Tatum vs. Brown: Time to talk about the basketball

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown meet as opponents for the first time Tuesday night, when the Celtics visit the Philadelphia 76ers at 8 p.m. ET at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Paul George, the player Boston received for Brown in July, faces the team he played for the last two seasons. And the game matches the Eastern Conference's two best records: Philadelphia is 9-2 and Boston is 8-2.

That last fact is the one that should matter most. For four months, the trade has been covered like a reality show, and the first meeting is a chance to finally talk about basketball.

Enough of the drama

The trade itself was simple. Boston sent Brown to Philadelphia for George, two first-round picks, including an unprotected 2031 Philadelphia pick, and two second-round picks. The deal was agreed on July 1 and became official on July 6.

Everything around it has been louder. There have been questions about whether Brown wanted out, parsing of social media posts and a running count of whether the two former teammates have spoken. Tatum has said he holds no ill will toward Brown and would welcome a conversation. Brown, asked about it after Philadelphia's win in Chicago on Sunday, put it plainly: "He's on his side, I'm on my side."

That is about as clear as the story is going to get, and it is a reasonable place to leave it. Two longtime teammates now play for rival contenders. The more useful question is what each team built, and Tuesday offers the first direct look.

What each team has

Philadelphia went all in. Brown joined a roster that already had Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and LeBron James, giving Philadelphia four established scorers. Maxey leads the team at 26.9 points a game. Brown is second at 22.3 points with 6.7 rebounds, Embiid averages 17.9 points and 9.7 rebounds, and James averages 15.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.7 assists.

Boston went a different direction. George gave the Celtics a second scorer next to Tatum, and the picks give them flexibility for later. George is averaging 20.4 points, and the rest of the roster has been built around depth rather than a third star.

Tatum has carried the load. He is averaging 27.1 points, 7.8 assists and 6.0 rebounds through nine games. Side by side, Brown averages fewer points and assists than Tatum and slightly more rebounds, a fair reflection of their roles: Tatum runs Boston's offense, while Brown is one of several options in Philadelphia.

Where Philadelphia can be beaten

A 9-2 start does not mean the 76ers are without weak spots. Both losses came by double digits, and both came when the offense stalled: 106-93 at home against Detroit on Oct. 25 and 119-95 in Cleveland on Friday. In those two games Philadelphia scored 93 and 95 points, well below its usual output.

That points to Boston's best path. The Celtics do not need to match Philadelphia's star power possession for possession. They need to make the 76ers work for every shot, keep Maxey from setting the pace, and trust their depth to win the minutes when the stars sit.

Boston has its own reminders of how quickly things can go wrong. Its two losses came at Detroit in the opener, when Tatum went 6 for 23, and at Houston on Nov. 2, the second night of a back-to-back, when Pritchard, White and Walsh shot a combined 5 of 23.

George's return

George spent two seasons in Philadelphia before the trade. He has fit quickly in Boston, and he is coming off one of his best stretches: 16 points in the second quarter of Sunday's 117-97 win in Milwaukee, on the way to 27. Facing his former team adds a layer to a game that already has plenty, but his job is the same as every night: give Boston a second player who can take over a quarter.

Why the minutes without Tatum matter

Against a team this deep, the game may turn on the minutes when Tatum sits. So far, those minutes have gone well. In Tatum's nine games, Boston has outscored opponents by 27 points in the roughly 133 minutes he was on the bench, according to box-score plus-minus. The Celtics also beat Milwaukee 109-102 on Nov. 4 in the one game he missed. Plus-minus is a rough measure and the sample is small, but it suggests the rest of the roster has held its own.

Two players are central to that.

Mitchell Robinson. The 7-footer is coming off his highest-scoring game as a Celtic: 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting, 7 rebounds and 4 steals in 18 minutes in Milwaukee, and Boston outscored the Bucks by 19 with him on the floor. He has made 26 of 38 shots this season and grabbed 24 offensive rebounds in nine games. Tuesday asks much more of him. Embiid averages 17.9 points and 9.7 rebounds, and Philadelphia is thin behind him, with backup center Adem Bona out. If Robinson can hold his ground against Embiid, keep him off the glass and avoid early fouls, Boston's size problem shrinks.

Payton Pritchard. Boston's sixth man has come off the bench in all 10 games and averages 12.8 points, with 21 threes. He finished plus-29 in Milwaukee. When Tatum rests, Pritchard is the one most likely to keep the offense moving, and his shooting is often the difference between a bench unit that holds a lead and one that gives it back.

Around them, Sam Hauser and Derrick White add shooting and defense. Against Maxey and Brown, the Celtics will need all of it.

What to watch

• The first matchup. Whether Tatum and Brown guard each other early will say a lot about how both coaches see the game.
• Embiid versus Robinson. The biggest physical gap on the floor, and the clearest test of Boston's frontcourt.
• The bench minutes. Boston's margin with Tatum sitting has been a strength. Philadelphia is the deepest test yet.
• Rest is even. Both teams won on the road Sunday: Boston 117-97 in Milwaukee and Philadelphia 127-121 in Chicago.

Philadelphia's injury report lists Bona, Dominick Barlow and Ariel Hukporti as out, and Embiid and James are not on it. The teams meet three more times this season, but there is only one first meeting, and the noise around it has had its run. Tuesday is about which new version of these teams is better.

Sources: box score data; Basketball-Reference team pages for Boston and Philadelphia; trade terms reported by ESPN, The Boston Globe and NBA.com; Brown's comments as reported by ESPN and NBC Sports Boston; Tatum's comments as reported by NBC Sports Boston and ESPN; team injury reports.