The Boston Celtics suffered a disappointing Game 5 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night. Despite jumping out to an early double-digit lead, the Celtics fell apart in the second half and are now headed back to Philadelphia for Game 6.
While there is certainly shooting variance involved in the loss, the Celtics' struggles can't be explained away with missing shots. There was a big problem on the defensive side of the ball. The Celtics simply couldn't contain Joel Embiid, who had 33 points and eight assists on 12-for-23 from the field in 39 minutes of action. A big reason why was Boston's center rotation, most notably, Nikola Vucevic.
Nikola Vucevic Should No Longer Be a Part of Celtics' Rotation
The most frustrating part of the series so far has been watching Neemias Queta get in foul trouble every single game. The Portuguese big man can't stop fouling, forcing Joe Mazzulla to rely on Nikola Vucevic.
This proved to be a disaster in Game 5, which has often been the case since the 35-year-old center arrived in Boston at the trade deadline.
The Celtics had a 148.4 defensive rating in Vucevic's 15 minutes of action and lost those minutes by ten points. When guarded by Vucevic, Embiid went 5-for-6 from the field for 12 points, and the Sixers scored 28 points in those possessions. In contrast, Queta was able to hold Embiid to 5-for-11 shooting from the field for 12 minutes in more than double the number of possessions.
Vucevic wasn't able to provide any sort of physicality against Embiid. Every time the former MVP got the ball inside the arc against him, it was an easy bucket or a foul, without Embiid even working too hard.
This is partly on Mazzulla. The Celtics should never be leaving Vucevic on an island guarding Embiid. There needs to be more help and more double teams to get the ball out of Embiid's hands, especially when he was cooking in the second half.
The simpler solution, however, is not to play Vucevic. It's not like he is bringing value offensively. He is shooting 13-for-32 from the field and 7-for-22 from 3-point range in the series. Would Luka Garza really be that much worse than Vucevic at this point? Couldn't going small and having Jayson Tatum or Jordan Walsh play the five work? Embiid was excellent on Tuesday, but he doesn't have the same pop athletically anymore.
The real solution is to make sure Queta stays out of foul trouble. If that is not going to be possible in this series, Vucevic should still not be among the alternative solutions. With the series heading back to Philadelphia, Mazzulla can't afford to repeat the same mistakes.
More Boston Celtics news and rumors:
Add us as a preferred source on Google