Sixers not shying away from significance of early-season showdown against Celtics

The 76ers have a “Bring on Boston” vibe.

Since training camp, the Sixers have spoken about being among the NBA elite. Even while dealing with the James Harden saga, the confident players said that their hunger and each individually having something to prove would propel them to great things.

The Sixers have an opportunity to provide a glimpse of just how good they are Wednesday in an early-season, first-place showdown against the Boston Celtics at the Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m., NBCSP).

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Both teams head into the contest at 5-1.

But on paper, the Celtics are the league’s best team, boasting All-NBA wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown along with two-time All-Star Jrue Holiday and one-time All-Star Kristaps Porziņģis.

The Sixers were supposed to be a notch below the Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks. But after losing, 118-117, at Milwaukee to start the season, the Sixers are riding a league-best, five-game winning streak.

Yet, critics will point out that the Sixers’ victories have all come against teams with losing records.

So this game is sort of a litmus test to see what they are made of.

“They’ve been playing great basketball,” Tobias Harris said of the Celtics. “So we are going to embrace this challenge and opportunity for us. We truly believe we have a great group here, a really good team.

“Obviously, we want to go up against the best and see where we stand, and just push ourselves to see where we are at as a group, and see what areas we can get better at.”

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The Sixers want to be challenged, and at the same time prove how good they are.

The timing of this matchup might not be ideal, though, as the team is transitioning after last week’s blockbuster three-team with the Los Angeles Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder. The Sixers acquired Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, Marcus Morris, KJ Martin, and draft picks in the deal that landed James Harden and P.J. Tucker in L.A.

Batum and Morris made their Sixers debuts in Monday’s 146-128 victory over the Washington Wizards. Meanwhile, Covington and Martin have played in three games, with Martin’s minutes coming in mop-up duty. It may take a few games for the newcomers to become more familiar with coach Nick Nurse’s system.

As for Boston, the Celtics acquired Porziņģis on June 23 from the Wizards in a three-team trade that included the Memphis Grizzlies. Then they acquired Holiday from the Portland Trail Blazers on Oct. 1. He and Porziņģis took part in Boston’s training camp and are adjusted to their roles.

However, the duo struggled in Monday’s 114-109 overtime road loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Holiday finished with 12 points on 4-for-16 shooting. He was a minus-19. Porziņģis had 20 points but made just 5 of 14 shots.

The Celtics were without Derrick White, who missed his second game after he and his wife, Hannah, welcomed their second child over the weekend.

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Not having White created a huge void. The guard is averaging a career-high 15.8 points along with 4.3 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.3 steals. Al Horford replaced him in the starting lineup against the Timberwolves and the Brooklyn Nets.

But come Wednesday, the Sixers will face their archrivals with early-season conference bragging rights on the line.

The Sixers got a 52-point effort from Joel Embiid to defeat the Celtics, 103-101, in last season’s fourth and final regular-season matchup. Boston won the previous three games by an average of 6.3 points.

The Celtics went on to defeat the Sixers in seven games in the second round of the playoffs. That led to former coach Doc Rivers losing his job.

The Sixers, who are aiming to advance beyond the second round for the first time since 2001, are one of this season’s surprise teams under new coach Nurse. But they’re still trying to get players acclimated with the goal of going deep in the postseason.

Nurse knows all about that, having coached the Toronto Raptors to the 2019 NBA title. Are people getting too amped up for a showdown in the seventh game of the season?

“It’s OK,” Nurse said. “I think that, obviously, the standings say the two teams have played well. I know it’s six games in for each. I just look at it as this: It’s two teams with a lot of talent. Two teams that are playing pretty good. We need the challenge. I keep saying that, like I’m looking forward to the challenge to see what levels we go up in effort, intensity, concentration, execution, all those kinds of things.

“It’s OK everybody should get amped. Everybody should watch this game.”