The Celtics admittedly didn’t play all that well in their Game 1 win over Philadelphia. Kevin Garnett, however, wasn’t among those that struggled. The 14-time All-Star, who will turn 36 this coming weekend, scored a game-high 29 points on 12-for-20 shooting, while also collecting 11 rebounds and blocking three shots.

Heading into Game 2, Doug Collins was content to allow Garnett open jumpers on the perimeter.

“He’s making those jump shots,” Collins said. “He has one foot on the three-point line and he’s making jump shots. My hat is off to him.”

In addition to grabbing home court advantage from the Celtics with a victory on Monday night, the 76ers were also able to keep Garnett somewhat in check. Garnett finished with 15 points on 7-for-12 shooting. His final three points came on an uncontested three-pointer as the buzzer sounded.

If you remove the three-pointer, 12 points on 6-for-11 shooting still seems productive. But the shots Garnett made were closely contested, aside from an 11-footer jump shot he made 17 seconds into the game.

“We made him work for his points tonight and that was critical,” Collins said.

Philadelphia used Lavoy Allen more than they did in Game 1, playing him for more than 30 minutes after he logged just 20 two nights earlier. Allen used his strength to body up on Garnett, relying on physicality to disrupt him.

With Allen getting more time, Spencer Hawes played seven fewer minutes. The combination of Allen and Hawes allowed the 76ers to give Garnett different defensive looks.

“Lavoy and I are kind of different in how we play defense,” Hawes told RealGM on Monday night. “He’s a little bit stronger than I am and I have a little bit more length, so we tried to mix it up on [Garnett] and that plays to our advantage.”

Stopping Garnett has not been an easy feat this postseason. In six games against the Hawks, he increased his production significantly. After averaging 15.8 points and 8.2 rebounds during the regular season, he put up 18.7 points and 10.5 rebounds against Atlanta.

In the semifinal opener, it looked like the 76ers were in for an even better effort.

“[In Game 1] he had a lot of jump shots, a lot of open jump shots,” Allen said. “[In Game 2] we tried to get him out of the post, push him off the block and get him far away from the basket.”

Allen was successful in pushing Garnett out of the painted area and generally in keeping him out of good offensive position. After Garnett drilled an 18-footer that pulled the Celtics to within two points with less than five minutes remaining, Allen played up on him enough to force a turnover. A few minutes earlier, he forced Garnett into a travel.

“He’s definitely shown up big for us in these playoffs,” Andre Iguodala said of the rookie, a second-round pick last June. “He was one of those under-the-radar guys coming out of the draft, kind of like Paul Millsap or Carlos Boozer coming out, and we have put him in a position to just come in and do his job. He’s excelled, he’s given us a boost and he’s really helping us out.”

Of the six two-point field goals Garnett made in Game 2, only two came from closer than 10 feet. One was an alley-oop from Rajon Rondo and the other a turnaround jumper from three-feet. Allen was assigned to guard Garnett for the final eight minutes.

“We tried to put some strength on him,” Collins said. “Lavoy ended up playing 30 minutes tonight. We had Spencer try to put some size on him and we had Lavoy try to put some muscle on him. We tried to take away his rhythm shots. Watching the tape, they do such a good job of getting you strung out and then swinging back to him and all those shots he catches in rhythm. He just doesn’t miss.”

Limiting Garnett was a project for the 76ers in Game 2 and their relative success isn’t guaranteed to carryover throughout the series. Doc Rivers and the Celtics will make adjustments to get Garnett better looks going forward.