Celtics vs. 76ers: Kyrie Irving Struggles, Joel Embiid Dismisses Rivalry With Boston

The NBA 2018-19 season got underway Tuesday night with the Boston Celtics taking on the Philadelphia 76ers in the opening game of the campaign at the TD Garden in Boston.

The Eastern Conference favorites lived up to their name as they recorded a dominant 105-87 win over one of the elite teams in the east and they did it despite their star point guard Kyrie Irving having his worst offensive performance since joining last summer.

Irving returned to the starting lineup for the first time since March 11 when he suffered a knee injury that ended his 2017-18 campaign early. The guard had a poor night as he went 0-11 from the field before ending the night with 2-14, while his three point shooting also was equally bad as he went 1-8 from beyond the arc for a 17.9 FG percent.

It was Irving’s lowest in a game since joining the Celtics, but it does exclude the game last October when he played just two minutes. The point guard, however, was not fazed as he simply stated: “When you can’t make a shot, spread the wealth,” after recording seven assists on the night.

The opening night in Boston belonged to Jayson Tatum, who became the youngest player in Celtics history to score 20 points in the season opener. The 20-year-old finished the night with 23 points and nine rebounds as they recorded a dominating win over the 76ers.

The Celtics winning by 18 points on a night when Irving struggled to get his game going shows the strength in depth the Boston franchise possesses. And it was proved by Marcus Morris, who came off the bench to record a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Coach Brad Stevens admitted his team did struggle offensively to make shots but praised their all-round effort and believes their strength is truly in their depth. He also believes if they can guard like they did on the opening night, they will have a “decent” campaign.

“Our strength has to be in our depth,” Stevens said in his post-match press conference. “When one guy doesn’t have it going, the rest of the team has to pick them up and everybody has to play with great effort because the guy behind them is chomping at the bit to get in. ... I thought that you know all of them did their job hard and had great focus to do it well. I think that we’ll clean up the offensive stuff but if we can guard we got a chance to be decent.”

There was another positive on the night for the Celtics as Gordon Hayward made his TD Garden debut after sitting out almost the entire 2017-18 campaign with a foot injury. The forward played 25 minutes and contributed with 10 points and five rebounds.

Meanwhile, Joel Embiid, who was the 76ers’ top scorer on the night with 23 points did not hold back when asked about the rivalry between his team and the Celtics going into the new season. The Philadelphia franchise are being touted as one of the contenders from the East alongside Celtics and the Toronto Raptors.

“This is not a rivalry. I don’t know our record against them, but it’s pretty bad. They always kick our ass,” Embiid said after the game.