The first game of the first-round matchup between the No. 3 Boston Celtics and the No. 6 Philadelphia 76ers is in the books. Both teams hope to start their playoff push with a victory, but in the end it was the Celtics who went away with a 109-101 victory and take an early 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Jayson Tatum led the way for the Celtics with 32 points and 13 rebounds, while Jaylen Brown added 29 points from his. Joel Embiid grabs the Sixers with 26 points and 16 rebounds.
These two teams are no strangers when it comes to meeting in the postseason. In fact, the Sixers and Celtics have met more times in the playoffs than any other two teams in NBA history. Most recently, the Celtics beat the Sixers in five games in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference. In the regular season, the Sixers beat the Celtics in three of the four meetings. However, they had All-Star ahead of Ben Simmons for all those games, and that’s not the case in this series, as we saw last night, so Brett Brown will have to figure out how to move forward now that Simmons is sidelined with a knee surgery.
