{"id":713283,"date":"2026-04-18T15:54:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713283\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T15:54:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:54:41","slug":"espn-nba-experts-make-unanimous-pick-in-celtics-76ers-first-round-playoff-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713283\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN NBA Experts Make Unanimous Pick In Celtics-76ers First-Round Playoff Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everything seems to be pointing toward an easy win for the <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/boston-celtics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boston Celtics<\/a> in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n<p>The Celtics are healthy and led by one of the best duos in the NBA in <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/boston-celtics\/news\/jaylen-brown-gets-last-minute-nba-mvp-competition-cade-cunningham-luka-doncic-news\/d7fc73f6b4f66052ec04ba04\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MVP candidate<\/a> Jaylen Brown and six-time All-Star Jayson Tatum.<\/p>\n<p>The Sixers <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/boston-celtics\/news\/celtics-writer-explains-one-scenario-where-team-could-be-trouble-vs-76ers\/559fc7b7dc8b5c9e8aa33c9e\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">boast a formidable trio<\/a> in Paul George, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George, but star center Joel Embiid <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/boston-celtics\/news\/76ers-coach-gives-unsurprising-joel-embiid-injury-update-celtics-playoffs-series\/827fd6d1ff8340575af26af0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">will miss Game 1<\/a> due to injury and his status for the series is up in the air.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN&#8217;s NBA experts made their picks for all of the league&#8217;s first-round series and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/48477478\/2026-nba-playoff-expert-picks-play-first-round-matchups\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">all 10 of them<\/a> are predicting that Boston will eliminate Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, six of the experts picked the Celtics to win the best-of-seven set in five games, while the other four foresee Boston taking care of the Sixers in six contests.<\/p>\n<p>Game 1 between the Celtics and 76ers is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Sunday at TD Garden.<\/p>\n<p>More NBA: <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/boston-celtics\/news\/former-celtics-star-reveals-pick-win-eastern-conference\/342f5a4e2177344a35db7fcd\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Former Celtics Star Reveals Pick To Win Eastern Conference<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everything seems to be pointing toward an easy win for the Boston Celtics in their Eastern Conference first-round&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817],"class_list":{"0":"post-713283","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\/116426523483434924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713283","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=713283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}