Tyrese Maxey finishes with 29 factors and 9 assists in a Game 2 win for the Sixers.
The Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers have a wealthy postseason historical past and, for many years, stood as one of many league’s authentic rivalries. It was one with epic performances and finishes, particularly in the Nineteen Eighties, when their playoff sequence typically despatched the eventual NBA champion to the NBA Finals.
Fast ahead to at this time, and there’s a scent of a rivalry brewing once more, if solely as a result of their first-round series is tied at one recreation every and suspense has entered the constructing.
The Sixers have the following two video games in Philly and may have an emotional increase. Expect all of the old-time legends (like Allen Iverson and Julius Erving) to sit courtside and supply motivation.
However, Iverson and Erving can’t swimsuit up and play for the Sixers. It’s up to the present gamers missing in championship expertise to maintain the sequence transferring in a constructive course. That received’t be a easy process in opposition to a staff that’s more healthy, bringing larger expectations and championship mettle with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Whether this sequence elevates in phrases of intrigue and depth, due to this fact, falls on the shoulders of the Sixers and whether or not they can both keep the house court docket or at the least break up the following two video games.
Here’s what to watch for Game 3 tonight ((*3*)) in Philadelphia:
1. What is Maxey’s mindset?
The following assertion is to be taken in context and isn’t meant to provide a comparability. Now that it’s understood, right here it goes — the final time the Sixers have been led in the playoffs by a quicksilver level guard who brought on whiplash and broke ankles and was powerful to include was Iverson.
The newest drawback for different groups is Tyrese Maxey, who can shift gears off the dribble and alter instructions on a dime and rating on anybody the Celtics provide up in protection. Sometimes two Celtics.
How Maxey craves the ball in large moments is one thing to behold. He was all the time a taking pictures guard trapped in a degree guard’s physique, though in his case, that’s not such a nasty factor. If Maxey has the desire, the Sixers may discover a means to win greater than a recreation in opposition to Boston, and Maxey positively has the desire.
The playoffs have a means of exposing you for the participant you really are, with each recreation and sometimes each possession magnified together with the calls for. Some gamers gravitate towards this, whereas others regress.
Maxey’s taking pictures hasn’t all the time been sharp in this sequence, however he doesn’t permit the misses to discourage him. As the Sixers proceed with out Joel Embiid, Maxey can’t afford to lose confidence.
2. Embiid’s standing for Game 3
The elephant in the room, metaphorically talking, in fact, is the previous Kia MVP and Sixers beginning heart. He can change a whole recreation or possibly even a best-of-seven sequence, however is at the moment inactive due to damage. The identification of that individual isn’t very laborious to know.
This has been Embiid’s profession, for essentially the most half. His video games performed and video games missed, if positioned on reverse ends of a scale, would present a fair steadiness. This season, he performed simply 38 video games.
But the longer the Sixers stretch this sequence, the extra the likelihood — nothing sure, however nonetheless — that Embiid, upgraded as uncertain for Game 3, may heal up in time to see motion.
The very last thing the Sixers will do is rush their large man again from an emergency appendectomy, which he suffered on April 9. He has entered the following part of his rehab, however hasn’t accomplished any contact drills. That means it’s protected to assume he’s extra doubtless not to play than to play, which suggests extra Adem Bona and Andre Drummond in the put up.
But Sixers followers can dream. If one way or the other this sequence is harder than anybody imagined and Embiid, who averaged 26.9 factors and seven.7 rebounds per recreation, finds a means to swimsuit up…effectively, let’s simply pencil that in for the occasion of all the playoffs.
3. Brown prepared to take over?
The one fixed for the Celtics, not solely in this sequence however all season, is Jaylen Brown and his excessive degree of efficiency. He’s averaging 31 ppg in the playoffs and is the one Celtics participant hitting his 3-pointers (at 50%). All this comes on the heels of a Kia MVP-flavored common season the place he carried the Celtics for stretches and completed among the many league’s prime scorers and rebounding guards.
His subsequent journey, if it turns into essential, is to carry the Celtics by this sequence, particularly if the 3-pointers don’t fall for his teammates and the Sixers one way or the other get juiced by two house video games.
Speaking of the house court docket, the Celtics should not pushovers on the highway. Only Detroit, San Antonio and Oklahoma City have been higher in hostile arenas. And once more, this was with out Tatum for essentially the most half.
Brown enjoys being one of many league’s prime gamers, an ascent that started along with his efficiency in the 2024 NBA Finals, and he intends to maintain his place in line. The finest means is to be the best participant on the ground, beginning with this sequence.
In that sense, to date anyway, it’s Brown vs. Maxey. Who would be the final participant standing on the finish?
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Shaun Powell has coated the NBA since 1985. You can e-mail him at spowell@nba.com, discover his archive here and follow him on X.
