As everybody knows by now, the Philadelphia 76ers will take on the Boston Celtics in Round 1 of the 2020 NBA Playoffs. It will be another chapter written in a historic rivalry between Philadelphia and Boston.
This version of the rivalry is going to be interesting considering the Sixers now have Al Horford on their side. The 13-year veteran out of Florida played for Boston the previous three seasons before signing with the Sixers in the offseason and he was a key reason for the Celtics ousting Philadelphia in five games in the 2018 Eastern Conference semifinals.
Philadelphia took three of the four matchups the team played in the regular season, but that was all before the league hiatus in March. Celtics coach Brad Stevens has a lot of respect for the Sixers as he told our sister site, Celtics Wire:
“We’ve been looking at Philly with the idea that they’re our likely opponents,” offered Stevens after the Celtics’ loss to the Washington Wizards Thursday afternoon. “And they’re are a heck of a team.”
Obviously, Philadelphia is going to be missing Ben Simmons due to the knee surgery he had to undergo, but for Stevens, his focus is on everybody else. They have other big pieces such as Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, and, of course, Horford.
Stevens added:
“Everybody talks about their frontcourt,” added the recently-extended coach. “Rightfully so with [Tobias] Harris, Horford and Embiid, they’ve got a lot of good basketball players on that team.”
The Celtics have already finished their seeding games schedule, but the Sixers do have one more game to go on Friday when they take on the Houston Rockets before the playoffs begin on Monday. [lawrence-related id=36783,36780,36775]