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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – APRIL 02: Kelly Oubre Jr. #9 of the Philadelphia 76ers reacts during the fourth quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Wells Fargo Center on April 02, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> are entering their first-round playoff matchup with the rival Boston Celtics with the requisite respect for a team that has had a whole lot of success over the past half-decade.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re playing against winners,\u201d Sixers star forward Paul George said<\/a> of the Celtis. \u201cWe\u2019re playing against champions. This is where they play their best basketball. So we respect that. We\u2018re gonna have to challenge that, but you know they\u2019ve been great for a couple years now.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a well-oiled machine over there. Great coach, great roster, two studs, superstars over there, and just a ton of just guys that just know how to play the right way. So it\u2019s gonna be a challenge. We just gotta be ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n 76ers Players Show Respect to Celtics Before First-Round Series<\/p>\n The Celtics have playoff experience in spades, and now that Jayson Tatum is back in action, they\u2019re healthy too, which will make them an extremely difficult out. But we know that that the Sixers aren\u2019t overlooking their opponent.<\/p>\n \u201cA battle-tested team,\u201d Kelly Oubre Jr. said of the Celtics. \u201cThey\u2019re full strength now. So, it\u2019s a matchup that we obviously don\u2019t take lightly, and we got to go in there and just play all out for 48 minutes each and every game, and take it day by day, but just got to continue to take this momentum and carry it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n For rookie guard V.J. Edgecombe, there\u2019s no better indoctrination into professional basketball in Philadelphia than a playoff series with the hated Celtics.<\/p>\n For rookie guard V.J. Edgecombe, there\u2019s no better indoctrination into professional basketball in Philadelphia than a playoff series with the hated Celtics. The fact that it\u2019s his first ever playoff series is only fitting.<\/p>\n \u201cA really good team,\u201d Edgecombe said of the Celtics. \u201cThey just added Tatum back. We haven\u2019t seen them with Tatum, but obviously they\u2019re a really good team. I think we split the series this year. We just gotta just go out and play hard every night. They\u2019re well coached. Obviously, they got a lot of shooters, a lot of great players. We just got to be ready for any adversity that\u2019s going to come around.\u201d<\/p>\n Boston Has Dominated Philadelphia in the Playoffs Recently<\/p>\n The Sixers and Celtics have a long history<\/a> when it comes to postseason matchups. They\u2019ve played in five separate series since 2000, and unfortunately for Philadelphia, Boston has completely dominated, winning all five of those series.\u00a0The most recent series between the two teams was the Eastern Conference semifinals back in 2023, which the Celtics won in seven games to advance to the conference finals.<\/p>\n In all, the Celtics have bested the Sixers in six straight series. To find the last time that the Sixers beat the Celtics in a series, you\u2019d have to go all the way back to 1982.\u00a0So, while it\u2019s technically a rivalry, it\u2019s been a pretty one-sided one for quite a while now, which Sixers star center Joel Embiid comically acknowledged back in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a rivalry,\u201d Embiid said after a loss to Boston. I don\u2019t know our record against them, but it\u2019s pretty bad. They always kick our ass.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMichael Kaskey-Blomain<\/a> Michael Kaskey-Blomain is an experienced sports media member covering the NBA and NFL for Heavy. He has been in the industry for well over a decade with previous stops including the Philadelphia Inquirer and CBS Sports. Michael also serves as a Philadelphia 76ers reporter and insider for ESPN 97.3 and an NBA and NFL contributor for The Sporting News. More about Michael Kaskey-Blomain<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Sixers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – APRIL 02: Kelly Oubre Jr. #9 of the Philadelphia 76ers reacts during the fourth quarter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817],"class_list":{"0":"post-712503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","13":"tag-philadelphia76ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116420579309902454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712503","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=712503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}