The Sixers pulled themselves off the mat and scored a gigantic Game 2 victory over the Boston Celtics, outlasting their hated rivals in a 111-97 win on the road. Star rookie VJ Edgecombe scored 30 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead Philadelphia to victory and tie the 76ers’ series at 1-1.

Here’s what I saw.

This kid is special

Watching VJ Edgecombe limp back to the locker room as the Sixers were getting beaten up by Boston in the first quarter briefly felt like the end of any interest in the series. The rookie had taken a hard foul and tried to play through it for a minute or two, and as the Celtics’ lead ballooned to double digits, I know a few of you were ready to pack it in. But there he was, back on the floor by the end of the first, not ready to concede the season quite yet. All he did from there was put the Sixers on his back.

Edgecombe was involved in Tuesday’s game in every possible way. Assistant coaches have challenged him to be more involved as a rebounder late in the year, and he was the game’s leading rebounder at halftime with seven boards (three offensive, four defensive) after 24 minutes of action. His efforts to end possessions let him get loose in transition, and he had a couple of beautiful sequences on the break, with Edgecombe throwing down a two-hander as the Sixers started to get a real grip on this game:

But the stunning part of this performance is that he spent a lot of this game picking apart an elite half-court defense. Boston was bold enough to dare him to shoot after a poor shooting night in Game 1, and Edgecombe went 4/6 from three to open this game up, punishing every bit of space the Celtics gave him on the perimeter. Even more impressive was his work attacking Boston’s drop coverage, with the rookie snaking pick-and-rolls to bury Queta and Vucevic with midrange jumpers. He has gotten more comfortable on those shots as the season has worn on, using lessons from Paul George on how and when to get to your spots. While you normally think of explosiveness as a weapon on rim attacks, I think you can see Edgecombe’s athleticism helping him with his in-between game — he has done a great job in the second half of the year of exploding off the floor and bringing himself to spots where the defender can’t contest him.

There was much more deliberate effort from the Sixers to attack Boston’s weaknesses on defense. no matter how they set up or who was on the floor. Paul George was a big part of that effort, able to create a few catch-and-shoot threes for teammates by hunting the Pritchard types whenever possible in the mid-post, including a huge Justin Edwards three to preserve the lead early in the fourth. But it was Edgecombe who led the way here, too. When the Celtics tried to get away with a Pritchard/Vucevic 1/5 combo, there was no mystery about Philadelphia’s offense from there — empty pick-and-roll, with Edgecombe slicing through space for pull-up makes galore.

Despite being a rookie, Edgecombe was also one of their leaders on defense, offering spirited effort in one-on-one battles and constant activity away from the play. Other than the team making more shots, their collective effort on defense was the most noticeable change from the opening game, with Philadelphia generating more points off turnovers and making the Celtics feel real pressure at all levels. Edgecombe’s willingness to dig in against bigger wings like Brown and Tatum often allowed help to arrive from their bigger and more experienced defenders, and the whole group did well to rotate and communicate from there.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have another two guard who ignores the history of this Sixers-Celtics matchup and just rips their hearts out in Boston? The last time they had one of those, Philly went on their last title run. At the very least, they have a kid who is way ahead of schedule, and who just helped them steal a massive win to flip this series.

A much better approach

The effort the Sixers offered in the first half on Tuesday is exactly why their Game 1 no-show was so frustrating. Yes, the Celtics are the more talented and better-structured team, and are probably going to beat these guys in a seven-game affair without a bit of luck. But they are not unbeatable, and the 76ers gave themselves a better chance through their setup and their effort.

Nick Nurse turned to a few different looks to try to punish Boston’s desire to sit in drop and overload the middle. They had a fair amount of success with empty side pick-and-roll, with Maxey getting off the ball early once help came to the middle from the opposite wing. Quentin Grimes was able to get some early shots to go down out of that look, solving one of Philadelphia’s major Game 1 problems. The theme of the game was weaponizing Boston’s stylistic choices against them, pre-emptively expecting help defense and then moving the ball away from it. That punishment came from some unexpected places, with Andre Drummond putting together a few nice quarterback moments from the middle of the floor.

I think the effort they played with would have aided any scheme they chose to play, but Philadelphia’s defensive game plan was a lot better thought out in Game 2. When Boston was able to get favorable switches for Brown and Tatum, the smaller Sixers ramped up the intensity and tried to push Boston’s wings out closer to midcourt. Failing that, the Sixers rarely let those mismatches end in mid-post jumper after mid-post jumper, helping from all angles to force the ball elsewhere. Much to my surprise, I thought Drummond played well above his usual level in those situations, pinching the Celtics’ wings without losing sight of his man and his eventual rebounding position.

One of the most encouraging things about this performance is that the Sixers were frontrunners for a lot of this game despite some mediocre or poor individual stretches from their best players. While we’re on the subject…

Crunch-time Maxey

Honesty hour: I had basically written off Tyrese Maxey at the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter, convinced that he was going to need the rookie and the veteran wing to drag him to the finish line. He was fighting himself on the pull-up jumpers for three-plus quarters, unable to find the range as he tries to battle through a hand injury.

But when you keep showing up, when you keep giving yourself chances to make plays, beautiful things can happen. And with the Celtics still sitting in drop coverage in the most important minutes of the game, Maxey turned the corner on two consecutive possessions and banged threes on their heads, taking this from a tightly-contested game to a comfortable Sixers win.

When a mediocre game ends with you dropping 29 points and nine assists, it says a lot about the year you’ve had.

Other notes

— I don’t know if he’s capable of having a true breakout game against this caliber of opponent in the playoffs, but Justin Edwards definitely looks like he belongs on a playoff floor, and that is a win in and of itself. Nick Nurse trusted him to play some huge minutes in the second half,

— The thing that was so disappointing about Adem Bona’s parade of bozo moves and dropped passes on offense is that I honestly thought he had some inspired defensive possessions against the Celtics in Game 2. He held up in island defense against much smaller players, forcing contested jumpers without fouling and doing his job in a tough spot.

Unfortunately, the sequence where he tried to go coast-to-coast and smoked a layup was one of the single dumbest plays of the season, and I simply can’t watch a big man who is so bad at catching the ball. Two hands, my man.