History revisited as Celtics and 76ers clash in conference semis
LOS ANGELES: It is one of America’s great sporting rivalries and Australia’s Ben Simmons and Aron Baynes will be in the middle of the next chapter.
Ben Simmons’ Philadephia 76ers enter Baynes’ Boston Celtics’ cauldronlike TD Garden today in the first of the sevengame NBA Eastern Conference semifinals.
Over the decades the 76ers and Celtics have fought some of basketball’s most heated battles.
In the 1980s it was Julius ‘‘Dr J’’ Erving going headtohead with Larry Bird and in the 1960s it was two of the greatest big men the sport has known — Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell — in epic contests.
Simmons, centre Joel Embiid and the rest of the 76ers will be tapping into their history in Boston by wearing the iconic red 1980s uniforms the 76ers wore in their four playoff series battles with Bird’s Celtics.
At the 76ers’ team meeting on Monday the first thing coach Brett Brown, a Boston native, showed Simmons and the rest of the team was not the game plan, but a video history of 76ers v Celtics games.
The video included a special message from Erving.
‘‘I get the history of what goes on between our two organisations intimately and I just think it is incredibly exciting to revisit that with my young guys and show them even before we got into the Xs and Os and scout tape,’’ Brown told reporters after the Monday morn ing shootaround.
‘‘There’s a lot that has gone on before us.’’
The keys to the series will likely be how Celtics guard Marcus Smart handles Simmons and if Baynes and teammate Al Horford can restrict the 76ers’ AllStar centre Joel Embiid.
‘‘It’s going to be a challenge in the fact that he’s a great player,’’ Smart, asked about Simmons, said.
‘‘He is crafty around the rim, athletic and he understands the game and for me it is just about keeping my emotions and things intact.’’
The winner of the series will play the victor of the Cleveland Cavaliers v Toronto Raptors Eastern Conference semifinal series. — AAP