Some Key Points to Ponder Before Celtics vs 76ers Game-7 in NBA Playoffs

Not for the weak of heart, Game 7. On a straight razor, it’s a tightrope walk. Those who fail will have a 500-foot decrease in reputation. But what awaits the sure-footed on the other side? Glory, hallelujahs, and a fresh determination to raise the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.

Survive and go on, lose and leave; one game, one winner. It’s the essence of competition: you either succeed or you suffer.

With spots in the NBA final four on the line, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers have the chance to take one and avoid the other. While we wait for children to take their first steps onto that high wire, consider these important issues:

Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC)

Will Philadelphia also alter its starting lineup?

For Game 6, Joe Mazzulla supersized the starting lineup by switching center Robert Williams III for guard Derrick White.

This move was a huge success for Boston. Williams’ breakthrough season last year contributed to the Celtics’ run to the NBA Finals, but Timelord has occasionally been forced to the Celtics’ bench due to his up-and-down recovery from offseason knee surgery.

This is due in part to White’s excellent play as part of a smaller look that boosted Boston’s shooting and playmaking. But on Thursday, he showed up early and frequently.

Although having Williams in the combination to bang on the offensive glass and soar over the defense for lobs surely didn’t hurt, it wasn’t just the only 10 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes. It was more about how Boston was able to stifle an offense that had heated up in the 76ers’ Game 5 victory by positioning him near Al Horford:

With the starters plus Melton and starters plus Niang lineups on the floor, Philly scored like crazy, though in smaller samples. This is probably because of how much Rivers trusts Tucker defensively and values his resoluteness, toughness, communication, and leadership.

However, at this juncture, a small sample size, whether it be a series of possessions in the middle of the third or the final 5:57 of the fourth, can make all the difference. or the first seconds of a winner-takes-all conflict.

After the game, Rivers remarked that when there are just one or two big men, “We’ll put [Tucker] on the floor more, and when there are two, we’ll put Georges or Melton on the floor.”

Will he carry it out correctly right away? If so, can Niang—who is regarded as a defensive liability but has performed surprisingly admirably in this series—continue to hold up well enough under pressure in a Game 7 so that his shooting can potentially loosen Boston’s defense and tip the balance back in favor of Philadelphia?

Will Melton succeed in his open looks when the C’s help off him, as he did in Games 1 and 3 when he went a combined 9-for-13 from long range, or will he fail miserably, as he did in the other four games when he missed all eight triples he attempted (including three backbreakers late in Game 6’s fourth)?

Will Doc put his faith in Tucker to knock down his threes, much like Grant Williams did for Boston in Game 7 of the 2016 second round, and have an influence elsewhere to stop the oncoming threat of Timelord?

Will Boston be saved or destroyed by make-or-miss?

Saying that a team is more likely to gain victory when it shoots well than when it doesn’t isn’t very novel, but it’s been incredibly accurate for this Boston group. This season, the Celtics have a 35-2 record when they shoot at 40% or higher as a team and a 29-28 record when they shoot below 40%.

Receiving six combined long balls from White, Marcus Smart, and Malcolm Brogdon helped the Celtics maintain their lead despite shooting 4-for-13 from the field in the very first quarter of Game 6 and Jayson Tatum continuing his five-game trend of struggling to hit the basket in the opening minutes.

Midway through the second, Jaylen Brown, Smart, and White each made a drive-and-kick and a catch-and-shoot triple to help increase the margin to 16. And after Philly regained the lead in the fourth quarter, it was Tatum’s last blitz of four 3-pointers in the final 4:14 seconds that had the Sixers looking up at the sky and unsure of what had hit them:

This is the kind of club that Boston is designed to be: a high-volume, high-variance 3-point shooting team.

As they are averaging 13.4 fewer points in the paint per game in this entire series than they had done against Atlanta in Round 1 & shooting well just 54.1% at the rim when Embiid is contesting, according to Second Spectrum, it gives the C’s an opportunity to put up crooked numbers even against a rival opponent featuring an interior menace who has shut down the lane.

At this point in the season, it has to remain in their calling card even if things get tight.

In the pressure-cooker of a Game 7, we’ve seen teams that prefer to shoot first go ice-cold from outside. On one of them was the bearded man sporting the Sixers’ No. 1 jersey.

TD Garden spectators will probably find themselves pleading with Tatum, Brown (whom no player on Philadelphia’s roster can keep in front of), and the rest of the Celtics’ ballhandlers to just put their heads down, get into the paint, & either face Embiid or try to get to the free-throw line if Boston starts off Sunday with a bang.

The team Brad Stevens has crafted and the players Mazzulla has trained may, however, be more likely to keep on shooting, trusting the process (cough), and believing that the shots they have made all season long will fall. You have to (play) dance with the person who brought you when the money is on the table and hope that you’ll be in the driver’s seat when the music stops.

Will Philadelphia’s stars fade or shine?

The two best postseason performances of Harden’s career may have occurred in these two games.

You could argue that his 38-10-9 effort against the GS Warriors in the 2015 Western Conference Finals is better, but in that game, he fumbled the ball with seconds remaining after passing out of a fast break when down by one.

In the Sixers’ losses in Games 2, 3, and 6, he also had three of his worst performances, shooting a combined 9 for 44 from the field and 2-for-19 from outside the arc.

To have a chance of victory in Boston for the third time in this series, Philly sorely needs him to find some kind of equilibrium, much as he did in a great table-setting Game 5. This game also happened to be Embiid and Maxey’s best offensive performances of the series.

He doesn’t have to be the all-consuming flame from Games 1 and 4, but he also cannot be the foolish foul-seeker from Game 6, plunging into crowds, falling to the ground, pleading for bailout calls, and complaining when he doesn’t receive them. Fans of the Sixers can only hope that Harden won’t carry the woe-is-me resentment that erupted on Thursday.

Asked James Harden why he believed his performance in this series has been so inconsistent. He began by stating that the officials informed him of a few missed fouls at halftime. full response is below:

… into a Sunday that offers a second chance for one of the greatest offensive players in history to fundamentally alter his playoff legacy. This Sunday offers the chance to send Philadelphia to the conference finals for the very first time in 22 years.

It will be up to the newly crowned MVP to do what he’s done all season: prove nigh-on un-guardable no matter what the scheme or opponent, and turn the game to his considerable will. If Harden can recover from a poor Game 6 and continue to sacrifice, facilitate, and star in a more complementary role.

In Game 6, Embiid had 26 points on 9-for-19 shooting with 3:30 remaining. He would score 26 points in the end on 9 of 19 shooting. In a separate incident, the Sixers scored one point in the last seconds before Rivers threw in the towel and benched his starters.

“We had many open shots, but we missed them. We gave up bouncing the ball. Embiid told reporters after the game, “And I don’t think I (had) touched the ball in the final four minutes of the game. Missed a lot of attractiveness. I didn’t even touch the ball.

Boston is definitely making a lot of effort to make that happen. Horford hounded Embiid everywhere he went during that final stretch, sometimes with at least one teammate pinching in to create traffic and try to discourage Philadelphia from pushing the ball to the big man. But the Sixers must prevent it from happening, as is evident.

You must force them to hit your fastball, and for Philadelphia, that means giving Embiid the opportunity to decide your fate by placing the ball in his hands at the nail, on the block, at the top of the key, or wherever the hell he may be.

When Philadelphia’s season ended a year ago, one of its stars vanished and bemoaned the fact that the ball “never got back” to him. Sunday must be a different day; else, the outcome can very well be the same.

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