The Gap Between the Celtics and Sixers Has Never Been More Obvious

Boston Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum made his season debut in March, less than 10 months after tearing his Achilles tendon in the 2025 NBA playoffs.

Just like that, this year's NBA title race got shaken up.

In Tatum's absence, the Celtics wildly surpassed expectations en route to a 41-21 record that put them second in the Eastern Conference. They wound up finishing with 56 wins and the No. 2 seed, which earned them a first-round matchup against the Joel Embiid-less Sixers.

If Game 1 is any indication, they plan to take advantage of that opportunity. Quickly.

The Celtics annihilated the Sixers, 123-91, in a game that put both their talent and coaching deficits on full display. The series technically isn't over, but it effectively might be.

The Celtics' ability to stay afloat without Tatum is directly related to the approach they took coming into the season. The Sixers went a different route, and they're paying the price now.

The Boston gap year?

When Tatum tore his Achilles in the Eastern Conference semifinals last year, that was supposed to effectively end the Celtics' 2025-26 title hopes. The Celtics seemingly threw in the towel by trading away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis this offseason in an attempt to duck the luxury tax, which they managed to do at the trade deadline.

All of that would suggest the Celtics were in the midst of a gap year like the Indiana Pacers, who finished with the NBA's second-worst record this season. Instead, Brown leveled up into a legitimate alpha, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard filled in behind him, and the Celtics got contributions from plenty of unheralded rotation members around them.

Before Tatum's return, the Celtics had been starting Sam Hauser, whom they signed as an undrafted free agent in 2021, Baylor Scheierman, whom they selected with the 30th overall pick in the 2024 draft, and Neemias Queta, the No. 39 overall pick in 2021, whom they signed to a two-way contract shortly after the Sacramento Kings waived him in 2023.

With Brown and Queta sidelined against the Milwaukee Bucks on March 2, the Celtics also started rookie wing Hugo González, the No. 28 pick from this past year's draft, and center Nikola Vucević, whom the Celtics acquired at the NBA trade deadline this year for Anfernee Simons and a second-round pick. González finished with a career-high 18 points and 16 rebounds in 35 minutes in the blowout 108-81 victory.

After the game, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla explained how the team has been able to withstand any absences with a true next-man-up mentality.

"We want to validate work ethic, we want to validate the process by trusting all 12, 13, 14, 15 guys that are in the game," Mazzulla said. "And when you can validate that through playing time and execution and development, I think you just kind of have that."

Joe Mazzulla on the Celtics’ competitive character:

“We want to validate work ethic, we want to validate the process by trusting all 12, 13, 14, 15 guys that are in the game. And When you can validate that through playing time and execution and development, I think you just kind… pic.twitter.com/ivCCj3jRn0
— Bobby Krivitsky (@BobbyKrivitsky) March 3, 2026

That development will behoove the Celtics, who have Hauser locked up for $10.8 million, Payton Pritchard for $7.7 million and all three of González, Scheierman and Queta for under $3 million apiece next season. They have Tatum and Brown on max contracts and Derrick White earning $30.3 million per year, but they otherwise have a surprising amount of financial flexibility for a championship contender.

Tatum's injury forced the Celtics into what was widely perceived to be a gap year. Given the play of unexpected up-and-comers like Hauser, Scheierman, Queta and González, the Celtics might not be that far away from legitimate title contention, especially once Tatum gets back up to speed.

Sixers wobbling to the finish line

The Sixers have had plenty of highs this season, but they appear to have been fool's gold.

Embiid played in 38 games during the regular season. The Sixers went 24-14 in those games. But they went 21-23 without him.

The Sixers spent all season flirting with this kind of disaster. That's the risk you take when you hand out max contracts to two oft-injured players in their 30s.

With George and Embiid in and out of the lineup, Maxey averaged a league-high 38.0 minutes per game this season. Edgecombe wasn't far behind at 35.0 minutes per game, which was tied for the ninth-most in the league.

This was a common theme with head coach Nick Nurse in Toronto, too. Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet were first and second in the NBA in minutes during the 2021-22 season, respectively. Scottie Barnes was ninth, and Gary Trent Jr. was 14th.

Not only were the Raptors the lone team with four players in the top 14 leaguewide of minutes per game; they were the lone team with two players in the top 14.

The year before, VanVleet was second in the league in minutes per game and Siakam was sixth, but no other Raptors player even made the top 25. But in 2019-20, all three of Kyle Lowry (fourth), VanVleet (eighth) and Siakam (11th) were in the top 11 leaguewide.

A few years ago, teams could get away with playing their stars heavy minutes in the regular season because the pace of the game was different. Back in 2022-23, 10 players were averaging at least 36 minutes per game. Three are this season.

Aside from Maxey, Houston Rockets forwards Amen Thompson (37.4) and Kevin Durant (36.4) were the only other players who averaged at least 36 minutes per game during the regular season. Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić (35.8) and New Orleans Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III (35.5) and Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (35.4) weren't far behind.

Maxey joined the All-NBA conversation this season by averaging a career-high 28.3 points per game, but making him that play many minutes is asking for trouble. He ran a league-high 2.8 miles per game during the regular season, and he rarely takes a night off.

The Sixers did have a high-upside guard on their bench in Jared McCain, whom they could have used more to buy Maxey a few more minutes of rest, but he never wound up getting his rookie-year rhythm back in Philadelphia. They "sold high" on him and sent him to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the trade deadline.

Naturally, McCain lit it up for the Thunder ever since the trade.

In March, he spoke about that with James Herbert of CBS Sports, explaining how he got so comfortable with the Thunder so quickly after largely struggling this year in Philly.

"I have nothing bad to say about none of the teammates, none of the coaches, but it's just hard to find a rhythm playing with really great players and getting little short spurts," McCain said. "There were a few games, for sure, that I felt great. I feel like those were the ones where I got to play a little extended minutes, play through some mistakes."

Due to their win-now window, the Sixers have been overtaxing their stars and sacrificing developmental reps for young players like McCain, Justin Edwards and even Adem Bona. Nurse hasn't shown the patience to deal with their inevitable growing pains.

Ironically, that may be only hampering their chances of competing for a championship both now and later. Just ask the Celtics.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on X and Bluesky for the latest news.

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.

Follow Bryan on Bluesky.

Add us as a preferred source on Google