Boston Celtics all set to take on the Philadelphia 76ers in the series finale – NBA Playoffs Preview (part 1)
Saturday night at the TD Garden will see the Boston Celtics play hosts to the Philadelphia 76ers in the last game of this Eastern Conference Semi Final series which will decide who will go on to face the Miami Heat.
With the season on the line for both teams, this would be a intense matchup. Out of the six games in the series, both sides have taken turns to win and no team has been able to register consecutive win.
Keeping that in context, the odds do shift towards the Celtics as they were not able to wrap things up in the last outing at the Wells Fargo Center. However given the woeful shooting performance they put up in Philadelphia, their
advantage of the series going back and forth may not count for much.
Boston shot the ball 33.3% in the Game-6 loss and had only two players, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett scoring in double figures. They dug themselves a whole by coming up empty on most possessions and also committed a high number
of 16 turnovers in the game. Head Coach Doc Rivers has been highly critical of his team’s performance and has vowed to work things out for the final game of the series.
“Offensively we played random basketball. We never really established Kevin in the post. Our spacing was horrendous. They really clogged the paint up, but we hurt ourselves with pace. We walked the ball up the floor and we have
to get [Rajon] Rondo running. It didn’t look pleasant, as someone said. So we’ll look at it and see what we need to change.’’ – Rivers
As pointed out by Rivers, the key to going on to winning for the Celtics lies with their ability to establish a foot hold in the game from the start. They would have to make Garnett their go to guy in this game because he has been
the reason for the Celtics spectacular post season so far.
One thing that also needs to change is the performance of players like Brandon Bass who was splendid in Game 5 but followed it up with a 2 of 12 shooting performance in Game 6.
Another player that will need to step things up in major fashion is Ray Allen who has been struggling to find his shooting rhythm throughout the post season and if the Celtics are to go on to advance into the Conference Finals,
He will have to come out in form. Especially with Avery Bradley ruled out for the remainder of the season after going through surgery on his shoulder.
One thing that is in Boston`s advantage is that they have to play this crucial game at home but they would not want to rely much on that as Philadelphia has shown that they have the tenacity to come at the Garden and snatch away
a win previously in the series.
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