Why the Celtics are the 76ers’ biggest obstacle in the postseason

Comparison between the Philadelphia 76ers’ offense and the Celtics’ offense.

Boston Celtics won the conference title last season banking on their solid team defense. But when they lost the finals to the Warriors, the Greens quickly made adjustments in the off-season and added some firepower to their team, interestingly without losing much of the core in the process.

As of today, the Celtics remained fourth in scoring with 118 points per game, and the 76ers, after a slight mid-season scoring surge, managed sixteenth place averaging 113 points. This difference is nearly equal to the average difference between the last three games played between the two teams.

Pace-wise also, the Celtics had around 88 attempts over the game period, whereas the 76ers could only manage 83 shots in the same period. On the same front, though both teams have an equal 3-pointers conversion ratio, Celtics have nine more attempts in-game time, providing a huge advantage to the Celtics.

Now for the offensive flow, we rely more on Joel Embiid’s production – for the long series games, wherein performances from Maxey, Harden and Harris can win us a game or two. But in the case of the Celtics, they not only have White, Al Horford and Marcus Smart contributing to the offense, but Tatum, Brown, and Brogdon are delivering winning performances for the team. This brings us to the next distinguishing point regarding the Celtics’ performance this season.