{"id":709803,"date":"2026-04-13T18:43:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709803\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T18:43:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:43:36","slug":"breaking-down-bostons-two-potential-first-round-foes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709803\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking down Boston’s two potential first-round foes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A first-round rematch or another Boston-Philly showdown?<\/p>\n

Those are the two possibilities awaiting the Celtics as they head into the 2026 NBA playoffs. As the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the second straight year, Boston will face the winner of Wednesday night\u2019s 7 vs. 8 play-in game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic.<\/p>\n

The Sixers and Magic finished the regular season with identical 45-37 records, with the former owning the tiebreaker and, with it, home-court advantage in the play-in. Orlando botched a chance to host the win-and-advance game by losing Sunday to a Celtics team that sat nearly its entire rotation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Boston waits for its first-round opponent to be decided \u2014 and then for its series to tip off Sunday<\/a> at TD Garden (1 p.m.; ABC) \u2014 let\u2019s take a closer look at the two candidates:<\/p>\n

\"BostonBoston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown (7) tries to get a shot past Philadelphia 76ers’ Kelly Oubre Jr. during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)
\nPhiladelphia 76ers<\/p>\n

Offensive rating: 16th
Defensive rating: 17th
Net rating: 18th
Record vs. Celtics: 2-2<\/p>\n

What they do well<\/p>\n

Take care of the ball. Despite cycling through a revolving door of lineups this season, Philadelphia has succeeded in limiting turnovers. It ranks sixth in turnover rate, trailing four championship contenders (Oklahoma City, Denver, Boston and San Antonio) and the Miami Heat. The Sixers also boast one of the NBA\u2019s premier guards in Tyrese Maxey, who averaged 30.0 points and 8.8 assists over four regular-season meetings with Boston. Only Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards and Jaylen Brown scored more points per game this season than Maxey\u2019s 28.3, and he ranked 10th in the league in estimated wins added<\/a>, trailing eight fellow All-Stars and Derrick White.<\/p>\n

Where they struggle<\/p>\n

Does \u201cstaying healthy\u201d qualify? The Sixers have, on paper, one of the most talented cores in the East, but they again struggled to keep their key players on the court. Between injuries, illnesses and Paul George\u2019s 25-game suspension for violating the NBA\u2019s anti-drug policy, Philly\u2019s top four of Joel Embiid, Maxey, George and rookie VJ Edgecombe played just 20 games together during the regular season. And Embiid\u2019s status for the postseason is unclear after he underwent an emergency appendectomy last week, from which he has yet to return.<\/p>\n

Biggest concern<\/p>\n

Embiid\u2019s availability, obviously. The 2023 NBA MVP is one of the league\u2019s toughest matchups when healthy, but he rarely is these days, missing 150 games over the last three seasons. The 76ers are 19-22 without him this season. Beyond that, the Sixers have struggled mightily against quality competition, going 2-13 in their last 15 games against top-six teams from either conference. They\u2019re the only East playoff or play-in team with a net rating in the negatives (minus-0.1).<\/p>\n

\"BostonBoston Celtics center Luka Garza center, battles with Orlando Magic forward Tristan da Silva left, and Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. right, for control of the ball during the second half against the Orlando Magic at the TD Garden on April 12, 2026. (CJ Gunther\/Boston Herald)
\nOrlando Magic<\/p>\n

Offensive rating: 18th
Defensive rating: 13th
Net rating: 17th
Record vs. Celtics: 1-3<\/p>\n

What they do well<\/p>\n

Get to the foul line. The Magic led the NBA in free-throw attempts and fouls drawn per 100 possessions this season. Head coach Jamahl Mosley has made some notable stylistic changes since Orlando\u2019s five-game loss to Boston last spring, but his team still plays with the same physicality that battered the Celtics<\/a> during that gentlemen\u2019s sweep. The Magic also are solid on the glass, ranking 12th in offensive rebounding rate and fifth in defensive rebounding rate, and posted the fifth-best record in clutch games (27-16).<\/p>\n

Where they struggle<\/p>\n

Shooting. Although this Magic offense is much more efficient and fast-moving than last season\u2019s version (which isn\u2019t saying much; that squad ranked 27th in rating and last in pace), they again resided near the bottom of the league in effective field-goal percentage (25th, one spot ahead of Philadelphia) and 3-point shooting percentage (27th). Orlando\u2019s once-vaunted defense also regressed considerably, dropping out of the top 10 after ranking second behind OKC a year ago.<\/p>\n

Biggest concern<\/p>\n

Other than the fact that Orlando\u2019s starters just lost to eight Celtics bench players in a game the Magic needed to win for playoff seeding? This has been an all-around dud of a season for Mosley\u2019s club, which had hoped its blockbuster offseason trade for Desmond Bane would vault it into the top tier of Eastern Conference contenders. Instead, even with Bane starting all 82 games and posting quality numbers, the Magic finished one spot lower in the standings than they did last season. They\u2019ll hope the recent returns of Franz Wagner, who missed more than half of the regular season, and Anthony Black can push their roster closer to its ceiling in the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A first-round rematch or another Boston-Philly showdown? Those are the two possibilities awaiting the Celtics as they head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,56795,24421,88644,1207,6,11],"class_list":{"0":"post-709803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-celtics-76ers","14":"tag-celtics-magic","15":"tag-celtics-playoff-matchup","16":"tag-celtics-playoffs","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-nba-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116398877313982833","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}