BOSTON — Philadelphia 76ers guard Markelle Fultz is facing the music.

After another loss to the Boston Celtics at the hands of Jayson Tatum on Tuesday, the 2017 No. 1 pick bounced around the locker room with bluetooth headphones in his ears. He joked with trainers before taking a couple questions about a game that saw him finish 2-for-7 from the field and record more turnovers than assists before being all but benched in the second half.

“When coach makes a decision that he believes is best, I’m perfectly fine with it,” said Fultz. “You grow by sitting on the bench and watching, too. If anything, you see what players on the court can’t see.”

It was the sort of game that may have sent Fultz retreating into his locker last season, staring at his phone in hopes of avoiding another round of questions from media wondering how and why the scapular muscle imbalance in his right shoulder led him to, as trainer Drew Hanlen described in June, “completely [forget] how to shoot.”

Fultz’s shot still hasn’t returned to the level that made him a versatile scoring threat and the consensus top pick at the University of Washington. That’s still a work in progress, but his coach, teammates and shot doctor are all confident he can get back there, and they’re investing heavily in him this season, if only because they need him in order to get where they’d like to go.

“He seems more confident,” teammate J.J. Redick told Yahoo Sports. “I think his demeanor, his spirit has changed. I think he wasn’t sure — and I don’t think any of us were sure — what was happening last year. I don’t think he even knew what was happening last year. I think it’s balancing the NBA as a 19-year-old, the pressure of being the No. 1 draft pick is tough on anyone, and then you add an injury on top of that, and it’s tough. I think he’s got his body in a great place and he’s ready to go this season.”

***

Every time the Sixers opened the curtain on practice last season, a horde of reporters readied their cell phones to capture glimpses of Fultz’s broken jump shot, and the resulting six-second clips were analyzed on social media and talking-head shows more times than the Zapruder film.

“The kid’s f—ing 19, man,” Redick warned reporters at one such practice. “Holy s—. Y’all are sick.”

Expounding on that anger in a podcast interview with ESPN’s Zach Lowe over the summer, Redick likened the process by which the media picked apart Fultz’s faulty jumper to “vultures preying on a dying, decaying body.” On top of the physical and mental hurdles of overcoming “one of the most documented cases of the yips in basketball in recent years,” Fultz’s phone was filled with constant reminders of his failure to immediately fulfill the hype that follows a No. 1 pick.

Part of what made Redick so upset about the attention paid to the shoulder and shooting woes that cost Fultz all but 14 games last season is the knowledge that social media — a vice he called “a dark place” and “f—ing scary” in an eye-opening feature from Bleacher Report’s Tom Haberstroh — adds yet another layer to the many challenges that come with being a teenager in the basketball limelight.

“If there was social media when I was at Duke, I think I would’ve not made it through my career. My career probably would’ve ended prematurely due to suspension,” Redick half-joked to Yahoo Sports, as a Sixers employee reminded him that MySpace launched in 2003. The extent of Redick’s social media access at Fultz’s age was a fledgling Facebook account his Duke.edu address got him as a junior.

“There wasn’t Instagram when I came in, so we didn’t have to worry about that,” added Sixers veteran Amir Johnson, who owns the distinction of being the last player drafted from high school to the NBA. “Nowadays, it’s different. Everybody puts their phone out when something happens. This day and age, you’ve really got to stay level-headed and ignore it, especially as a rookie.”

It’s a wonder the only mention of any anxiety came in a short-lived post on Fultz’s Instagram feed.

“‘Faithful to the grind’ is his slogan, and he does that. Every day,” Johnson added after the season-opening 103-85 loss. “He’s always positive, always in the gym working, coming in early, staying late. That’s what I told him: ‘They can’t take away how hard you work.’ And it shows.

Story continues