Why the Sixers Have Something to Test the Celtics

PHILADELPHIA — V.J. Edgecombe spent the majority of his postgame press conference laughing his way through answers after the Sixers disposed of the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night.

He was excited to not be one of the players going home. To get his first taste of playoff basketball as a rookie. Regardless of the task awaiting him on Sunday.

But for one question, the laughs went away. This was about pride. About character. It was serious.

How much does Edgecombe think he's improved at defending matchups against bigger players?

"They’re just going to try to bully. They’re going to try to put their head down. So I just try to beat them to the spot. The ball got to touch the floor. So when the ball touch the floor, I try to poke at it. Get a stop. Try to get them to switch directions or something," Edgecombe said.

"Obviously, they’re 6-foot-10, but I ain’t scared of nobody. I’mma be honest. I’mma guard regardless of who you is or I’mma try and I ain’t scared. I ain’t gonna back up if you’re running at me. You just got to run me over or something, man. I’mma be honest.”

That mindset carried Edgecombe to some moments of wild play in Wednesday's Play-In victory. It also helped him scale between defending the big-armed Desmond Bane, the bruising Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs and Jamal Cain.

And at the end of the night, Edgecombe produced 19 points and 11 rebounds in his postseason debut, moments of "tweaking", as he put it, be damned.

The Boston Celtics are a much different beast.

Going by the measurements on NBA.com, Banchero had about 60 pounds on Edgecombe. Jaylen Brown won't outweigh the rookie by that much. He also won't have the stature over Edgecombe that Banchero had.

But Brown is a mid-range savant. If you can funnel Banchero into mid-range jumpers, it's a good day of defense.

There are valid fears to be had about a Celtics team that was far better than the Sixers were this season, both in record and net rating. The task in front of the Sixers, especially with Joel Embiid sidelined for at least the early part of the series, is gargantuan. Make no mistake about it.

But using recent history between these two teams is pointless. The Celtics have never faced the Sixers in a playoff series with defensive options like Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Edgecombe on the wings.

Edgecombe can scale across positions, taking Derrick White one possession, Jayson Tatum on the next, Brown on the third and Payton Pritchard on another. He is not afraid. He will have some wins against each of those guys in this series.

But there are concerns.

Joe Mazzulla's Celtics are surgical at drawing out switches for the mismatches they want. It would take little more than a cross screen at the block to get Edgecombe sealed off in the deep paint against a strong body like Brown:

VJ Edgecombe gets pinned by Paolo Banchero for deep seal and score. pic.twitter.com/WATwcziaUr
— Austin Krell’s Film Room (@AKFilmRoom) April 18, 2026

It also wouldn't take much to get Brown or Tatum in the post with Edgecombe on their inside hips and their high shoulders open for entry passes. It'll look some thing like this:

Paul George outside ball screen into post touch Desmond Bane. pic.twitter.com/flmZZPVg6f
— Austin Krell’s Film Room (@AKFilmRoom) April 18, 2026

He shouldn't be guarding apex-predator offensive options for all of his minutes at this stage of his career. The Sixers don't need him to. What they'll need is scalability.

The Sixers will need Edgecombe to hug up on the ball and deny when possible. They'll need him to switch without hesitation and dig in for battles in the post. They'll need him to know which players on his side of the floor can be stepped away from so that he's in position to junk up driving lanes and risky passes.

They need him to back his words and not be afraid of anyone in green.

On both ends of the court.

Banchero and Wagner are nowhere near perfect facsimiles of Brown and Tatum. But the game plan shouldn't change all that much.

"Those guys, they're big. I thought Kelly and I, we had to make it tough. We had to challenge them. We had to play physical with them," George told reporters on Wednesday night.

The Sixers did a good job of digging into their dribbles and hugging up on them. Most of their shots within the arc were contested. The Sixers extended whoever was guarding Banchero and Wagner in help so as to funnel the ball to them when they served as spacers for 3s.

Extend help away from Brown, Tatum and White at your own risk, but the other tactics are good.

"It was just a 'no back down' mentality. We're going to go at you, we're going to challenge you. We understand, those two guys, they're really good players. Huge upside, huge potential. Great future. But we got to challenge them, and that was our job tonight," George said.

"Challenge those two. Make it as tough as possible. Somebody else is going to have to beat us. Desmond had a big game. But we'll take it. We limited their two stars on the team. But, yeah, it's fun playing with Kelly because Kelly has that dog in him and he don't back down from nobody."

The Sixers will need the likes of George, Oubre and Edgecombe to deny Brown and Tatum catches as much as possible. The more they deny Brown, the more the Chess move is to have him play initiator. That's when they have to test his dribble. His handle has improved quite a bit this season. It has played a critical role in his ascent to unimpeachable All-NBA First-Teamer. But it doesn't erase a history of questionable ballhandling.

The scheduling format gives the Sixers a chance to get Embiid back if they can pull out an early win to extend the series.

That also means it does Tatum a favor.

There will be a day of rest between Games 1 and 2. There will be two days of rest between Games 2 and 3, and one day of rest between Games 3 and 4. That's four games in seven days. Tatum has already played five games in nine days as he conditioned himself for the playoffs at the end of the regular season.

But that's still a little different than the heightened defensive details of the playoffs. Not to mention the fact that you're seeing the same matchups over and over again.

Tatum has understandably had far and away the worst effective field goal percentage of his career in the 16 games he played in return from his torn achilles, per Cleaning The Glass. The Sixers should challenge that and dig into his dribble, making him expense energy just to create space and gather the ball and see if there's any balance or power left to get his jumpers to the rim.

The Celtics are more than just those two guys, though. The Magic, be it because of coaching or roster construction, are not. Philadelphia has the personnel to defend each of Brown, Tatum and White.

But it's not difficult to imagine the sometimes helter-skelter Oubre or young Edgecombe picking up two fouls five minutes into a game and straining matters for Philadelphia for the entirety of a first half.

The Sixers do have real personnel answers for Boston's most dangerous offensive players for once. The Celtics have never been questioned by the Sixers the way they will be in this series.

It's a matter of whether the Sixers' offense and team-wide defensive scheme can turn this matchup into a series of five-minute games.

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