Joel Embiid expected his team to have a more explosive start to its second-round series after six days of rest.
The 76ers star expressed his disappointment in the team's performance during Philadelphia's 117-101 loss to the Celtics in Game 1 on Monday, saying there was no excuse for dropping the ball other than terrible play.
"It starts on defense. I thought I was s-ty. I thought we were all bad tonight," Embiid said after the game, via ESPN. "That's not who we are, definitely. I think when everybody's on, we're the best defensive team in the game. There's a lot of stuff that we game-planned that we didn't execute."
Embiid finished with 31 points and 13 rebounds despite the team shooting 42 percent overall as it struggled offensively as well.
"I thought this was one of our poorer defensive games," Sixers coach Brett Brown said. "I think, to look at this game, defensively, offensively, this isn't who we are. This is a very poor game from us.
"Give [the Celtics] credit. I never thought we were in the game. We're gonna have to fix some things. I'm gonna have to back up my words with our group."
The Sixers will look to even the series when they visit the Celtics in Game 2 at 8:30 p.m. ET Thursday.