A Sixers sweep is in reach, but don’t expect Brown, Boston to ease up

The Boston Celtics could sweep the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, don’t expect the Celtics to take the game lightly.

Boston Celtics star shooting guard Jaylen Brown may be up three games on the team that beat his Celtics as many times in the regular season, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to be taking it easy in Game 4 on Sunday.

In fact, we should probably expect him to come out as he did in Game 3, hyper-aggressive and ready to put his Atlantic Division rivals on a plane back to Pennsylvania.

“We’ve got to understand that every game is important and that the playoffs are different from the regular season,” he explained after the Game 3 win. “They’re down a guy, we’re down a guy; we’ve still got to come out and play, no matter what time it is — on Sunday it’s an early game.”

“You’ve just got to come out ready to play,” he added.

It’s been that confrontational style of play that has worked so well for Boston against Philly in the series so far, and kept the Sixers on their heels.

“Being aggressive, and in attack mode at all times is really good for our team,” explained the Marietta native.

He’s not wrong, given his Celtics are among the most bothersome defenses in the league, and have been a top-five team on both ends of the floor in 2019-20, in large part due to their formidable array of offensive tools.

Much of those tools have been pulled from the skillsets of Brown and teammate Jayson Tatum, who new arrival but veteran point guard Kemba Walker has been more than content to sit back and let them do the attacking.

But with the loss of veteran forward Gordon Hayward for at least four weeks, the UConn product’s number has been called to step it up on the offensive end, and he has not disappointed, particularly in Game 3.

“When [Kemba’s] getting it going on, he’s tough for teams to guard, and we can all start playing off of him once he starts making a few shots,” explained Brown.

That synergy will be critical to weathering Hayward’s absence and making a deep run, and not just in Game 4 on Sunday.

Should Boston advance to the second round to face the winner of the Brooklyn Nets – Toronto Raptors, they’ll likely be facing a determined defending champ who figure to be at least as much of a problem as the Sixers, and probably more so.

But with this kind of outlook and this sort of play, you have to like the Celtics’ odds.

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