When your head and your heart often conflict on the outcome of a game involving one of your teams, your head is usually more realistic or pessimistic while your heart is the more optimistic part of your body. For most Sixers fans, it’s the opposite entering Saturday night’s Game 7 in Boston in a first-round series that has gone on much longer than anyone would have expected.
Philadelphia sports teams have lost seven consecutive Game 7s. That streak is eight if you include the winner-take-all Game 5
that the Phillies lost in the 2011 NLDS. That’s right, a Philadelphia sports team has not won a Game 7 since the Flyers eliminated the Sabres in the spring of 2011. The Sixers are responsible for four of the seven Game 7 losses in a streak that has spanned 15 years for the city.
Two of the four recent losses for the Sixers in Game 7s came at the same building they’re about to play another one in. What’s even more symbolic is the timing of those two losses to the Celtics in Game 7s on the road. The first one came in 2012. Philly was a pesky eight seed that was giving a veteran Celtics group all they could handle in the second round. The Celtics won a low-scoring 85-75 game and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. It felt like the absolute apex of what those Sixers teams could achieve. Philly capitalized on Derrick Rose’s injury in the first round to eliminate the Bulls and then scratched and clawed for as long as it could against Boston but simply wasn’t talented enough to beat a Celtics team that had won the East in 2008 and 2010. Heck, even if the Sixers had pulled it out in Boston, they would have been an even bigger underdog against Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals, as the Heat went on to win the NBA Championship in 2012.
That game was the final one Andre Iguodala played as a Sixer. Iggy was a part of the package in the four-team trade with the Sixers, Lakers, Magic and Nuggets that sent Andrew Bynum across the country from LA to Philly while Iguodala landed in Denver. After Bynum never played a game in Philadelphia, Sam Hinkie came in to blow things up and start The Process.
Fast forward 11 years to Mother’s Day 2023 and Philly is back in a Game 7 against the Celtics. But, this time the circumstances are much different. For one, Doc Rivers is coaching the Sixers this time instead of the Celtics. Secondly, the Sixers were much more the Celtics’ equal and had just blown out the Celtics in Boston in a Game 5 to take a 3-2 series lead. Ironically enough, Miami was again waiting for the winner in the Eastern Conference Finals, but this wasn’t the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh Heat.
But after this loss in 2023, one simply could not use the same “they fought hard,” narrative to cope the way you could have in 2012. It was one of the more embarrassing moments for Joel Embiid, the crown jewel of Hinkie’s rebuilding plan that started in the spring of 2013. Embiid shot just 5-for-18 from the field, was a -28 and the Sixers got blown out, losing by a final score of 112-88. Boston would go on to lose to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in the conference finals and it was yet another blown opportunity for the Embiid-led Sixers to make a deep playoff run.
Surely you don’t need a refresher on some of the other playoff disappointments that have happened for the Sixers in between 2012 and 2023. Although, we should point out that included in those playoff exits were two more eliminations at the hands of the Celtics in 2018 and 2020. The 2020 loss in the first-round in the COVID bubble was the final season for Brett Brown as Sixers’ head coach. The aforementioned 2023 loss to the Celtics was the end of Doc Rivers’ tenure on the sideline in Philadelphia.
The playoff eliminations for the Sixers in the last 25 years have all happened in either the first or second rounds and one of two narratives has followed each one. It was either “tough break, at least they went down swinging,” if they lost competitively or simply appeared to be outmatched but gave good effort or one of utter embarrassment that resulted in the Sixers being the butt of many jokes amongst national talking heads and other fanbases.
The point is, we’ve seen just about everything when it comes to ways the Sixers can disappoint us in the spring. We all know they have plenty of embarrassments in playoffs. If they didn’t have some of the hard-fought playoff exits, most recently in 2024 against New York, a close loss in Game 7 might be a little easier to stomach considering no one expected them to get here. But we’ve done that before too.
So, all of this is why your heart tells you they won’t win Game 7. They never do. Until you see them dig deep and find a way to pull through in the face of adversity, the only emotion you know if you’re a Sixers fan is pain. But if you remove the historical emotions and simply analyze the last two weeks of this series against Boston, your head will tell you Philadelphia can absolutely win on Saturday night.
All three of the Sixers’ wins in this series have come by double digits. Two of them have been in Beantown. Jayson Tatum seems likely to play in Game 7 for Boston, but will probably be less than 100% after leaving Game 6 with a calf injury. The Sixers aren’t as reliant on Embiid as they once were. Paul George has suddenly come alive. Tyrese Maxey’s level has risen. When VJ Edgecombe plays with the right amount of confidence, he’s not exactly a rookie. Role players like Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre and Andre Drummond have all had their moments in this series. But Embiid has still been very productive having produced a 33-point masterpiece in Game 5 and finishing just shy of a triple-double in Game 6.
A win on Saturday night would be so emotionally refreshing for this Sixers fanbase. After about a decade of playoff disappointment with Embiid leading the way, no one really went into this season with hopes of a deep playoff run. Frankly, even when things were looking good at various points in the regular season, a lot of fans probably figured, “Well, what’s the point of even getting excited? They’re just going to let me down again in the playoffs if I do enjoy this.” Then, when it was the Celtics yet again as the first-round opponent, many fans probably just felt you could simulate the series and it wasn’t even worth watching as the result would surely be Boston in 4 or 5.
While a win on Saturday doesn’t guarantee Philly gets to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2001, there’s certainly a path towards a deep playoff run in an East that would open up significantly without Boston. It’s understandable to think about what might be next if the Sixers can beat the Celtics one more time on Saturday night, but Sixers fans should enjoy this moment.
You’re actually going to be nervous for a game in this series instead of just watching and waiting for the blowout loss to commence. For as frustrating as the recent playoff exits have been for the franchise, by now I think most fans know that you have to go all the way back to 1982 to find the last time Philadelphia eliminated Boston in the playoffs. Since then, it’s been a total of seven playoff series that the Sixers have lost to the Celtics.
When you consider the franchise’s history with these big games, how a win would change Embiid’s legacy and the collective shot-in-the-arm that the fanbase would get from winning one of these games, it’s impossible to undervalue what Saturday night means for the franchise. This is a lot more than just a first-round playoff series. If the Sixers were to go on to make a deep playoff run, there’s a good chance coming back from 3-1 down against the Celtics would still be the highlight of the 2026 postseason for the franchise.
So, buckle up, Sixers fans. The fact you’re even in a car that’s requiring you to buckle up again is a surprise in and of itself. These rides haven’t always been fun, but sooner or later, one of them will be. Here’s to hoping tonight’s ride is just that.
