Previewing Boston Celtics-Philadelphia 76ers Game 3 Round 1

The Boston Celtics look to take a three-game lead over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 3 of their East Playoffs first-round series.

Game 3 of the Boston Celtics first round series with the Philadelphia 76ers begins at 6:30 pm Eastern Time this Friday, August 21st as the Sixers do their best to avoid falling into a 3 – 0 hole in the series.

In both of the first two meetings of the series, Philly came on strong early, but puttered out in the second half as 76ers center Joel Embiid’s conditioning and Philadelphia coach Brett Brown’s questionable commitment to his schema combined to hand the Sixers a loss.

Both teams return the same players, with Boston veteran forward Gordon Hayward and Philly forward Ben Simmons to miss the game with injuries to their lower extremities and Sixers wing Glenn Robinson III likely out with a hip pointer.

Philadelphia has struggled to find a high-level starting lineup that’s consistent all season, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be pulling that rabbit out of a hat for this contest, either.

But don’t be surprised to see some radical moves designed to maximize perimeter defense and save Embiid’s energy for later in the game.

Philly has little to lose at this point.

Conversely, a lackadaisical effort on the Celtics’ end could be in the works if Boston, as it sometimes does, believes the predictions of their victory a little more than they should — and despite their woes, that’s an easy win for the 76ers.

Based on what we’ve seen and heard so far however, we expect the Celtics to show up to play and the Sixers to at least make a game of this one, Boston winning a much closer 111-103 contest.

Most online bookmakers tend to agree, granting the Celtics a -4.5 spread.

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