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NBA Playoffs: Expect The Sixers To Take Control Of The Series In Game 2

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- These things won't happen over the next week: The Boston Celtics won't shoot 48.6% (17 of 35) from three-point range, like they did in Game 1 of the playoffs against the Sixers; the Celtics won't get three players to score 25 points or better; the Celtics won't force the 76ers into shooting 19.2% (5 of 26) from three-point range; the Celtics won't hold the Sixers to less than 105 points; and the Celtics won't hold down Ben Simmons from a double-double the rest of the series.

These things will happen once over the next week: The Celtics will win one more game in this series before the Sixer close it out, beginning with Game 2 Thursday night.

This is a Boston team that beat the Sixers, 117-101, in Game 1 on Monday using anomalies that should not surface again, like receiving playoff-highs from the trio of Terry Rozier, who scored a postseason-best 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting, rookie Jayson Tatum, who scored a postseason-best 28 points on 8-of-16 shooting, and Al Horford, who scored a postseason-best 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting.

You would also figure Sixers' coach Bret Brown has something cooked up after the Celtics denied the three-point perimeter to the Sixers. Rozier alone made more 3s than the Sixers' team, going 7-of-9 beyond the arc to the Sixers' woeful 5-of-26.

Can Rozier, Tatum and Horford all hit for 25 points or more—together—the rest of the series? Probably not. Will the Celtics, no matter how well coached they are by Brad Stevens, hold the Sixers to 42.2% shooting from the floor overall (35-of-83)? Probably not.

But, apparently, Stevens thinks so.

"I didn't think [the defense] was as good as any of the last three Milwaukee games," Stevens said after Game 1. "But there were parts about it that were good, but we have to clean up quite a bit. They exposed us in a lot of areas. And credit them for that. They run great stuff, and it's hard to guard all those guys and all those actions."

The last time three Celtics players scored 25 or more points in a non-overtime postseason game was 1987—when Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish did it. Though they looked like it for a game, Rozier, Tatum and Horford aren't Bird, McHale and Parish.

With no Kyrie Irving; no Gordon Hayward and no Jaylen Brown, the Celtics don't possess the firepower to hold off the Sixers. Expect that to change beginning Thursday night in Game 2.

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