Three Easy Things The Celtics Can Do to Make This an Easy Series vs. Philadelphia

The Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers tip off their opening-round series Sunday afternoon, and the consensus is that Boston is the heavy favorite. Almost everyone, even in Philadelphia media, is picking the Celtics to win fairly easily.

“I don’t really ever look at things that way,” Nick Nurse said on Friday. “I think we’re playing a little better. I think we’re getting more used to each other again in this group of guys. I just want to go in and play really well, and if we play really well and play our backsides off, then we should have a chance to do some stuff.”

Paul George called the framing of the question of Philly versus Boston as underdogs versus heavy favorites “a little bulletin board material.”

Unfortunately for Boston, the consensus doesn’t count for anything on the scoreboard. They aren’t getting wins because all of the observers say they should. However, they can get to four wins pretty easily if they do three things that are very simple conceptually, but still tough to accomplish in an NBA game.

Protect the ball

More than anything, the Celtics need to limit their live-ball turnovers. While the Sixers were never an elite defensive team, they were 6th in the NBA in steals and 11th in points off turnovers. So even for a middle of the pack defensive team, they will gamble for the big payoff.

And for all of the greatness of Jaylen Brown this season, we do know he has a propensity for live ball turnovers. It's going to be extraordinarily important for him, and for Jayson Tatum to get off the ball quickly and trust their teammates rather than try to do too much. The Sixers will sit and wait in passing lanes, which is how Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe get so many steals. If Boston's ball handlers dribble into too much pressure, they will end up feeding the Sixers fast breaks.

Rebound

This has become a strength of theirs, especially with Tatum back, but it will require discipline.

One key is Neemias Queta staying home on some of Philadelphia's drives when it's clear his teammates are forcing a tough contested shot. Queta has gotten a lot better at it, but he needs to maintain the discipline of understanding the odds that a contested shot at the rim is likely to miss and that he needs to be in position to grab the board.

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Any overzealous chasing of a block shot can lead to easy put backs. The Sixers aren't going to remind anybody of the Pistons or the Rockets when it comes to offensive rebounding, but they'll still go for it, and any undisciplined play around the rim will give them second chances.

Take (and make) corner three-pointers

The Celtics took the fewest corner three-point attempts in the NBA this season. The Sixers allowed the sixth-most.

So the Celtics will have to look for them specifically against this Sixers defense. That means guys like Sam Hauser and Derrick White will have to camp out in the corners a little bit more, but also be willing to swing the ball for secondary attacks in case that first attempt isn't quite as clean as it should be.

The Sixers know this is the game plan, so they may put an extra emphasis on closing out to the corners. But it's hard to fundamentally change a defensive strategy into the playoffs. They could be more prone to mistakes and overreactions, which would open up the drive-and-kicks to become drive, kick, swing, secondary attack, and find a shooter in the opposite corner.

So it's not just about finding a shooter in the corner, it's also about taking advantage of the Sixers propensity for allowing those to pull them out of position and get them scrambling.

Conceptually, this is all easy stuff. In practice, though, it can be a bit of “easier said than done.” Any lapses in these three areas and the Celtics could be in for a fight. But if they do all three of these things well, this could be a very easy series.

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