BOSTON -- Back in October, the Philadelphia 76ers opened up their season at TD Garden against their Eastern Conference rivals, the Boston Celtics, and rookie VJ Edgecombe had a performance for the ages.
Tuesday night, with Philadelphia's season on the line, Edgecombe did it again.
His spectacular 30-point, 10-rebound performance was the first by a rookie since Tim Duncan accomplished the feat in 1998. Edgecombe is also the youngest player to put up those numbers in NBA postseason history, surpassing previous record holder Magic Johnson.
Along with the help of 29 points and key late shotmaking from Tyrese Maxey, the 76ers rode Edgecombe's game to a stunning 111-97 victory over the Celtics to even the first round series at one game apiece.
"I mean, [Edgecombe has] been impressive all season long," said Paul George, who added 19 points. "When you think about it, how he started his first NBA game here in this building, and I'm sure he was in a small percentage, or a small group of players that did what he did on opening night, and then to put a whole season together and get to this point where he's showcasing who he is and his abilities ...
"I've been saying it all year long: He's far surpassed being a rookie."
The 76ers, who got absolutely demolished in the opening game of this series and remain without star Joel Embiid (appendectomy), entered Game 2 as staggering 14.5-point underdogs but handled everything the Celtics threw at them. That included both a 16-0 first-quarter run that gave Boston a 26-13 lead and another late push by the Celtics that made it 91-89 and got the crowd roaring in the fourth quarter.
"I thought they were spectacular to start," 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. "I mean, they were flying. They were making everything. They were just running in to jump over everybody for rebounds. And I just said, 'Listen, you're pretty solid down there. They're great right now, and let's believe that they're not going to be this great the whole game and just hang in there.' And our guys did."
They did because Edgecombe, who hobbled to the back in both the second and third quarters after a hard fall, played like a seasoned veteran. Not only did the 6-foot-4 guard -- who had the third-highest-scoring first game as a rookie when he scored 34 points in that season-opening win back in October -- come flying in for one rebound after another, he also looked incredibly composed in getting to his spots, rising up and making one shot after another.
It was emblematic of Philadelphia's entire approach in this game, and a complete role reversal from Sunday's Game 1. In that one, the 76ers were an abysmal 4-for-23 from 3-point range and, per GeniusIQ, went 8-for-37 on jumpers -- their worst showing of the entire season.
In Tuesday's game, with the Celtics heavily employing a standard drop defensive coverage with their bigs (they ran it 69.7% of the time, per GeniusIQ, the third-highest rate of any team in a playoff game since player tracking data began in the 2013-14 season), the 76ers feasted. Philadelphia finished the game 19-for-39 from 3, and Edgecombe (6-for-10) and Maxey (5-for-12) both made more in this game than the entire team did in Game 1.
"I'm going to be honest, I think we all knew where the shots were going to come from," Edgecombe said. "We knew where we were going to get the shots from, where the help was going to be at. So just credit my teammates for just, we kept trusting each other. 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.
"It wouldn't have been right if I didn't shoot the ball, so I had to shoot the ball, hit wide-open shots and try to get my teammates assists."
But, even after all of that, the Celtics still had cut it to 91-89 with 6:25 left. The TD Garden crowd was roaring and expecting this to be yet another win at the hands of their rivals, whom the Celtics have defeated in six consecutive playoff series dating to 1982. And yet, it was Maxey who knocked down consecutive pull-up 3-pointers that pushed the lead back to eight and gave the 76ers the separation necessary to close the game out.
"VJ did his job," Maxey said. "He got us here. [When] they kind of cut the lead to two and I said, 'All right, this is my time to close the game out.'"
And that he did, as Boston found itself on the wrong end of a loss that felt all too familiar for anyone who has followed this team over the past decade. The Celtics finished the game 13-for-50 from 3-point range, with Derrick White (2-for-10), Jayson Tatum and Sam Hauser (both 2-for-8) combining to go 6-for-26 by themselves.
Tatum had 19 points, 14 boards and nine assists, and Brown finished with 36 points, but it wasn't enough to prevent the same kind of loss that has haunted this team over and over again during the past few postseasons.
"I trust our group," Brown said. "We've grown a lot over the course [of the season] ... we've just got to continue to have the right mentality and have each other's back, and just breathe.
"It's going to be a journey. It's going to be some ups and some downs, but I'm looking forward to it with my guys."
The 76ers fans will be looking forward to welcoming their rivals to South Philadelphia on Friday night with this series tied and with Embiid, who stayed back in Philadelphia to continue recovering from that appendectomy 12 days ago in Houston, beginning a strength and conditioning program Monday.
