It's a learning experience for VJ Edgecombe, and the Celtics are providing a crash course

BOSTON — With 2:40 to go in the first half of Game 1 against the Boston Celtics on Sunday, Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe missed a short mid-range jump shot, controlled the offensive rebound and tipped in his miss, all while being fouled by Nik Vucevic. He drained the ensuing foul shot to cut the lead to 19 points.

Sure, it doesn't seem like anything too significant in what became a 32-point loss for the Sixers, but it was kind of the first spurt of action from Edgecombe up to that point of the game, which was already spiraling out of control. He had missed three three-pointers up to that point, and three inside the arc, also. There was a floater during that time that he drained, and a couple of steals he pilfered, but all-in-all, it was a pretty silent stretch for the player the Sixers — fairly or unfairly — need to produce no matter how long this playoff run lasts.

If the regular season was a practice in getting his degree in NBA basketball, a playoff series against the Celtics could just earn him a Master's. Because this is nothing like anything the 20-year-old has ever been through in his basketball life. But Edgecombe is as realistic as he is talented. He knows the process could be long (or in the case of this series, short), and that the lessons learned can be painful at times. Like it was Sunday.

"If you want to learn quickly in this league, you can't let one game affect you in a bad way," Tyrese Maxey told reporters at Tuesday morning's shootaround. "Obviously, you want to get better, but if you think about it, it's the playoffs. If you're worried about Game 1, it's already gone and you can't do nothing about it. Then (you might) lose Game 2, lose Game 3, lose Game 4, then you go home. It's just what's next? That's always the main thing, what's next, for me at least."

Next is the second game of the series on Tuesday, and if the Sixers are going to have any chance, they'll need more from their rookie at the outset of the game than they got on Sunday. Boston doesn't wait to control a game. They come out rolling from the opening tip. And if the Sixers aren't ready for that, Sunday's result could play out all over again.

Edgecombe did finish the game with 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the floor. He missed all five of his threes in 33 minutes. Expected? Perhaps, being it was his first playoff game. Accepted? Not by him.

"I don't even know," Edgecombe said when asked about positives from Sunday. "We just feel like we wasn't there in Game 1. I don't think there was a lot of positives. We've got to be better, that's it. You got to bring the intensity, bring the playoff intensity. There's going to be a lot of noise, high intensity, lot of passion being played with. Our message (Monday) was we can't let a game like that happen again. We've just got to bring it. We can't just go out there and be going through the motions. Our season is on the line.

"For me, just to be a better player, that's all I really care about. As a team, you want to see where you have to grow in certain aspects. If you're here or not, you just need to know and next year you have to know how to approach. Obviously, this is my first time going through it, so the experience isn't there. But I'm learning every day and every game. By tonight, it's going to be a different game. By Game 3, it's going to be a different game."

It has to be for the Sixers if playing beyond four games is going to happen in this series.