East Conf. Semis Game 4: Boston Celtics 92-103 Philadelphia 76ers - 5 Talking Points

#4 The spell that handed the Sixers a sizeable lead

The sequence in question

The Sixers kept threatening to widen the gap against the Cs for most of the 3rd quarter, but the team on the road displayed a stout heart to prevent the Sixers from getting anything like a run till one particular sequence during which they unraveled in rather curious fashion.

With 3:19 remaining in the third quarter, Ilyasova received the ball inside the paint on a post-up, and as he rose up for a made shot, Jaylen Brown's hand barely grazed his hands. But the referees blew the whistle on this particular soft foul - a fault that has been a recurring theme in the league ever since this new crop of referees have stepped in.

This foul was Brown's 5th personal, and he expected to be taken off by coach Stevens at this point. Which was why he headed to the Celtics bench after Ilyasova made his first free throw out of 2. Stevens, however, wished to keep him in, and Brown had a technical foul called on him - giving Belinelli a chance to put the Sixers up by 7.

Stevens remonstrated with the referees, and that gave the Sixers yet another technical free throw before the Celtics inbounded down by 8. They never recovered from this sequence for the rest of the game.