If it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of buzz for the Sixers right now, it’s because there isn’t. Ben Simmons is out, seemingly for the year. Fans are very down on the head coach and general manager. The Flyers are playing extremely well and the Phillies stink, which soaks up some of the Negadelphia that might be otherwise directed at the basketball team. The “juice” for a playoff run just feels unsqueezed at this point, like you put the fruit in the Black and Decker but just left it sitting there.

But you never know what might happen in the postseason, and one could argue that the Sixers, even without Simmons, match up better against the Celtics than any of the other teams in the Eastern Conference’s top half. They did, after all, beat this Boston team three times in the regular season, while losing just once. That’s a reason to be Posidelphia, and as long as Joel Embiid is on the floor, this squad always has a chance.

When previewing the series, two things jump right off the page. They jump so aggressively and obviously off the page that it’s like being slapped upside the head while the page then looks at you and says “no duh.”

Those two things are:

  1. Joel Embiid’s interior strength
  2. perimeter defense and handling Boston’s guards and wings

The first one is easy enough to understand. Daniel Theis and Enes Kanter is a favorable matchup for Joel Embiid on both ends of the floor. Joel scored 38 points in a December trip to Boston and neither one of those guys is a high-level scoring or floor spacing threat on the defensive end. Embiid will get his points and get his post touches.


The second one is where the series will be won or lost. Without Ben Simmons, the Sixers are going to have to figure out how they want to match up Josh Richardson, Shake Milton, and Tobias Harris on the trio of Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown. That’s where Boston does most of their damage against Philly, from backcourt and wing play.

Case in point, in the one regular season game the Celtics did win, Theis and Gordon Hayward combined for a whopping nine points. Walker didn’t even play, but the starting trio of Tatum, Brown, and Marcus Smart went for 73 points combined.

Richardson was injured for that game, with Milton stepping into the starting lineup, and this is how the Sixers matched up against top-scorer Brown:

You see Al Horford spent some time defending on the wing, and that’s an option in this series, or even with Embiid himself. Naturally, you’d probably stick Horford on Hayward and Embiid on Theis, but they have the flexibility to put Joel on the power forward and even have him guard Tatum on a couple of possessions if necessary. I don’t know if that’s sustainable over a period of time, but it’s an option in a pinch.

In two of the three Sixers wins against Boston, they held the Celtics to less than 100 points. In the third win, they didn’t have Embiid and kept them to 109.

Here are a few notes from those three wins:

Sixers 109, Celtics 98 – January 9th (at home)

50 points in the paint and just 13 turnovers. They went on runs of 7-0 and 9-0 and played suffocating defense in the second half, without Embiid.

Walker had a 50% shooting night, but the Sixers held Tatum and Brown to a 6-25 combined shooting night, sticking Simmons on Tatum and using a combination of Harris and Mike Scott on Brown. Richardson and Matisse Thybulle worked on Kemba.

This was one of Horford’s best games of the year, a 17-point offensive effort and a stout defensive performance with higher pick and roll coverage sans JOel.

Said Horford after the game:

I just think that for me, defensively, we made an adjustment for Oklahoma City, changing the way I defend the pick-and-roll, and I felt like it was helpful. For me, I like it more that way, Coach made that adjustment, and even the Houston game I changed it up as well and I think that has made a difference … I think we really moved the ball and tried to play with pace, trying to keep up with Ben. He’s flying all over the place, making plays and stuff, so we just have to play different until Joel gets back and then integrate him and continue to figure it out as a group.

Great win at the time, ended a losing streak.

Sixers 115, Celtics 109 – December 12th (in Boston) 

This was the “Joel Embiid responds to Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal” game. 38 points for Embiid in a fantastic road win. The Celts were actually unbeaten at home prior to this game.

Ben Simmons only shot 2-6 in this one, but again did a really nice job on Tatum, whom he matched up with for a whopping 6:53 of game time. Tatum shot 5-18 overall while Brown went 3-9 and Walker 8-21, with Scott and Thybulle on Brown and Richardson splitting Kemba with Matisse.

Boston’s truncated box score from that game:

You can very easily live with that.

Sixers 107, Celtics 93 – October 23rd (home opener)

The Sixers shot 38% from the floor and just 2-13 from three, but smothered Boston defensively en route to a feel-good home win. They blocked seven shots, ripped off six steals, and held the Celtics to a 36.7% shooting night.

Fantastic defensive effort all around, and this Richardson rear contest and block on a Hayward/Theis pick and roll stood out as a snap shot of the performance:

Kemba had a 4-18 shooting night in the season opener with Richardson mostly on him. Tatum was 8-22, again with Simmons logging more than 6:30 of defensive matchup time against him.

So in conclusion, really simple –

They need to figure out how they’re going to guard Kemba, Tatum, and Brown without Simmons in the mix. Josh Richardson is really going to have to have himself a good defensive series, and Shake Milton, too. Tobias Harris and Al Horford might see some interchange at the three and four. Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III were not in the mix the when these teams played in the regular season, so their presences helps, and Thybulle has an opportunity to really contribute off the bench.

And I don’t mean to be disrespectful to Hayward, who’s had some really good games in the bubble, but the Horford and Embiid combination makes him much easier to address defensively than Boston’s guards and wings. They have more options for handling him than they do figuring out a red hot Tatum or Brown.

Simmons’ loss is huge, but the Sixers have the pieces to beat Boston, they just need to put those pieces together. Should be a good series.