P.J. Tucker’s message: playoffs start now as series with Celtics seems inevitable
The Sixers need to prove that they really did build a stronger team this season and the Celtics will be the true test.
NEW YORK — On the day the 76ers notched their first playoff-series sweep in 32 years, their minds were already on the Boston Celtics and exorcizing the ghosts of past second-round exits.
No offense to the Brooklyn Nets. But P.J. Tucker informed the Sixers the playoffs began the moment they completed their sweep of Brooklyn in Saturday’s 96-88 Game 4 first-round victory at the Barclays Center.
“Everybody has been talking about us versus Boston [in the second round],” Tucker said. “... But we’ve been playing all year knowing this is what the end result is going to be, to get to this point. Knowing that everything is about this right here. Knowing that all season long it was going to be either us and Boston or us and Milwaukee.
“At the end of the day, I’m just being real. So this is it. This is our season. This is what I’m here for. That’s why I said that.”
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The Celtics have a 3-1 series lead over the Atlanta Hawks after Sunday’s 129-121 Game 4 of their first-round series at the State Farm Arena. The Eastern Conference semifinals will start Saturday if Bostson closes out the best-of-seven series in Tuesday’s Game 5 at T.D. Garden.
But for the Sixers, the second round is where seasons have gone to die.
The team is 1-12 in the East semifinals since 1986. And they suffered second-round exits in four of the past five seasons. Instead of losing in the conference semis in 2020, they were swept by the Celtics in the first round.
But last season’s second-round exit to the Miami Heat led to the Sixers acquiring Tucker, De’Anthony Melton, and Danuel House Jr. in the offseason.
“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for,” Paul Reed said. “This is our year, and we know we gotta take advantage of all these opportunities that are coming our way. And that’s what we’ve been doing so far, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
If the Sixers do indeed face the Celtics next, they’ll have a tough road ahead of them.
Philly doesn’t match up well with Boston, which won three of the four regular-season meetings. They needed 52 points from Joel Embiid on April 4 to beat the Celtics, who were without starters Jaylen Brown and Robert Williams. Now, Embiid is sidelined with a sprained right knee. He missed Saturday’s closeout game against the Nets. Rivers said there is a 50/50 chance he’ll be available for the start of the second-round series.
Meanwhile, as good as Tyrese Maxey has been, he’s struggled mightily against the Celtics. He averaged 8.4 points on 34.0% shooting — both career lows against an opponent — in 10 career games vs. Boston. And history has not been kind to the Sixers in regards to playoff series against the Celtics.
Boston has won 14 of the 21 series, including the last five. So the Sixers might be better off facing the Hawks in the conference semifinals.
They won three of this season’s four meetings against Atlanta. The Sixers’ last victory — a 136-131 overtime win — over the Hawks came when they rested Tobias Harris, James Harden, Embiid, Tucker, Maxey, and Melton on April 7.
Philly has faced the Hawks twice in the postseason.
The Sixers swept them in a best-of-three first-round series in 1982. Then Atlanta upset the Sixers in seven in the second round two seasons ago. Surely, they wouldn’t mind avenging that loss.
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But they are prepared to face the Celtics.
“I think we have to realize the mistakes we made against the same kind of defenses that Boston’s going to throw at us with Joel,” Georges Niang said, “and tighten up on those things and continue to correct those and be focused and not get down and let runs get us discouraged. And I think we’ve done that throughout the year and I think this is an opportunity for us to show that.”
Regardless of who they’ll face, the Sixers have been waiting for this — to reach the second round — all season. That’s why sweeping the Nets was important. It allows them to have a week to rest up and prepare.
“I think the biggest thing for us is we didn’t come this far only to come this far,” Niang said. “We’re focused on what we have to do and the things that we have to take care of. [The first round] was one stop on the road just like the regular season was one stop on the road.”