The potentially catastrophic injury to Brown aside, last night was quite a win - defeating a healthy Philly team without Smart, Al, Rob, only one half of Brown, and mostly subpar games from Brown (while he played) and Tatum.
Tatum and Brown played 55 combined minutes and shot 7-24 from the field (1-9 from three), did not get to the line (1-3 total), for a total of 16 points. They also combined for 6 turnovers of Boston's 13. Tatum had 8 rebounds and 9 assists, so he was not completely negative, but the Celtics aren't going to win many games with this level of contribution from the stars.
So, how did they win this?
Blake Griffin started at center and Philly simply did not cover him out to the three point line. I don't know whether this was a strategic decision by the coaching staff or Embiid just not wanting to get all the way out to him (I suspect the latter because there were a couple of contests), but Griffin was gifted with a bunch of open threes and he started knocking them down. He shot 5 of 8 from 3 for 15 points, including 3-3 in the first quarter, 0-2 in the second, 2-3 in the third. Also took a key charge in the second half.
Grant Williams also started and also was hitting his threes. He scored 15 points (in part by hitting 4-6 threes) and added 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and a steal. Led the team in minutes played with 39.
Derrick White was also excellent. He tied for the team lead with 19 points on 8-13 shooting (3 of 6 from three), along with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 of his best blocks of the season, including a critical 4th quarter chase down block on a Philly fast break while they were making their late run.
View: https://twitter.com/NBCSCeltics/status/1623510901386084352?s=20&t=wlZWSRXERqeHwsf4YPp87Q
View: https://twitter.com/NBCSCeltics/status/1623493124042510336?s=20&t=wlZWSRXERqeHwsf4YPp87Q
The Celtics also got 41 points off the bench, led, of course, by Brogdon's 19. Sam Hauser seems to have rediscovered his shot, and he shot 4-4 from three on the way to 14 points, along with 8 rebounds.
And then there is Luke Kornet. He played most of the non-Blake minutes at C (29), and had 8 points, 4 rebounds, an assist, and 3 blocks. He shot 3-3 from the field and really was an effective rim protector during his time in the game. He was an afterthought offensively, but scored 2 notably baskets on lobs. On one play, Tatum tossed one up for him and he caught it and reverse dunked it. On the other, with just under 4 minutes left, the Celtics had a bad offensive set where Philly knocked the ball out of bounds with 0.5 seconds on the shot clock. Mazzulla called time and set up a play where Tatum went towards the basket, drew Embiid's attention, and screened him off the play so that an wide open Kornet could catch an out of bounds lob from White.
View: https://twitter.com/NBCSCeltics/status/1623497099634438146?s=20&t=imp1JXhzvxbkdJLGeqBNCg
View: https://twitter.com/NBCSCeltics/status/1623514701593296898?s=20&t=imp1JXhzvxbkdJLGeqBNCg
All, in all, a great win, though it will be a pyrrhic one if Brown is seriously injured.