The Celtics finally know who they’ll be facing in the first round of the NBA playoffs after the 76ers defeated the Magic in the 7/8 play-in game on Wednesday night. The postseason is all about matchups, and as they say, styles make fights.Â
It’s tough to use the regular season as much of a gauge for this matchup as three of the four meetings between the two teams happened in October and early November. In fact, the third meeting of the two rivals took place on November 11th, and the one-point Philly win dropped the Celtics to 5-7 on the season. Needless to say, I think we can largely throw that three-game sample out the window as a few things have changed.
So, when making a game plan for a playoff series, coaches try to find an edge and ways they can shift margins in their favor. It’s something Joe Mazzulla has done all season long, and luckily for him, Boston shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel to find success against Philadelphia.
When the Celtics struggle, it’s generally when teams take them out of their comfort zone and make them change how they play. That shouldn’t be a problem with the Sixers, as they have a hard time stopping everything the Celtics are good at.
Celtics can weaponize offensive rebounding
A calling card of the Celtics this season has been winning the possession battle, especially by crashing the offensive glass and creating second chances. It just so happens that the Sixers are 22nd in opponent rebounding and 27th in opponent offensive rebounding. And that’s not even factoring in that they’ll be missing their former MVP big man, Joel Embiid, who needed emergency appendicitis surgery last week.
In the one, somewhat recent game these teams played on March 1st, the Celtics much more closely resembled the team they are today (although they didn’t have Jayson Tatum), and they beat the Sixers, 114-98, racking up 19 offensive rebounds (Neemy had 10 by himself) and absolutely dominating the boards, 59-37.
Most of the Sixers players aren’t wired to crash the glass hard, and that’s going to be a problem, because almost every player on the Celtics is going to make them pay.
Philly can’t slow Celtics 3-point barrage
Another thing Philly doesn’t do well is take away the three-point line. They are in the bottom half of the league in three-pointers attempted and allowed. They don’t run teams off the line; instead commonly overhelp to take away drives, leaving themselves susceptible to getting in rotation and getting beat by the extra pass.
That’s how the Celtics kill teams, and if you allow Mazzulla-ball to start humming with ball movement, creating open threes supplemented by constant second-chances from offensive rebounds, you’re basically drawing dead.
Without Embiid, Philly was always going to be in trouble against a superior Celtics team, but the matchup and these teams’ tendencies aren’t doing them any favors either. The Sixers are going to have to make some adjustments before this one even gets started, and even that may not be enough to overcome the major advantages pointing in Boston’s favor.
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