From an outsider’s perspective, one might believe head coach Doc Rivers and the Philadelphia 76ers enter Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Celtics with some level of comfort Thursday night.
After all, the Sixers are coming off consecutive wins, including a Game 5 beatdown in Boston which allowed Philadelphia to take a stranglehold on the best-of-seven series. The 76ers are playing in front of their home crowd at Wells Fargo Center with Joel Embiid and company looking like the best version of themselves two nights prior, too.
That aforementioned comfort, however, is no where to be found.
“You can’t get too comfortable. Period,” Rivers told reporters Wednesday, per team reporter Lauren Rosen. “In the playoffs, there’s no such thing as comfort. I’ve never heard the words comfort and playoffs together. They just don’t go together.”
76ers forward PJ Tucker added, per the team: “I mean, comfort? There’s no comfort in the playoffs at all. Home, away — it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be a dogfight. They’re going to give us everything they got and we got to be locked in for it. No matter what city, what arena, it’s going to be tough. So you got to prepare your mind for that, not think about being home and being comfortable.”
The Celtics are expecting much of the same, as Marcus Smart referred to the impending Game 6 as a “dogfight” immediately after Boston’s loss at TD Garden on Tuesday.
Despite being on the road, the Green are a consensus road favorite (-2.5) entering Game 6. Boston has been the favorite in each of the previous five contests, failing to cover in either of the last two.
