The Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers have been the best of frenemies for 70 years.
The teams renew their vows of antipathy tonight at TD Garden in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. A mouthful for Round 2 of the playoffs. Tip is sometime after 7:30, depending on how long of a pregame show is offered on TNT.
No two franchises have met more in the NBA postseason. Their first playoff meeting was in 1953. In those days, the Philadelphia 76ers were the Rochester Nationals.
That the NBA once had franchises in places like Rochester, Syracuse, and Fort Wayne is another illustrative note of just how much The Association has grown in reach and prosperity. A rinky-dink league that played in dinky rinks and arenas now commands a worldwide audience.
Boston and the Sixers franchise met 17 times in the playoffs from 1953 through 1985, averaging more than every other year. Overall, they have clashed 21 times in the postseason. Boston has won 14 series and is 62-47 (.589) overall.
To get here, the Celtics did everything right in Game 6 against the Hawks. Especially at the most critical moments. The stars shone. The 3’s fell. Rebounds were won. Mistakes were eliminated.
And – at least for one night – the instincts and fearlessness that are essential ingredients of a championship team were there.
Al Horford, a dormant volcano for the first five-plus games of the Hawks series, erupted in the fourth quarter and helped fuel an 18-8 Celtics run over the last 6 minutes that set up Monday’s dream date with Philly.
Horford exchanged words with a Hawks fan sitting at courtside after hitting a 3-pointer that gave Boston a 116-113 lead.
“He said some stuff there that I wasn’t very pleased with and I took it to heart,” Horford said. “Some people you can talk trash to, but you talk to me, it’s probably not good for you.”
We welcome springtime wake-up calls whenever and however they occur.
This series begins with a 7-foot-tall question mark. Regular-season MVP favorite Joel Embiid suffered a knee injury in Philly’s first-round win over Brooklyn. Embiid is doubtful for Game 1. If/when Embiid does play, don’t expect another 52-point performance against Boston.
Jayson Tatum’s intensity, or lack thereof, could well determine how quickly or not the Celtics can get past a depleted Philly team. Jaylen Brown will have to just keep scoring.
And Philly coach Doc Rivers has yet to reach the NBA Finals since taking the Celtics back in 2010.
Even with all these storylines, this series will not be a trip down memory lane. There is no Bill Russell. There is no Wilt Chamberlain. There is no Larry Bird. There is no Dr. J.
“NBA wars” have been replaced with “competitive showdowns.”
The first act of this Shakespearean drama featured Chamberlain and Russell atop the Playbill. The Russell Celtics and Chamberlain Sixers met in five consecutive postseasons, including four straight in the Eastern Conference Finals, starting in 1965.
That year, “Havlicek stole the ball” and passed it easily to Sam Jones to ice Boston’s 110-109 win in Game 7. A year later, the Celtics bounced the Sixers in five.
Chamberlain got his one playoff series conquest over Russell in 1967. A 4-1 series landslide ended the Celtics’ eight-peat as NBA champs. The planets re-aligned in 1968 and ’69. Both ended with banners alighted to the Garden rafters.
The arrival of Larry Bird in Boston brought Boston-Philly to its zenith. The NBA was lost in the wilderness of American sport. Finals games were telecast on tape delay during the week. The narrative was more about drugs than about dunks.
While Bird-Magic brought the NBA into the American sports mainstream, Bird-Dr. J. topped the undercard. Through most of the 1980s, the road to the NBA Finals in the East went through Boston or Philly.
As an NBA rookie out of UMass and the ABA, Erving helped his Sixers dethrone the champion Celtics in the 1977 Eastern Conference semifinals. Bird’s rookie season of 1980 saw the Sixers beat Boston in five games to win the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to Magic and the Lakers.
Then came 1981. Both teams finished 62-20. The Eastern Conference finals were the closest thing to a “basketball war” Boston had experienced in more than a decade. The Celtics trailed 3-1 before a trio of instant-classic victories. Boston saved the best for last, winning Game 7 by a point, 91-90, after erasing a 7-point deficit at the OG Garden. Bird’s visit to the bank was the clincher.
In 1982, the Celtics were set for another epic 3-1 comeback. The Sixers, Moses Malone and Dr. J. would jam the jinx. In the waning moments of Game 7, the “Beat LA” chant was born in the Garden’s cheap seats.
Hostilities raged. An exhibition game in 1983 featured three brawls, Bird tearing coach Billy Cunningham’s jacket, and Red Auerbach coming down from the stands ala Captain Lou Albino to further aggravate things. Red was fined $2,500.
Bird and Dr. J. were intertwined on and off the court. They teamed up for Converse, and a video game built for the likes of the Apple II computer. Pre-Macintosh.
On Nov. 9, 1984, the undefeated Sixers and Celtics met at the Garden. Bird immolated the Sixers for 42 points in 30 minutes. An offensive foul on Bird became the accelerant for a melee that emptied both benches and resulted in an iconic image of Bird grabbing Dr. J. by the throat.
They don’t make NBA fights like that anymore.
Bird voiced regret for his actions that night, writing in his autobiography that he had always respected Dr. J. as a player and never trash-talked him.
If the Celtics grab the Sixers by the throat this time, it will only be in a poorly worded metaphor.
Celtics in 6.
And no brawls.
Bill Speros (@BillSperos & @RealOBF) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.