One Key Battle the Sixers Can't Lose Against The Celtics in the Playoffs

The Boston Celtics are deeply infuriating.

After the Celtics traded away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis and lost Al Horford in free agency, this was shaping up to be a gap year for them. Instead, they won 56 games, finished as the No. 2 seed in the East and head into the playoffs as the odds-on favorite to represent the East in the NBA Finals.

It's reductive to boil the Celtics' excellence down to one specific facet. They're great at a number of different things, which is what makes them such a tough out.

But their three-point shooting prowess stands out heading into their first-round series against the Sixers, particularly given the Sixers' own struggles in that department.

The Celtics ranked third leaguewide with 15.5 made three-pointers per game during the regular season, and they were fourth with 42.1 attempts. The Sixers were 22nd with 12.3 made three-pointers and 21st with 35.3 attempts. The Celtics shot 36.7% from deep (eighth leaguewide), while the Sixers shot 34.9% (23rd leaguewide).

The Sixers are already heading into this series as massive underdogs without Joel Embiid. To stand a chance of toppling their hated rivals, they need to increase variance on a game-to-game basis.

The easiest way to do that is match the Celtics' fire with fire.

Sixers can't be afraid to chuck

The Sixers and Celtics split their regular-season series two games apiece. All four games came prior to Tatum's return, though.

In both of the Sixers' regular-season wins, they hit more threes than the Celtics did. In both of their losses, the Celtics outshot them from three. (Granted, it was a 14-to-13 margin in two of those games—one win and one loss.)

When the Celtics hit more threes than their opponent during the regular season this year, they went 39-7. They were 15-19 when they got outshot from deep. Some of that is self-fulfilling—of course the team that hits more three-pointers will have an advantage against its opponent—but the Celtics force the issue with their overall long-range volume.

The Celtics took more three-point attempts than their opponents in 47 of their regular-season games this year. They went 33-14 in those games. Perhaps even more terrifying: They were still 21-9 in the games where their opponent attempted more threes than them.

Tyrese Maxey and Paul George are easily the Sixers' top two three-point threats, but they can't be the only ones letting fly from deep against Boston.

Kelly Oubre Jr. launched a team-high 10 three-point attempts in the Sixers' play-in tournament win over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday and hit as many of them (five) as the other four starters combined. Andre Drummond also capped the victory with a corner three-pointers with less than a minute remaining, which was his second made three of the game.

Maxey, George, Oubre and VJ Edgecombe cannot be shy about pulling the trigger against Boston. The Celtics' defense is too formidable. Turning down a good shot in pursuit of a great shot could lead to an even worse shot against a team of that caliber.

Can Sixers stop Celtics' three-point barrage?

If there's one silver lining to Embiid's absence, it's that the Sixers don't have to be committed to a drop-coverage scheme against the Celtics. If they continue starting Adem Bona at center, he has the foot speed to defend out to the perimeter but recover in time to protect the rim on drives.

The Sixers could also learn from what worked for them against the Magic, even though they're a far worse three-point shooting team than the Celtics.

Throughout the season, the Sixers routinely devoted extra defensive help on drives, which tended to result in kickout passes to wide-open three-point shooters. Against Orlando, each Sixer stuck more to his man.

Between Brown, Tatum, Pritchard. White, Sam Hauser and Baylor Scheierman, the Celtics will lean on a ton of legitimate three-point threats in this series. White, who shot a career-low 39.4% overall and 32.7% from deep this season, is destined to drill 45% of his long-range attempts against the Sixers.

If (when) the Celtics to begin chucking with aplomb, the Sixers have to fight fire with fire. Otherwise, they're going to lose a basic math battle: Three is, in fact, worth more than two.

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Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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