The Boston Celtics boasts superior stats and execution. Can Tyrese Maxey help the Philadelphia 76ers overcome the Celtics' balanced attack and defensive dominance?
On paper, this first-round series doesn't look good for the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Boston Celtics finished the regular season with an offensive rating of 120.5 and a defensive rating of 112.7, both in the top five in the league. Philadelphia has a 115.4 on offense and 115.5 on defense; these numbers place the 76ers in the middle of the NBA ranking-wise. Boston also ranks above Philadelphia in three-point percentage, rebounding, and field goal percentage.
That significant gap says a lot about the status of both teams; Boston is the team with more depth, talent, and efficiency. From a statistical perspective, they are superior in almost every area that matters.
The difference isn't just in the stat sheet. When you watch Boston, the offense looks better drilled, the defense is keyed in, and the spacing is great. Philadelphia can be inconsistent at times, thanks to its iso-heavy offense, lack of defense on the wings, and struggles to finish games in the fourth quarter.
This is why the Sixers' path to competitiveness runs directly through Tyrese Maxey. Maxey averaged 28.2 points and 6.6 assists this season and carried a usage rate near 30%. Philadelphia will lean on him to create nearly everything in the half-court. While he is a capable player in isolation, he is no Luka Doncic or James Harden; Maxey thrives the most when he has an open floor and space to run. He led the NBA in transition points this season and had the most distance traveled out of any player in the sport. When Maxey can attack before the defense is set, he is nearly unstoppable. The issue will be getting him in a position to get those transition opportunities.
Boston's offense and defense are built to punish teams that are overly reliant on one player. They have a litany of good defenders, length, and the ability to control the glass. On the offensive end, they can slow the game down and allow their star players, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, to isolate and create clean looks against the defense. When that doesn't work, they have players such as Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Sam Hauser that can space the floor and pick up the scoring slack.
For Philadelphia to keep up, they will need an amazing series from Tyrese Maxey. The supporting cast has to punish Boston's help and knock down open threes and make the Celtics pay for focusing exclusively on Maxey. If the Sixers are forced into long possessions where Maxey has to create late in the shot clock, then they will be playing right into Boston's hands. This is the issue with Philadelphia's offense. Maxey is not built to run in isolation all the time, and Philadelphia does not have the team construction to allow him to play at his best.
Boston has the edge in most categories. To make this series interesting, Philadelphia will have to make the series fast and chaotic to throw Boston off. Even then, Philadelphia's chances are slim.
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Wes Dixon is a contributing writer to 76ersRoundtable. He can be reached at dixonwesley286@gmail.com.