Celtics Make Ugly NBA History in Game 7 Loss to 76ers

The Boston Celtics played shorthanded in their 109-100 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night in Game 7.

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Hours before the contest at TD Garden, the Celtics ruled out Jayson Tatum due to a knee injury. Tatum played in Game 6 but was listed as questionable to play on Saturday night.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla didn’t reveal before the contest who would replace Tatum. Boston ended up going with Baylor Scheierman over Jordan Walsh.

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Boston went with a starting lineup of Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Luka Garza, Ron Harper Jr. and Scheierman. The starting lineup accounted for just 59 points against the 76ers in Game 7. Brown led the Celtics with 33 points to go along with nine rebounds and four assists. White added 26 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Per Legion Hoops, the Celtics made NBA history in an ugly way, becoming the first team to have three starters go scoreless in a playoff game. Garza, Harper and Scheierman didn’t score a point on Saturday night.

Harper started but played just in four minutes for Boston and made one shot attempt. Garza played nine minutes and went 0-for-2 shooting. Scheierman played for 22 minutes, going 0-for-4 shooting and 0-for-3 from three-point range.

Mazzulla explained his lineup choice when he spoke to reporters after the game, saying he wanted to “test” his starting five against the 76ers to see if the Celtics could gain a tactical advantage.

“Yeah, I mean, I thought there was a couple of things we saw tactically we wanted to test out, you know, obviously give the series a little bit of a different feel and take advantage of the roster that we’ve had and take advantage of the guys that can impact plays and whatnot,” Mazzulla said, via ESPN. “So, I thought it was great by the guys, and we came up short.”

The problem with that lineup was that it lacked the offensive juice to get a strong start against Philadelphia. The 76ers won the first quarter 32-19 before taking a 55-40 lead into halftime.

The starting five for Boston had not played together at any point in the season leading up to Game 7 against Philadelphia. That should be one of the things Mazzulla reflects on during an offseason for the Celtics that started a few rounds too early as a No. 2 seed.

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This story was originally published May 3, 2026 at 8:20 AM.