– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BOSTON — The one other time first-year sensation VJ Edgecombe had a standout performance in Beantown, it coincided with being his first-ever NBA regular-season game, and, afterward, his veteran backcourt mate still gave him the rookie treatment by not even referring to him by his name and just saying his jersey number, “seventy-seven.” After Edgecombe, with the help of Maxey, put his name up in lights once more for the 76ers, his rookie label can officially be removed while calling him another moniker: difference-maker.
Edgecombe went off for 30 points and 10 rebounds, leading the Philadelphia 76ers past the Boston Celtics 111-97 inside TD Garden to tie the Eastern Conference first-round series at one game apiece. Maxey added 29 points and nine assists, including hitting back-to-back three-pointers to begin a decisive 11-0 run midway through the fourth quarter after Boston had cut its deficit to 91-89.
Philadelphia stormed back from an early 13-point first-quarter deficit and now heads home for Friday’s Game 3 with momentum that not many saw coming after the Celtics won by 32 points in the series opener on Sunday.
Edgecombe and Maxey combined to hit 11 of the Sixers’ 19 three-pointers, with the former knocking down four of his six threes in the second quarter, when he scored 16 points. This came after Edgecombe limped off the court after a hard fall in the first quarter, and also left in pain during the third but fought through it.
“I think we knew where we were going to get the shots from, where the help was going to be at. So, credit to my teammates for just, you know, we kept trusting each other,” Edgecombe said. “Everyone can make a play on the court, so we kept trusting each other and I was in the spot, and they wanted me to shoot the ball, and it wasn’t going to been right if I didn’t shoot the ball, you know, so I had to shoot the ball hit a wide open shots, try to get my teammates their assists from me.”
Paul George added 19 for the 76ers, with Kelly Oubre Jr. (12) and Andre Drummond (10) also scoring in double figures.
Jaylen Brown led all scorers with 36 points for the Celtics, while Jayson Tatum was an assist shy of a triple-double with 19 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists. After shooting 50 percent from the field and making 16 threes on Sunday, Boston was held to under 40 percent shooting overall while making just 13 of their 50 attempts from beyond the arc.
“I thought we got great looks, thought we missed them,” said Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla. “And you know, you look at it [at] 91-89, they go on a run. We miss a lot of good shots, and we don’t get them. You have to be able to score in close games against a team like that, and they made more shots on us down the stretch.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Tuesday evening’s Game 2, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 32 pictures in total.
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