{"id":711904,"date":"2026-04-16T17:42:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711904\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T17:42:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:42:28","slug":"four-things-to-know-about-76ers-entering-celtics-playoff-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711904\/","title":{"rendered":"Four things to know about 76ers entering Celtics playoff matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

As they\u2019ve done nearly two dozen times before, the Celtics and 76ers will square off in the NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n

As the teams prepare for Game 1 for Sunday at TD Garden (1 p.m.; ABC), here are four things to know about Boston\u2019s familiar first-round opponent:<\/p>\n

1. Embiid\u2019s status<\/p>\n

Might as well start with the big one. Joel Embiid, the oft-injured 2023 NBA MVP, underwent emergency surgery for appendicitis last Thursday and has yet to return to the court.<\/p>\n

It was the latest entry on a long list of eclectic ailments that have limited the superstar big man to 39, 19 and 38 games over the last three seasons. He\u2019s made just seven appearances since the NBA All-Star break in February, and as of Thursday, it was unclear whether the 76ers expect him back at any point during their first-round series.<\/p>\n

Though the Sixers knocked off the Orlando Magic<\/a> without Embiid in Wednesday\u2019s play-in game to book their matchup against the No. 2 seed Celtics, they\u2019ve been a much better team this season when he is available. They\u2019re 24-14 with him in the lineup and 21-23 when he sits.<\/p>\n

Embiid averaged 26.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.2 blocks per game during the regular season while leading his team in individual net rating (plus-5.8). He scored at least 24 points in 16 of his last 17 outings \u2014 and notched 19-13-7 with three blocks in the lone outlier, a win over Minnesota on April 3.<\/p>\n

At full strength, the Sixers have a talented enough roster to make the Celtics sweat. But if Embiid can\u2019t go, this series could be over quickly.<\/p>\n

2. Maxey magic<\/p>\n

With Embiid and nine-time All-Star Paul George both sitting out more than half of the regular season \u2014 the latter missed extended time with a knee injury and later was suspended 25 games for an anti-drug policy violation \u2014 head coach Nick Nurse was heavily reliant on his only regularly available star, Tyrese Maxey.<\/p>\n

The All-Star guard played the eighth-most minutes of any NBA player during the regular season, becoming the first since James Harden in 2015-16 to average at least 38 minutes per game. That workload was nothing new for Maxey, who also ranked first or second in minutes per game in each of the previous two seasons, and he delivered top-tier production, finishing as the league\u2019s fifth-leading scorer (28.3 points per game) behind Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards and Jaylen Brown.<\/p>\n

Maxey was one of just seven players to average at least 25 points and six rebounds per contest, and he also ranked fifth in the league in steals. He put up strong numbers against the Celtics, too, averaging 30.0 points, 8.8 assists and 4.5 rebounds across the teams\u2019 four regular-season meetings.<\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s reserve wings have defended Maxey well, however. Though he put up 33 points in the Sixers\u2019 114-98 loss at TD Garden on March 1, Baylor Scheierman held him to 3-of-10 shooting with one foul over nearly nine minutes of matchup time, per NBA player tracking. Maxey also went 1-for-9 when guarded by Jordan Walsh in the Celtics\u2019 102-100 loss in Philly back on Nov. 11.<\/p>\n

\"PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey tries to get past Boston Celtics’ Jordan Walsh during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)
\n3. Pushovers<\/p>\n

One non-injury-related concern for the Sixers entering the postseason: their performance against their fellow playoff qualifiers.<\/p>\n

For the last two-plus months, Philadelphia has cleaned up against lottery and play-in teams, going an eye-popping 20-3 in their final 23 games against opponents that finished outside the top six in their respective conferences. But in that same span, they\u2019ve looked woefully overmatched against the NBA\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

Since late January, the 76ers are 2-14 against top-six teams, with both of the wins coming against Minnesota. The final 12 of those losses weren\u2019t close; all were decided by at least nine points, including six by 20-plus and two by 40-plus. Over the 16 games, Philly\u2019s total point differential was minus-223.<\/p>\n

The Celtics handed the Sixers one of those late-season beatdowns, winning by 16 in the aforementioned March 1 matchup, which Embiid and George both missed. The teams\u2019 other three matchups all took place in the first month of the season, and all three were close: Philly wins by one and two points, followed by a two-point Boston victory.<\/p>\n

4. Rivalry renewed<\/p>\n

If you include their days as the Syracuse Nationals in the 1950s and early \u201960s, this will be the 76ers\u2019 23rd postseason meeting with the Celtics, by far the most between any two NBA franchises. Celtics-Knicks ranks second on that list with 15, followed by Celtics-Hawks and Lakers-Suns with 13 apiece.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the fourth playoff matchup of the Jayson Tatum\/Brown\/Embiid era. The Celtics took the first three, winning the 2018 East semifinals in five games, a 2020 first-round series in four and the 2023 East semis in seven.<\/p>\n

The most recent C\u2019s-Sixers playoff game featured arguably the greatest performance of Tatum\u2019s career: 51 points, 13 rebounds in Game 7 to lead Boston back from a 3-2 series deficit.<\/p>\n

Boston also ended Philly\u2019s season in 2012, 2002 and 1985. The Sixers have not beaten the Celtics in a postseason series since the 1982 Eastern Conference finals, when a team headlined by Julius Erving triumphed in seven over Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Co.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As they\u2019ve done nearly two dozen times before, the Celtics and 76ers will square off in the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[679,7,75,46,56795,1207,936,6,11,526,1263],"class_list":{"0":"post-711904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-celtics","12":"tag-celtics-76ers","13":"tag-celtics-playoffs","14":"tag-joel-embiid","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-playoffs","17":"tag-paul-george","18":"tag-tyrese-maxey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116415624841692784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711904","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=711904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}