The Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics matchup in a big rivalry showdown on Thursday in South Philadelphia. The Sixers have won the first two matchups and they will be looking to win the first three on Thursday. However, they will have to do so without the services of superstar Joel Embiid who is out with a ring finger injury.
Ahead of the matchup, Sixers Wire hooked up with our sister site Celtics Wire and lead writer Justin Quinn to discuss the matchup and get the perspective of the Celtics as they enter this important contest.
SW: Can you give me an overview of the Celtics’ season so far?
CW: Sure. Boston came into the season with a host of question marks hanging over a team seeing two top-50 talents (Al Horford to the 76ers being one of them) and several other important players leave the team. At the same time, the Celtics made some surprising moves with All-NBA point guard Kemba Walker and center Enes Kanter.
It also added seven rookies, and so far, several of them have proven reliable depth options.
The chemistry hinted at by Team Shamrock — the four Celtics playing on Team USA — over the summer has proven to be real, and anticipated growth for wings Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum coupled with veteran forward Gordon Hayward returning to form has catapulted the team to the third-best record in the league.
Questions remain about matching up with a few teams around the league who happen to have highly-mobile but powerful bigs, like the Milwaukee Bucks with Giannis Antetokounmpo and of course Philadelphia. There’s hope the team, when healthy, will be able to find ways to compete against even those teams, perhaps with a midseason frontcourt upgrade if not internal growth.
SW: How do the Celtics win Thursday’s matchup? How does Philly win?
CW: For Boston, the 76ers massive front line has been a near-insuperable obstacle in the team’s two meetings this season. It will take a hot-shooting night with all their key players being healthy for Boston to manage to take a win from Philly this season, something of a challenge of late with Kemba Walker having missed two of their last three games due to illness and Hayward missing time recently due to foot pain. With a little luck, Boston should have all their starters available.
I wouldn’t be too surprised to see the Celtics break out some zone over stretches — just to rattle the Sixers a bit — either.
Philadelphia just needs to stick with what they’ve been doing defensively against Boston, using their superior size and length to smother the Celtics’ perimeter game. On the other end of the court, Boston has had precisely zero answers for covering Embiid other than baiting him into posting up, something the Sixers should obviously avoid if they’d like their biggest star to not throw up ill-advised jumpers late in the game.
SW: What else should we know?
CW: After losing two in a row to the Sixers but having a much better season to date, I think Boston really wants a win against their Atlantic division rivals. It won’t be easy getting the W on Philly’s home court, but considering health and the relatively easy games Boston has had before this meeting, it might just be their best shot for a win this season.
The Sixers and the Celtics tipoff at 7:00 p.m. EST from the Wells Fargo Center where Philadelphia is a robust 17-2 to begin the season. [lawrence-related id=23091,23079,23064]