Philadelphia 76ers can benefit from Boston’s dysfunction

The Philadelphia 76ers could possibly benefit from all the dysfunction that their rival, the Boston Celtics, have been experiencing recently.

Despite the fact that the Philadelphia 76ers have made a handful of trades recently and dealt with injuries all season long, they are still winning games. The Sixers would be in an even better place once they get centers Joel Embiid and Boban Marjanovic back from injuries. Yet on the flip side of the coin, Philly’s rival, the Boston Celtics, have been struggling as of lately which may work to the 76ers advantage.

It’s no secret that the Celtics have had the Sixers’ number, at least since they bounced Philly out of the second round of the playoffs postseason in five games. The Celtics have won each matchup against the Sixers this season, although the last game came down to the final minute of play and Philly lost by three points in the end. With each teams trending in opposite directions, the trend may not continue.

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Head coach Brett Brown will figure out which new lineups he can use against Boston in the future and hopefully give Jimmy Butler full control of the offense against the Celtics going forward. The Celtic’s team defense has been good against the 76ers in the past, but Butler can beat any of Boston’s defenders one-on-one.

Outside of the X’s-and-O’s, Philly is building their chemistry quite well as of late, whereas the Celtic”s chemistry has been withering. The Sixers are 6-4 in the last ten games and the Celtics are 4-6 in the same span. However, Boston has dropped their last four games and six out of their past eight games. Those six losses came against: the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors and Portland Trail Blazers.

Beyond the loses, the chemistry is clearly lacking on the Celtics. Starting point guard Kyrie Irving‘s uncertain future regarding his free agency going into the summer is one of their problems. It’s also the meshing of veterans stars Irving and Gordon Hayward with the team’s young talents of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown that have been less than ideal. The Celtic’s guard Marcus Smart recently said the following about how the team struggles as of late.

"“‘What are the main ingredients to those collapses? Not being together,…And that’s it. We’re just not together. Plain and simple. That’s it. Because if we were together, that wouldn’t happen.'”"

If one of the Celtic’s defensive leaders is saying that about the club then there are some issues Boston needs to work out.

If they can’t, then this dysfunction could potentially give the Sixers a big edge come playoff time. Currently, Philly’s the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race and Boston is the fifth, which means they would have a first round matchup if things don’t change in the standings. The type of collapses that Smart spoke of in his quote above could give Philly an edge in a playoff series.

Philadelphia 76ers fans shouldn’t expect the Celtics to lose constantly for the rest of the season. However, as long as these chemistry issues continue to pop up every now and again, then it gives the Sixers a better chance of winning if they matchup with Boston in the playoffs. The Celtics have had an advantage against Philly in the past, but with Philly’s improved roster and building chemistry, there’s a chance they can overcome the Boston size hurdle to a NBA title.