I play in a basketball league, and our championship game is tonight. Like most men’s basketball leagues or recreational leagues, the playoffs are not a series. They are one game, do-or-die situations. The NBA doesn’t have that (no major sport does outside of football), but it does give us a chance to see who the truly better team is — not just a potentially luckier team. We may get an answer tonight if the Celtics or 76ers are the better team in Game 6 of this series.
The Celtics turned in a great performance this season, despite a lot of questions surrounding the team. Two years removed from winning the NBA Championship, the team lost Jayson Tatum to injury. They traded away Jrue Holiday, a guy who provided veteran leadership, solid outside shooting, and excellent defense. Kristaps Porzingis wasn’t part of the championship team, but he was a big reason they were expected to repeat. Without him, the Celtics were down 60% of their starting lineup coming into this year.
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They ended up with the second seed and a 56-26 record behind Jaylen Brown and a restructuring of the bench. In the first four games of the series, Boston looked great. They dropped one game because VJ Edgecombe took over and looked dominant for Philadelphia. Outside of that game, Boston was great… until Tuesday, when they were dominated on both sides of the ball. In their two losses, they only scored 97 points. To make matters worse, they allowed 111 or more.
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The Philadelphia 76ers have to be one of the most frustrating teams in the entire league. If you’re a fan, you have to just pray that the team will find a way to be healthy. Joel Embiid might be the most unreliable superstar in the sport. The worst part is that you aren’t going to find someone to replace Embiid’s production if he is healthy. So, the 76ers are basically hamstrung by his health. They have surrounded him with talent, but they haven’t found a combination that would get them even to the NBA Finals.
They still have a chip and a chair tonight as they need to win the next two games. In two of their losses, they were utterly dominated. The Celtics won two of the games by 30-plus points. In the 76ers’ two wins, they won by over 14 points. So, there has only been one close game between the two squads. Game 3 saw the 76ers lose 108-100, but it was the lone game of the series not decided by double digits.
In tonight’s matchup, the 76ers have already vowed to give a better performance than they did the last time they played in front of the Philly faithful. In Game 4, the last time they were in Philadelphia, they lost the game by 32 points. They didn’t even win a single quarter. Tatum, Brown and Payton Pritchard combined to score 82 points, just 14 fewer than the 76ers as a team. Embiid should be back for this one, and that makes a major difference for the 76ers. It makes this a much more even series. He was great in Game 5, and I expect him to be solid tonight.
It takes a while to get back into playing shape, but Embiid should be there now that this will be his third game. This is the major mismatch that the 76ers have, and I expect them to exploit it. I like the idea of taking the 76ers at +5.5, but they consistently prove to let people down. I’ll take Embiid over 27.5 points. He had 26 in his return and 33 the other night. I’d expect 30 tonight as well.
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