BOSTON — If you were a few minutes late to turn on Monday's Sixers-Celtics game, you were far too late.
The Sixers went down 7-0 in the opening minutes of the first quarter ... which turned into 21-9 midway through ... and ended up being 38-18 by the end of the first quarter.
Sure, this is the NBA — where no lead is safe — but this one was about as safe as it could be for the Celtics, who opened it up to a 27-point lead in the second quarter en route to a 108-89 win (see Instant Replay).
The Sixers came out flat, plain and simple. And they aren't a good enough team to recover from such a slow start, especially against a team with everything to gain by winning.
Having scored just 34 points in the first half, the Sixers doubled their score in the third quarter — but it was too late by then.
“We just competed after the first period," Sixers head coach Brett Brown said. “The game was determined after the first period and it almost stops and starts there. I didn’t feel like we competed in the first period. I feel like they got whatever they wanted offensively and we give them a lot of credit defensively; I think they’ve improved a lot defensively since the last time we played them. They’ve always had that firepower, the ability to score, but you can see a team that’s right there to slide into the playoffs. We give them credit.”
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The Celtics shot 66.7 percent in the first quarter to the Sixers' 30.4 percent. Boston didn't commit a single turnover, while dishing out 10 assists in the quarter.
It was the second straight game in Boston in which the Sixers have gone down big in the first quarter. In early February, they trailed 29-15 after the first quarter and despite a comeback attempt, lost that game too.
Asked about the Sixers' struggles this season in the first quarter, Brown didn't have much of an explanation.
"I don't really know," he said. "I don't know if that's true, either. I feel like it is here in Boston. I don't think that stat is true. I don't feel like I have any answer for that. I think that just here we started out so poorly defensively because of some pin-down stuff, a little bit of pick-and-roll stuff.
"We've had a variety of starting lineups based on matchups and sometimes health-related things and trade-related things, but I don't know if I have a good answer for that."
But these stats are true: The Sixers came into Monday's loss ranked last in the NBA in first-quarter scoring (22.3) and last in opponent first-quarter scoring (26.8). And yes, it's a first-quarter thing because the Sixers rank all the way up at fourth in the NBA in opponent points per game in the third quarter (23.6).
Here are some more statistics: Of the 67 games the Sixers have played this year, they have trailed after the first quarter 48 times. Of those 48 times, they've trailed by at least 10 points 21 times. And of those 21 games, they've lost 19 of them.
And Monday night in Boston had to be one of the uglier ones.
"I think we just got to do a better job getting back on transition defense and finding the shooters and not getting scrambled up," Nerlens Noel said, "because that's what really hurt us. They were shooting I think like 60, 70 percent in the first quarter. That definitely killed us, the 20-point deficit. So I think that's all it is, starting off games with a defensive mindset and focusing on that, and I think we can be all right."
Noel started at center and finished the game with a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds. He played the entire first quarter. Isaiah Canaan also started, but was substituted out with the Celtics leading 15-7. It would only get worse, though.
"We just came out flat on the defensive end," Canaan said. "Give them credit, they came out and made shots. They made us pay for every mistake we made. We just can't come out that flat, especially not against a team that's fighting for their lives to get in the playoffs. So we just have to do a better job starting games and focus more on the defensive end."