Boston Celtics vs Philadelphia 76ers Series Preview
X's & O's preview of the Celtics vs 76ers second round series.
The Philadelphia 76ers had a relatively easy first round matchup with the Nets and the Celtics finished off a tough series against the Hawks finishing them off in 6 and the 76ers taking down the weird Nets playoff team in a 4-0 sweep. In this breakdown we are going to go over the offense and defensive schemes both teams have used in the postseason so far, and try to anticipate what either of them might try to use.
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Going over regular season film can be weird, especially when teams don’t turn on “Playoff Intensity” until the playoffs actually start but you can learn a few things from their matchups. In the case of the 76ers and Celtics, there was really only one matchup that could serve as a direct comparison to what playoff rotations even look like from their game on February 25th. The 76ers had their normal lineups in basically every matchup, but the Celtics definitely did not. In the first matchup, Rob Williams was not healthy and they played Noah Vonleh as the primary backup big. The second matchup Blake Griffin and Grant Williams were starting, with the final matchup of the season missing Jaylen Brown & Rob Williams. Even with missing all of those pieces the Celtics finished the season series 3-1 against the 76ers - although every game was highly contested.
Defending Embiid
The Nets blitzed Embiid basically any chance they could, whether or not it made sense for their actual rotations or locations so it was hard to get a feel for what the 76ers’ playoff offensive strategy might be. We can assume it is all going to based off Embiid at the Elbows and Block and then default into a Harden/Embiid ballscreen after that. Of course there is probably a debate about whether that is actually the 76ers best offensive action with Maxey’s scoring ability but whether or not we believe that might be the best action for the 76ers, not sure that Harden would default to that.
In the regular season matchup that the Celtics had their main lineup they put Al Horford starting on Embiid and then Rob Williams on PJ Tucker.
The starting lineup the Celtics have been using is their 4-guard lineup around Horford had him matched up with Embiid and then the other 4 players had the versatility to switch around him with Tatum starting on PJ.
I think the other player that gets minutes on Embiid is Grant Williams, then the Celtics can put other players like Horford and Rob Williams on PJ and let them be the helper/blitzer/roamer around the basket and ignore PJ.
The Celtics will change up the matchup and scheme on Embiid throughout the course of a game to make sure he doesn’t become comfortable, employing single coverage and letting Horford defend him 1 on 1 while shrinking the floor making Embiid feel the help.
One key thing to notice is that the Celtics do not clog the floor like the Nets had to or used by getting over there early and try to stop Embiid before he can drive. The Celtics will clog the lane once Embiid starts his attacking move.
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