Isaiah Joe knows the Sixers-Celtics history well. Now the rookie is prepared for his first rivalry game.

Isaiah Joe hails from Fort Smith, Ark., some 1,304 miles away from Philadelphia.

But the 76ers rookie is fully aware of the team’s rivalry with the Boston Celtics. If he wasn’t, Joe surely got a sense of it at the Sixers practice facility recently.

“I mean you can tell that there’s that tension between the Sixers and the Celtics,” he said Wednesday after morning shootaround, before the Sixers host the Celtics at Wells Fargo Center. “Even hearing Doc and the players talk about it, it’s [like] ‘OK this is a big, big rivalry game.’

“But just like any other team, we are going in to come out with a W. This is one of the teams that we just definitely got to knuckle down and get it. And I can feel the energy.”

The Celtics (8-4) hold a 261-190 regular-season advantage over the Sixers (9-5).

Wednesday’s contest will mark the Sixers’ first meeting since Boston’s first-round playoff sweep of Philly last season. The rivals will meet again Friday. The two games will determine first place in the Eastern Conference entering the weekend.

The Celtics will be without All-Star forward Jayson Tatum on Wednesday, however, Joe realizes they still have a lot of firepower.

“Everybody on their team for the most part is a real aggressive scorer,” he said. “They all have an identity and their identity is to be aggressive getting to the basket, getting to their shots. Everybody that they have can score with the ball in their hands.”

The Sixers must lock down their defenders one-on-one while also providing help-side defense and remain in constant communication. Joe thinks if the Sixers have success with their personal assignments, they will have overall success against the Celtics this week.

“I love rivalry games,” Joe said. “I feel like those are the most fun games to play, especially when fans are there. But we are not going to have fans, unfortunately. But it’s still going to be a [heck] of a game.”