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2023 Awards Series Game of the Year: Game 7 vs. 76ers – NBA.com
It’s awards season at Celtics.com! We’re handing out six awards over the final 10 days of July as we roll through this year’s Celtics.com Awards Series. We may not have trophies or acceptance speeches, but we do have some top-flight Celtics performances to outline. Here we go…
For the second straight season, the Boston Celtics overcame a 3-2 deficit in the second round of the playoffs to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
And for the second straight season, a dominant and historic Game 7 conference semifinals performance at TD Garden has earned our Game of the Year award.
Following a tight, Game 6 victory in Philadelphia, the Celtics stepped back on their home court and took care of business in a convincing fashion.
Boston’s defense was suffocating in a 112-88 drubbing of its Atlantic Division rival, while Jayson Tatum was masterful on the other end, pouring in 51 points to break Stephen Curry’s Game 7 record which had just been set two weeks prior.
The game drew remarkable parallels to last season’s ECSF Game 7 victory at TD Garden where the C’s dismantled the Milwaukee Bucks, 109-81, as Grant Williams knocked down seven 3-pointers to tie Curry’s Game 7 long-distance record.
An electric atmosphere got Boston’s juices flowing early during the May 14 showdown, as Jaylen Brown made back-to-back layups followed by back-to-back dunks by Tatum and Rob Williams all within the first 3:13.
Tatum erupted for 25 points in the first half, but Boston couldn’t shake Philly off its heels as it went into the break barely hanging onto a 55-52 lead.
However, the tone changed almost immediately following halftime. After Tobias Harris tied the game with a 3-pointer on the first possession of the third quarter, Boston went on a 33-5 run, effectively putting the game away. Tatum scored 17 points during that stretch, including four makes from 3-point range.
Boston shot 11-of-19 from the field during that frame, including 8-of-12 from 3-point range. Philly, meanwhile, shot just 3-of-21 from the field during the quarter, as it went into the fourth trailing 88-62.
Tatum’s record-breaking shot came with plenty of time to spare, as he knocked down his 49th, 50th, and 51st points on a 3-pointer at the 7:21 mark of the fourth quarter. If it weren’t for him being subbed out due to the nature of the blowout, he easily could have gone for 60.
Brown was the only other player to reach the 20-point mark, finishing with 25 in the scoring column. Both he and Tatum individually outscored the combination of Joel Embiid (15 points) and James Harden (nine points).
Al Horford did a tremendous job guarding Embiid, matching up against the league MVP on 49.4 defensive possessions and limiting him to a 4-of-17 shooting effort.
Meanwhile, Embiid could not contain Tatum whatsoever. The 7-footer guarded Tatum on 13.1 possessions, and on those possessions, Tatum scored 24 points while shooting 8-of-10 from the field, 4-of-4 from 3-point range, and made four trips to the free-throw line.
JT finished the game with a clip of 17-of-28 from the field, including 6-of-10 from long range.
Tatum also led the game in rebounds (13) and steals (two) and led his team in assists (five). The most eye-popping number on his stat line was the zero in the turnover department, signifying a mistake-free 42 minutes of action. He became the first player in NBA playoff history to score more than 50 points without committing a turnover.
The Celtics gave their fans heart palpitations pushing the series to seven games, but it was all worth it by the end. It was one of the most exciting Game 7s in franchise history and wholly deserving of our Game of the Year.
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