Sixers Playoff Hopes Begin With Boston: Full Schedule, Preview

PHILADELPHIA, PA — As recently as late last fall, the Philadelphia 76ers were considered among the favorites to win the 2020 NBA Finals.

They'd won the offseason, according to many analysts, by extending key players and getting much bigger with the additions of Al Horford and Josh Richardson. Their defense became further elite by drafting Matisse Thybulle, with potential to be the best defender in the sport. With Joel Emiid and Ben Simmons a year older and wiser, the Sixers team that came within a bounce of defeating the eventual 2019 champions would surely contend again.

But the 2020 season did not roll out the way the Sixers planned, with injuries and a lack of chemistry frustrating what still looked like at times the best team in the NBA. This wasn't helped by the unexpected depth in the Eastern Conference, bringing much more competition than in recent years, and things stayed roughly the same upon the return from the coronavirus shutdown. The Sixers head into the playoffs this year as the 6th seed, after finishing third two years in a row.

They will open the playoffs against the third-seeded Boston Celtics, who finished the regular season at 48-24, five and a half games ahead of the Sixers' 43-30 mark.

It's the second playoff meeting between the two arch-rivals in the last three years. The Celtics won the last meeting in 2018, four games to one. The rivalry has intensified as the young cores of both teams rose to prominence on a similar trajectory. Both have been ticketed as having the parts for potential dynasties, and the fierce back and forth over the past several years surely hasn't been dulled by the ever-lingering, generalized pro-sports discontent between Boston and Philadelphia.

The Sixers will be without All Star Simmons, who is out for the playoffs after undergoing knee surgery. That places the burden squarely on Embiid, who, when healthy and hot, is an MVP-caliber player who can swing the fate of a series.

After two consecutive years of making it to the second round of the playoffs, the Sixers had set their sights on something much bigger for 2020. But in a year turned upside down by everything from injuries to the pandemic, a first round victory as an underdog would be noteworthy accomplishment on its own.

Here's the full schedule for the first round series against Boston:

• Game 1: Monday, Aug. 17, 6:30 p.m.
• Game 2: Wednesday, Aug. 19, 6:30 p.m.
• Game 3: Friday, Aug. 21, 6:30 p.m.
• Game 4: Sunday, Aug. 23, 1 p.m.
• Game 5, if necessary: Tuesday, Aug. 25
• Game 6, if necessary: Thursday, Aug. 27
• Game 7, if necessary: Saturday, Aug. 29

The Celtics are favored to win both the series and Game 1, according to OddsShark. However, the typical advantage which a three seed would have in this contest is largely immaterial as there will be no home and away games. All games will be contested at the NBA's bubble in Orlando.