Luka Garza, Ron Harper Jr. and Baylor Scheierman started a combined 29 games all season.
2026 Coach of the Year finalist Joe Mazzulla began the Boston Celtics’ season-ending Game 7 loss Saturday night with all three of them in the starting lineup once All-NBA staple Jayson Tatum was ruled out prior to gametime with a calf injury.
Tatum, who returned in March after rupturing his Achilles almost exactly one year ago to the date, injured his other leg during Boston’s Game 6 loss on April 30, forcing him to be day-to-day.
Mazzulla decided, without Tatum, that the team would also bench starting center Neemias Queta for Garza, and add Harper Jr. and Scheierman on the wings in place of Tatum and sharpshooter Sam Hauser.
“I thought it was a couple things we saw tactically we wanted to test out,” Mazzulla said in defense of his bizarre starting five in Game 7. “Obviously, give the series a little bit of a different feel and take advantage of the roster that we had, and take advantage of the guys that can impact plays and whatnot. So that was great by the guys, and we came up short.”
There was a stretch where Scheierman did start over Hauser during the season, so that change wasn’t as eyebrow-raising considering that the latter had been struggling — shooting under 35 percent from three over Games 2-6 — for most of the series.
Scheierman also shared 20 of the 29 starts mentioned above.
But Harper, who had 11 career appearances in three seasons before 2025-26, started three of his 29 showings during the regular season, and he only played in the first four minutes of Game 7.
Garza, who had six starts all year, averaged about eight minutes per game this series and logged just over eight in Game 7 while starting at center for Queta, who ended the series with a playoff-best 73.5 effective field-goal percentage and one of the most efficient rebounders with 8.6 boards in just 21.7 per contest.
Queta, in Game 7, had 17 points and 12 rebounds in just over 32 minutes, shooting 7-for-8 from the floor.
The Celtics, known primarily for their live-by-the-three, die-by-the-three style of play, shot 13-for-49 from deep, which Mazzulla also defended post-game.
“I love the looks that we got. I love the process that we had. Hate the result,” he said.
By virtue of the loss, Philly will take their momentum to Madison Square Garden for the Eastern Conference semifinals starting Monday for a seven-game series with the Knicks.
The 76ers, who lost to the Knicks in six games during Round 1 of the 2024 playoffs, haven’t made it to the Eastern Conference Finals since 2001, where they made it to the NBA Finals behind Allen Iverson and Dikembe Mutombo.
The Knicks are favored to go to back-to-back conference finals, which they haven’t done since 1999 and 2000.
