Instant observations: Sixers blown out by Celtics in embarrassing Game 1 effort

Here’s what I saw. Woof! The Sixers came out completely unprepared to deal with the Celtics on both ends of the floor, learning all the wrong lessons from their play-in victory over the Orlando Magic.

Rather than feeling like they got away with substandard process against a mediocre Orlando team on Wednesday, they played Game 1 as if they’d discovered a viable path to victory. Turns out, leaning heavily on iso-ball against the Celtics isn’t going to get it done. The most disheartening part of the Sixers’ offensive approach in the first half was that they hardly even made an effort to put pressure on the Celtics’ weak points.

With Derrick White matched up against Tyrese Maxey and Sam Hauser guarding VJ Edgecombe, the Sixers made very little effort to get White off of Maxey with ball screens, letting the game devolve into a Maxey vs. White competition, a battle the Celtics often won. That was compounded by how the Celtics defended 1-5 ball screens — they sat in deep drop against pick-and-pop possessions to concede trail jumpers to Andre Drummond, and Maxey’s poor run of pull-up shooting continued, with their lead guard failing to punish Boston for giving him tons of space above the break.

He is a glorified 1. 5 level scorer at the moment, and as long as that remains the case, it’s difficult to envision a path to victory for the 76ers. Frankly, this was also an awful decision-making game for Maxey, who needs to be better and smarter even if he is battling a hand issue.