Three takeaways from Celtics’ dominant Game 2 win over 76ers

Philadelphia won Game 1 with the league MVP in street clothes.

Boston dominated Game 2 despite its best player — the guy fourth in the MVP voting this season — barely making an impact.

Welcome to the NBA Playoffs, where little makes sense but we know the Celtics have evened their series with the 76ers after a 121-87 blowout win. Here are three takeaways from Game 2.

“They pressured us, they denied us, they played in our air space all game,” was how Doc Rivers described the Celtics’ defense (while adding his team needs to move the ball more).

The Celtics had the second-best defense in the NBA this season, but they haven’t brought that to the arena every night during the playoffs. They did on Wednesday night, holding the 76ers to less than a point per possession (92.6 offensive rating for the competitive portion of the game, via Cleaning the Glass).

Doc Rivers credited Jaylen Brown for setting the tone, being physical and leading a defense that often picked up James Harden and other 76ers ball handlers before halfcourt. Marcus Smart was a big part of that as well. The energy and defense threw the 76ers off, and they shot just 39.2% for the game, including 6-of-20 from 3.

Defense leads to offense pic.twitter.com/0kzQqo0y00

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) May 4, 2023

That defense was a sign the Celtics were focused — something they were not in two of the last three games (Game 5 vs. Atlanta and Game 1 of this series). Boston’s focus and game plan discipline have been an issue going back to last season.

“I think we just gotta take more pride in ourselves,” Brown said postgame. “I felt like we underperformed last game and we wanted to come out and play to the best of our ability.”

If you had told me before the