At least one Celtics rival fears Boston could be team to beat in East originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Fans and members of the media aren’t the only ones who’ve taken notice of the turnaround of the Boston Celtics since shortly after New Year’s Day.
Turns out some of their chief rivals in the Eastern Conference have become aware, too.
Philadelphia 76ers guard Danny Green may have uttered one of the great understatements of the season on his podcast “Inside the Green Room With Danny Green” on Wednesday when he said that “Boston has been hooping,” a nod to the team’s 27-7 mark over its last 34 games since bottoming out at 18-21 in early January.
Green, whose Sixers (44-27) were percentage points ahead of the Celtics (45-28) for third in the Eastern Conference, albeit with two games at hand, said that Boston is one of the team’s to fear in the East.
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“I think that’s a team that might be the sleeper that comes out or gets to the Eastern Conference Finals when people don’t expect them to because they’ve been hooping,” Green said. “They’ve been playing defense. Their offense has helped their defense because they’ve been playing a lot smoother, more together, which was interesting to me.”
Green and Philadelphia have split their four meetings with Boston this season, though there’s not much sense putting any stock into those results as the Celtics haven’t faced the Sixers with James Harden in the lineup yet. Boston did win — quite convincingly — in their most recent matchup, 135-87, on Feb. 15 in Philadelphia shortly before Harden played his first game for the Sixers.
“We played them before James (Harden) got a chance to play, it got ugly on TNT and for a reason, they were hooping,” Green said. “I said if they keep playing like this, they’re going to be the team to beat.
“But we’re still figuring it out, other teams are figuring it out and waiting to see if people get healthy, but I do think Boston is one of the sleeper teams that could sneak into the Eastern Conference Finals if not the Finals.”
Green of all people should know what it takes to get to the Finals, having been there four times already in his career with the San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers. He won a ring with all three squads and is one of just four players in league history to win a championship with more than two teams.
The Celtics and Sixers have met in the postseason twice in the last four seasons, with Boston winning in the conference semifinals in 2018 and in the conference quarterfinals in the bubble in 2020.