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The biggest test. Can we finally beat the goddamn Celtics? I say yes but won't be surprised at all if we choke again.

Winning tonight means we meet Phil Jackson's "Contender Rule" of 40 wins before 20 losses for the first time since the Finals team in 2001. Losing tonight means we're a Pretender once again.

Celtics favored by 1.5 points even though the game is in Philadelphia. No one respects the Sixers against Boston based on the recent past, including that embarrassing loss to their scrubs last game.

Winning gets us within 2 games, and only 1 back in the loss column with one more home game against them remaining. Somehow getting the #1 seed would be huge to avoid both BOS and MIL until the ECF.

Can we finally beat these guys? Time's yours...

https://www.espn.com/nba/game/_/gameId/401469063

I think we can get it done tonight. We've won five in a row. The Memphis game was yet another test for us. They were beating the brakes off of us and we came back to win it. I'm absolutely looking forward to this one and will be watching tonight. You can bet that Embiid and Harden are both motivated for this one. Embiid tends to do stupid things in games like this. Most of the time he's trying to make a statement and it ends up blowing up in his face. He needs to play smart and really just stick to the basics of the game and I have no doubt that he'll not only have a big night, but we'll also get the win.

Defensively, I look for Doc to roll with Tucker until Tatum starts to cook him. If there was ever a Jalen McDaniels/Paul Reed game, it's going to be tonight. If I were Doc, I would try McDaniels on Tatum and see where it goes. Tobias Harris may possibly get the assignment as well. I really don't know WTF Doc will try, but I look for the focus to be to force Tatum into bad shots on the perimeter. The same exact goal should be focused towards Jaylen Brown as well. Boston seems to be the most vulnerable when those two are kept on the perimeter and forced into long, low percentage attempts. I think this all comes down to how well we defend the perimter tonight. Tucker, Harris, McDaniels, Harden, and even Paul Reed are going to have to get it done. It would be nice to see at least a cognitive effort out of Maxey as well on that end. He does try, but he gets burned more times than not. He'll have to make up for that on the other end.

Kill me

Also, we're at the crossroads of the Phil Jackson "40 wins before 20 losses" contender criteria, if you buy that.

I *think* these two teams overall are not separated by much and that we should beat them if we get typical home game performance from enough of the non-Embiid and Harden guys. I usually don't ascribe much meaning to any single regular season game but I'll be disappointed if we either don't win or are not trading haymakers to the end. This one is important not only for standings but belief.

When Russian guy buys German beer 5,30 hours before the game, you know what it means.

A win

I jotted this one down as a most important home field stand type game for chemistry reasons. We need to beat these Celtics tonight!

I’d like to see..

How our tweeners fair defending Tatum and Jaylen. Will McDaniels be any help?

What type of defense Celts will throw against our PnR and Embiid?

Will Maxey be outplayed by Derrick White or Brogdon?

Tatum is just shooting 40% from mid range, 35% on ISO and 38% on PnR and 27% on pull up 3s.

Matchups like this are why we acquired McDaniels. Hopefully our head coach is smart enough to realize it though I have my doubts. I say we lose until we can prove otherwise.

76ciology wrote:Tatum is just shooting 40% from mid range, 35% on ISO and 38% on PnR and 27% on pull up 3s.

Precisely the area we need to keep him shooting in. Use the length of McDaniels, this is not a matchup for PJ Tucker.

Stanford wrote:Kill me

I can't have you pissing and moaning all night about me pissing and moaning about not having Mikel Bridges on this roster. It's just not going to work tonight dude. We need you believing!

Well this is an evident loss, Tatum is the best player in the League and they are more stacked overall.

ExplosionsInDaSky wrote:I can't have you pissing and moaning all night

Won't have to worry about that.

Nobody does though.

I think we're goin to win this one.

The Celtics are the definition of live and die by the 3 so a big chunk of the game is what version of their shooting we get tonight

I still hope to get a better version of Joel than the Memphis game but also keep the defensive effort

Morey is washed

A win would be huge but I really just want to see them compete and hold their composure. It feels like our games vs the Celtics always get away from us in the first quarter due to them shooting lights out. I hope doc calls a quick time out and attempts to make an adjustments if they start off hot. This is another big test for Embiid & Harden. How will they handle the different looks an athletic discipline defense like Boston will throw @ them? Tobias and PJ should get some open looks off the double teams, will they hit open shots? I want to continue to see growth from this team.

If PJ can get some open looks tonight...It gonna be Tuckering time once again!