PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are 4-0 as they enter Friday’s NBA Cup matchup with the rival Boston Celtics. The Sixers opened the season by rallying from a 13-point fourth quarter deficit to defeat the Celtics on the road just nine days ago on Oct. 22 so this is a good test for Philadelphia.
The Sixers will face a Celtics team that’s looking to find their footing. They started 0-3, but have won two in a row including a 20-point beatdown of the Cleveland Cavaliers in their previous outing. The Cs up 53 3-pointers in their win over the New Orleans Pelicans and then put up 57 in the win over the Cavs. It’s something the Sixers have to be mindful of heading into this contest.
Combine the fact that they are beginning to get back to Celtics basketball along with the motivation factor of losing to the Sixers on opening night, this will be a tough matchup for Philadelphia.
“I think this is going to be a great test for us because of that,” coach Nick Nurse stated. “I think they’re working on their rotations, changed it a little bit. They played very well, shot 50 3s, 50-plus 3s in their wins. Obviously, they’ll have a little bit of determination from the first game, etc. So, it’s an awesome test for us.”
As the Sixers convened for morning shootaround, the players know the Celtics are going to make their own adjustments and enter the contest with a different sense of urgency than back on opening night.
“The challenge is they’re going to come with a different mentality,” Justin Edwards said. “We beat them at home in the opener. We just got to try to build off of what we did last game and then add the pieces that we have and the film that we’ve been watching just trying to put into the game.”
The Sixers will look to get the job and improve to 5-0–and earn an important win in NBA Cup group play–when they play host to the Celtics at 7 p.m. EDT.
