Jayson Tatum scored 32 points and had 12 rebounds and the Boston Celtics defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 109-101 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first round on Monday night. Jaylen Brown added 29 points with 6 rebounds and 4 assists, while Sixers C Joel Embiid finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds.
The Celtics lost Gordon Hayward late in the fourth quarter to an ankle sprain. Other than that, there were not complaints for Boston, which goes up 1-0 in the best-of-7 series. It was what you would have expected from a Sixers-Celtics Game 1 — tough defensive basketball. The Sixers were without All-Star PG Ben Simmons, who had to get knee surgery and was ruled out for the postseason.
Tatum, Brown and Embiid all went over 50 DraftKings fantasy points in this game. Tatum ($8,800) and Brown ($7,400) returned solid value, while Embiid ($9,800) didn’t quite get there. For some reason, the Sixers didn’t want to get Embiid the ball at all times. He only attempted 15 field goals. The Celtics don’t really have any depth in the front court, yet Philly didn’t want to attack that advantage much.