The Philadelphia 76ers pulled off the upset of the playoffs, knocking off the heavily favored Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the first round 109-100. Boston blew a 3-1 lead in this series and that became another brutal end to a Celtics season.
This core was able to win a finals in 2024, but outside of that important win, Boston has had a lot of disastrous playoff losses that seemingly go under the radar. The Celtics have owned the 76ers over the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown era, and that makes this loss so much worse.
Of course, Tatum was absent from game seven due to injury, but Joel Embiid was missing for the entire first half of this series, so that feels like a bit of a wash. Not only that, but the Celtics were the two seed with Tatum missing most of the season anyways.
In recent years, the Celtics have now lost to the eight seed Miami Heat in the Conference Finals, got destroyed by the New York Knicks in the Conference Semis last year, had horrible playoff performances in the final two years of the Brad Stevens era to start the 2020s. They were able to win a Finals in a very down year across the board in the NBA, but this team has had let down spots all over the place in the playoffs.
Currently, it feels like the media has put a spotlight on the Cleveland Cavaliers first round struggles against the Toronto Raptors, but at least those struggles are coming in a 4 vs 5 first round matchup. Boston was completely outplayed by the 7-seed Sixers, who were missing their best player most of the series.
Of course VJ Edgecomb and Paul George having great runs as role players helps, and Tyrese Maxey is a full blown super star; however, this series feels like it’s being swept under the rug by the media. Boston got their ring, but I’m starting to think the window from that core is quietly closing. I’m also interested to see how much grace Boston fans will give to head coach Joe Mazulla.
Boston shot themselves out of this series. This is a team that lives and dies by the three, but at some point you need to make an adjustment when shots simply aren’t falling. Not only that, but the Sixers simply just felt like the better team in this series. I don’t think it’s just bad shooting that won Philly this series. They controlled this series and were able to do whatever they wanted against the Celtics.
The Sixers now head to New York to take on the Knicks, where they are far less of an underdog at only +198 to advance. I think this is a bit of a market overcorrection, and I wouldn’t bet on the Sixers to win this series. Boston might’ve just been a bit of an overrated team, that over performed without Tatum.
