Playoff Preview: Philadelphia 76ers
Before you read this, I highly encourage you all to check out the article I wrote for The Celtics Journal (thecelticsjournal.com). I talked about what the Celtics will need to do on both offense and defense in order to beat the Sixers.
The Celtics are set to begin their first round series against the Philadelphia 76ers at 6:30PM on Monday, August 17th. A lot of people believe that the Celtics are going to run right through Philly with no problem, largely due to the absence of their All-Star point guard Ben Simmons. Although I do think that Boston will eventually come out on top, this will be anything but an easy series.
First of all, the Sixers still have Joel Embiid. He has all the talent to be an MVP type player, and I wouldn’t argue with you if you said he’s the best center in the league. I covered the key to guarding him in my other article, but to put it concisely, Boston will have to play defense by committee. Marcus Smart will have to be all over Embiid if the Celtics want any chance at slowing him down. Just annoy him in the post until he makes bad decisions with the ball.
Outside of Embiid, the Sixers still do have a solid second option on offense. Tobias Harris, though overpaid, is still a really good NBA player who can shoot the ball at an insane clip when he’s hot. If the Celtics don’t prioritize him enough, don’t be surprised if he becomes the Khris Middleton equivalent of this series. If Boston spends too much time on Embiid, Harris could get hot.
I would say that’s Philly’s dynamic duo for the series, and behind them are a few decent role players. Josh Richardson is a great three and D guy who will be clamping up whoever he guards on defense. Al Horford, a fan favorite in Boston, can stretch the floor and play some defense in the paint. Then there’s the specialist guys - Matisse Thybulle for defense and Furkan Korkmaz and Alec Burks for shooting. Other than that, though, the Sixers bench is just kind of lackluster.
I’m not exactly sure what the Sixers plan on rolling out for their starting lineup, but I expect it to be one of two things. Either they start Horford and run a lineup of Shake Milton, Richardson, Harris, Horford, and Embiid, or they bring him off the bench and replace him with Thybulle. In my opinion, I think starting Thybulle would work best, just so the paint isn’t clogged with two big men.
Speaking of clogging the paint, that brings me to my next point. Horford is clearly one of the top five players on the Sixers roster, but having him on the floor with Embiid hasn’t worked out too well for them this year. The same can be said for running Simmons and Embiid together - both of them need the paint to work, so things are often clogged. So honestly, as my podcast co-host Sam LaFrance pointed out, while Philly will miss Simmons dearly, not having him could potentially open up the paint for Embiid to work.
However, this also begs the question of if Horford will be on the floor at the end of the game. Obviously you would want the best players on the floor at the same time, but what if that means sacrificing the flow of the offense? I don’t know. I’ll be interested to see what happens.
The other issue with running Horford at the end of games, or on the floor at all with Embiid, is the matchups. Boston tends to run pretty small lineups, so if Horford and Embiid are on the court at the same time, one will have to guard a very talented wing. I don’t think either of them are able to keep up with the likes of Jayson Tatum and Gordon Hayward, so unless they run a zone defense to perfection, the Celtics should be able to tear them apart.
All it’s going to take for Boston to beat Philly offensively is good ball movement and making open shots. If the Celtics are able to execute on both of those fronts, offense won’t be a problem. Past that it’s all about slowing down Embiid and making sure Harris doesn’t get hot. No one else on that roster scares me. I’m ready to see what Brad Stevens has cooking, because Brett Brown isn’t going to know what hit him. Let’s go Celtics. Bleed Green.
