is better equipped to navigate multiple defensive bodies for strong finishes at the hoop.

But, the bigger picture is that the cast around Brown makes it difficult for defenses to sell out on stopping him without punishment. If Hauser isn't making you pay, it may be Derrick White, Payton Pritchard or Baylor Scheierman. And maybe those guys aren't all playing robust minutes, but they have workable skills to keep the defense spaced.

Maxey's luxury? Quentin Grimes, who stepped out of bounds on a baseline drive and didn't take a shot in eight minutes, and Justin Edwards, who actually put the ball in the hoop. Maxey's job is complicated by the fact that there's a significant fall-off between the fourth best player on the Sixers and the fourth best player on the Celtics. So there's very little to scare Boston from throwing the ktichen sink at the one guy not named Joel Embiid averaging 25 points per game for Philadelphia this season.

Maxey doesn't get a pass for missing some of the open pull-up jumpers that he clanked in this game. But when the offense is reduced to him chucking up wild floaters from 13 feet, there's only so much he can do.

But just blaming the difference between these two teams on personnel would be letting one offender in all of this off the hook.

The Celtics opened the second quarter with a back screen out of a Horns set and got a good look at the rim for Luka Garza. He went to the line for two foul shots.

A good, structured offense set Garza up to either get an easy shot at the rim or get fouled. All he had to do was put some salt on the dish to finish it.

Now let's look at the other side of the court, where Philadelphia's idea of offense is to sometimes find the mismatch and hunt a switch in isolation. There is no depth of action to this offense and there hasn't been really all season. It's rather binary. Can Maxey get around his man? If yes, the Sixers have a good chance of scoring. If no, they don't. Can George create separation? If yes, the Sixers like their chances. If no, they're relying on elite jump-shooting to get something out of the possession.

They sprinkle in a pin-down every once in a while. Maybe you'll see a Floppy action. But, by and large, the difference between these two teams is that there's a black hole outside of the two or three best players on Philadelphia's side and Joe Mazzulla structures Boston's offense so that there is less uncertainty outside of the Celtics' core guys.

Boston has layers to its offense and diversity of action. The Sixers don't. It's really that simple.

George's Sixers playoff debut

He was more aggressive and serviceable than Tobias Harris was in his final playoff game with the Sixers. Hang the banner! I can appreciate George trying to make the right decision every time down the floor. But there's no way Maxey should have 20 shots, V.J. Edgecombe 15 and George just eight heading into the fourth quarter. Not nearly aggressive enough.

Speaking of Edgecombe...

The only Sixer in his first playoffs who didn't look all that shaky was Edwards. Edgecombe was a lot of gas and no brakes in the Play-In game, Nick Nurse said as much in his postgame press conference and Edgecombe agreed with it. He didn't look any less calmed down in this game. He had no touch on his 3, although it was good to see him adjust in real time and attack the mid-range relentlessly (were he had some success). But he got whistled for a travel squaring into a touch in the mid-range in the third quarter, a sign that he was attacking before he was set with the ball.

It was a much worse playoff debut for Bona, who was so rough that Nurse limited him to just 11-and-a-half minutes and just three fouls before the fourth quarter. Nurse was ready to pull the plug at halftime, evidenced by the fact that Drummond started the third quarter. He had no touch inside, missing a couple of should-be easy ones at the rim, and not supporting himself with any rebounding or shot-blocking presence. We'll see how the rest of this series shakes out for him, but the erratic play has been a season-long thing for Bona. He may just not have what it takes to be a rotation-caliber big man in the NBA.

No coach is helping this

While it has to fall on Nurse that this team has very little offensive inspiration, you could put Erik Spoelstra on Philadelphia's sideline and it wouldn't have solved the Sixers shooting 4-for-21 from 3, just 38.3% from the field and countless layups. Sometimes you just have a rough shooting day. Although, as should be clear by now, I wouldn't compliment the Sixers for having great shot quality in this game.

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