CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers finally have an opponent in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Boston Celtics. The series tips off from TD Garden on Monday for the right to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
The Sixers are looking to advance to their first conference finals since 2001. Philadelphia has fallen in the conference semifinals in four of the past five seasons. One has to feel like this is their best shot to get to the finals considering how wide-open the NBA is at the moment.
To get past Boston, the Sixers will need others to step up in case an injured Joel Embiid can’t go. Tobias Harris, who had a terrific first round in the sweep of the Brooklyn Nets, gave his keys for the Sixers to knock off the Cs in the semifinals.
“Just guarding all their guys,” Harris told Sixers Wire. “Obviously, the two-headed snake is (Jayson) Tatum and (Jaylen) Brown, but then also it’s the other guys who come out and have over-average nights right and those guys are playing well.”
To Harris’ point, the Celtics had eight players average at least 8.0 points per game during the regular season. In their first-round victory over the Atlanta Hawks, they had four guys average at least 16.7 points per game and another who averaged double-fires.
The Sixers will have to find ways to slow Boston’s high-powered attack.
“Guys like Derrick White, Al Horford, Marcus Smart,” Harris finished. “Obviously, you got to stop the top two, but outside of that, we got to be able to maintain and make those other guys’ lives hard, too.”
The Sixers, of course, have a high-powered offense of their own, but they will need to be able to dig deep on the defensive end and make a difference in that end in this series.
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