76ers playing with house money in Game 7 against the Celtics, with decades of history working against them

Well, this is unexpected. It's safe to say that no one in Boston, and certainly no one in Philadelphia, and definitely no one in the media, thought the Sixers would put up any sort of fight in their first-round series with the Celtics, let alone force Game 7 on Saturday in Boston. But here we are, all of us stunned.

If you know anything about the Sixers (I'm sorry), it's probably that they have grossly underachieved by virtually every measure for decades, especially when it comes to playing the Celtics. As Joel Embiid put it eight years ago, it's not a rivalry so much as a ritual humiliation. 

The Celtics and Sixers have faced each other in the postseason more than any two teams in NBA history. It has not gone well for the Sixers. The last time Philly beat Boston in a series was 1982. In their entire, mostly miserable, existence -- as a native Philadelphian, it is my civic duty to dunk on them on behalf of the city -- they have never beaten Boston without either Wilt Chamberlain or Dr. J on the roster. It's 2026. That is embarrassing in the extreme. 

The Sixers have basically become the Washington Generals in this context. They exist mainly to give their infinitely more successful foes a foil to beat up on and dispatch without compunction. 

That's what everyone thought would happen again, because that's what always happens. Except this time, at the very least, Philly has made the Celtics work harder than anyone anticipated. At a point in the calendar when they regularly collapse, the Sixers are suddenly playing some of their best basketball of the season. 

It's frankly unrecognizable from the playoff product usually on offer. The Sixers have already won twice on the road in Boston. It's a toss-up on which city is more shocked by that. Add it to a long list of surprising developments in this series, chief among them that Joel Embiid returned to chip in mere weeks removed from an appendectomy. In Game 6, he was diving for loose balls and doing push-ups en route to a double-double, his still-healing scar tissue be damned. In three games, he's averaging 26 points, 8 rebounds and 7.3 assists. Even more unlikely, he's playing almost 36 minutes per game. 

If Embiid has been consistent about anything in his career, it's that he wants to play basketball whenever the opportunity is afforded. That has been infrequent. He played just 38 games this season and has missed 150 games over the last three years. His list of ailments shortly before or during the postseason includes a bout with Bell's Palsy, two orbital fractures, two torn meniscuses and a torn thumb ligament. And now he adds an appendix he left somewhere back in Houston. But here he is, with a chance to do something he has never done and the franchise forgot how to do in the early '80s.

After Game 6 earlier this week, Embiid said he's "tired of losing" to the Celtics and called them a "superteam." Maybe there was a dusting of gamesmanship to his comments, but when placing the two organizations side-by-side, it's hard to argue with the underlying truth. Boston was a good team this season and the Sixers were, charitably, average. The Celtics were top five in both offensive and defensive rating, finished with the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference without Jayson Tatum for much of the campaign and overachieved when almost everyone expected them to take a step back in the standings. 

By comparison, the Sixers' season began with low-to-no expectations. Whatever Embiid and Paul George could produce was seen as a bonus. The immediate and future focus instead shifted to the promising young backcourt of Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, as dynamic a guard combination as Philly has ever seen. That pairing was one of the few bright spots. Along the way, the Sixers traded underappreciated and underutilized fan favorite Jared McCain to the Thunder -- a move that backfired spectacularly on the actual court and in the one concerning public opinion -- and George was suspended for 25 games for violating the league's anti-drug policy. From February through the end of the season, the Sixers were just two games over .500 and slipped into the Play-In. And then, right before the playoffs, Embiid had emergency surgery, because of course he did. 

Everything that came before this series with the Celtics tracks with how the Sixers generally operate. What has unfolded since is something else entirely. They have played hard and well, which is more than can customarily be said about them at this time of year. As the series shifts back to Boston for the finale, the Sixers are playing with house money. A season that began with no fanfare has funneled into a Game 7 with no pressure. 

Not so for the Celtics, who are the favorites in the game and the series and are expected to win because they always do. But the team that played so well during the regular season has looked listless at times in the first round, particularly on offense. It's no secret how Boston wants to play at that end. Joe Mazzulla's bunch wants to take and make more 3s than the opposition. On nights when they shoot well, they're hard to beat. When they don't, they're vulnerable. That's how it's gone in this series. In three wins, the Celtics have shot 41.6% from deep. In three losses, they've hit just 27.6%. 

Complicating matters for Boston, Jayson Tatum -- who remarkably returned from an Achilles injury after just 10 months on the mend -- looked like his left leg was bothering him in Game 6. He briefly went to the locker room, but Mazzulla said he's fine and will be available for Saturday. Meanwhile, Derrick White -- who is one of the best and most underrated two-way players in the league -- has looked utterly lost on offense for a while now. He's shooting 30.9% from the floor and is averaging just 8.7 points per game in the series. Not having his usual production has put a bit of a strain on Boston. Only Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard are averaging double-digit points per game against the Sixers, and the Celtics have been held to less than 100 points in each of their three losses. 

All of these improbable events have led us to a Game 7 that no one saw coming. On one side, you have a team that was better by nearly every metric during the regular season, paced by two superstars, constructed by the Executive of the Year, and led by the runner-up for Coach of the Year. And on the other side, you have the team that they always beat up on but has somehow taken them to the brink of elimination. We know how this usually goes. Then again, maybe the Washington Generals are due.