When it comes to which of his former teams he would favor winning a head-to-head matchup, former Boston Celtics wing and assistant coach Evan Turner has no doubt at all. “I’m taking the Celtics every single day,” said the Ohio State alum in a recent interview on Fan Duel TV via Heavy’s Adam Taylor. “Twice on Sundays.”
“I think, with this history, the Boston Celtics have their number,” observed Turner. “Besides the fact that I like the Celtics’ top eight better than I like the Sixers’ top eight, but the way (Joel) Embiid‘s been playing this past year, you have to take into consideration something occurring.”
“But you know, Jayson Tatum, he’s been through this a lot. The team has been playing hella defense,” suggested Turner. “And at the same time, Marcus Smart, if he has to shut down Embiid, maybe he can do it. He’s done it before.”
Clearly, a Smart defense of Embiid is not an optimal matchup, but the Flower Mound native knows how to guard bigs like few players his size have ever been able to manage.
As for the matchup, while this version of the Sixers appears to be the best of their current rebuild by a fair amount, we’re with ET on favoring Boston — if perhaps a hair less than the former Celtics assistant.
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