Celtics' playoff humiliation only looks worse with each passing day

This season’s Boston Celtics first-round playoff exit continues to look worse with each passing day -- and no, it’s not simply because the boredom multiplies as time goes on. We, the general public, keep learning more and more about how dysfunctional the Philadelphia 76ers actually are.

Of course, their 0-4 series loss to the New York Knicks tells us all plenty. They went out about as sad as possible on Sunday. Knicks fans took over Xfinity Mobile Arena and watched their team dominate Game 4 from tip to totality.

A team that refused to die against Boston in round one, happily obliged in round two.

To make matters worse, The Athletic’s Tony Jones released the tell-all postmortem piece about the Sixers’ season on Monday morning. If you can believe it, there was plenty of turmoil going on within the locker room and throughout the organization.

Philadelphia's locker room was not a happy one

Both head coach Nick Nurse and general manager Daryl Morey are on the hot seat. Jones shared that the organization is expected to evaluate their positions as the team enters the offseason, though no final decisions were made as of Sunday.

Apparently, there were tensions between “certain players” and Nurse throughout the season. Some of those players met with members of the coaching staff to discuss said issues just over a month before they completed their triumphant 3-1 comeback over the Celtics.

“A handful of players met with members of Philadelphia’s coaching staff before shootaround in Washington to express concern over certain players’ participation in team activities and frustration over the direction of the 76ers’ season, multiple league sources told The Athletic,” Jones wrote.

Some of said qualms were in regards to Nurse not having control over the locker room.

“Among other things, the players expressed they felt there wasn’t enough control of the locker room, according to those sources. The meeting was tense enough to briefly imperil the team’s shootaround; however, the conversation resolved enough that the activity was able to proceed as planned, those sources said.”

So, to be clear, the Celtics failed to close out a series in which they held a 3-1 lead against a team whose coach had effectively lost the locker room.

Joel Embiid health frustrations didn't matter vs. the Celtics

Joel Embiid’s late-season frustrations also featured heavily throughout the story. The 2023 NBA MVP was frustrated with the organization’s decision to offload Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a first-round pick at the trade deadline.

McCain has since become a nice bench piece for the defending champs, and certainly looks like the type of player that the 76ers could’ve used in the postseason.

Embiid took public issue with the team’s decisions to air on the side of caution when it came to his health. When he was held out of the Apr. 1 matchup with the Washington Wizards, he called out Morey and the front office publicly on X/Twitter, and doubled down when prompted by the media days later.

The big man appeared in just 38 games for Philly this season. His lucrative contract, along with the decision to trade for Paul George’s, are two big reasons why Morey is under fire. With the two inconsistently available players making a combined $112 million next season, it’s difficult for the 76ers to improve their roster and fill out the fringes with more talent.

Unfortunately, the overpriced pairing looked like they were worth every penny against Boston. Embiid was a legitimate series-changing presence when he returned from his appendectomy, and George looked like he’d turned back the clock to 2017 when he was an MVP candidate in OKC.

The same issues that seemingly have the Sixers splitting at the seams this summer were somehow turned into strengths against Boston. 

Nurse’s players bonded together in the face of adversity instead of rolling over because they didn’t like their coach. Embiid’s consistent health issues or internal frustrations didn’t matter as his teammates rallied around him. Morey’s questionable decision-making didn’t matter because other moves like drafting VJ Edgecombe paid real dividends for Philly.

WIth the metaphorical clock striking midnight in the second round, there’s reason to believe that the stars aligned for the nine quarters in which the 76ers stunned the Celtics -- who aren’t innocent in all of this, either.

Whether it was Joe Mazzulla’s questionable coaching decisions, his players’ inability to create clean shots late in Game 5 and beyond, or the regression from key faces like Derrick White and Neemias Queta, they lost to this dysfunctional Sixers team.

Gross.

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