Is everyone still flying high from Saturday night’s Game 7 victory over the Celtics? You absolutely should be. I certainly am. With the Sixers moving on to the second round of the playoffs, let’s build off that energy ahead of a matchup with the Knicks. Let’s get after it with a new “5 Sixers thoughts” column.
Cinderella already has her glass slipper
My thought process going into the Sixers’ series against Boston was that it would be a Sisyphean task. The odds were stacked against them when facing a rival that has perpetually owned them.
Coming back from a 3-1 deficit was a cathartic release for Sixers fans who’ve truly been in the cut with this franchise through the lows and even lower lows for so long. I am still in disbelief waking up two days later.
Don’t ever forget what the victory over the Celtics means for us all, but I am ready to turn the page on the defense mechanism this fan base, myself included, uses of just expecting the worst to happen. Frankly, screw it. Bring on this Knicks team. I’m rolling with the tandem of Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey over Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson. If the Sixers’ supporting pieces fall into place, this series is for the taking with the team’s first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in a quarter of a century staring them in the face.
Tyrese Maxey can get his Big Apple revenge
Walt Frazier, a Hall of Famer and a two-time NBA champion with the Knicks who currently serves as one of the team’s broadcasters, took a shot at Maxey and the Sixers overall when the teams met for a preseason game this past October.
Maxey had previously remarked that last season was the first time he had ever been on a losing team, as the Sixers finished 24-58 and missed the playoffs. While announcing that game, Frazier laughed and said, “He better get used to it.”
Maxey was elite in the Sixers’ six-game playoff loss to the Knicks two springs ago, averaging 30-5-7 with fantastic shooting efficiency. If Maxey can play like that once more with an improved cast around him this series, the Sixers will be marching to the Eastern Conference Finals and Maxey will make Frazier eat his words.
Kelly Oubre needs to make his open threes
Kelly Oubre was a key defensive cog as the Sixers slayed the Celtics and his work as a backdoor cutter can provide an offensive boost, but he was dreadful from long range, shooting 16.0 percent on his threes on 25 attempts with a sizable chunk of them being wide open. I would’ve sweated out that Boston series a tad less if he made them at the solid 36.0 percent clip he hit from beyond the arc in the regular season.
The deeper the Sixers go in the playoffs, the smaller the margins for error become. He’s the fifth option, at best, on offense. During the moments the team is counting on him, Oubre must rise to the occasion.
Do not get crushed on the boards again
Early in the Sixers’ series with Boston, they struggled mightily when trying to rebound the ball, leading to so many extra chances for the Celtics. That’s very much not a new problem for the team. During their first-round loss to the Knicks in 2024, New York crushed them on the glass with Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson seemingly nabbing every possible offensive rebound.
That cannot repeat itself this year.
Maybe Nick Nurse gets a little weird and throws Dominick Barlow out there for help on the boards at the four? He played just 40 minutes in the first round. Nurse exceeded all my expectations for him as a coach in that series upset over Boston. Let’s see how creative he’ll get against the Knicks.
A path of redemption?
The Sixers obviously need to take care of business with the Knicks first, but this could be their road to the NBA Finals…
- First round: A Celtics team that had beaten them a bajillion times in the playoffs.
- Semifinals: A Knicks team that eliminated them two years ago.
- Conference Finals: Either Tobias Harris’ Pistons or James Harden’s Cavaliers.
How sweet would that be?
