The Boston Celtics will host the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday Night Basketball, renewing one of the NBA's classic rivalries. With key players sidelined on both sides, the matchup carries added intrigue as the teams vie for Eastern Conference positioning. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. ET at TD Garden in Boston.
The Philadelphia 76ers (33-26) enter the game on a three-game winning streak, including a 124-117 victory over the Miami Heat on Thursday. The Boston Celtics (39-20) have won five of their last six, most recently defeating the Brooklyn Nets 148-111 on Friday. This contest marks the fourth meeting between the teams this season, with the Sixers holding a 2-1 edge in prior games.
Boston leads the all-time series 340-249, a record for postseason meetings in league history. The Celtics sit second in the Eastern Conference, trailing only the Detroit Pistons, while Philadelphia occupies sixth place.
Injuries will shape the lineups. For the Sixers, Joel Embiid is out with a strained right oblique sustained against the Heat, and Paul George is serving a 25-game suspension for violating the NBA's anti-drug policy. The Celtics will miss Jayson Tatum, who is recovering from a torn Achilles suffered last season.
Betting odds list Boston as a 9.5-point favorite, with an over/under of 220.5 points. The money line has the Celtics at -353 and the Sixers at +278. A projection model simulating the game 10,000 times predicts the over on the total, hitting 64% of the time, citing recent trends: Philadelphia's last four games exceeded their totals, and the over is 2-0 in Boston's most recent home games. The last three meetings at TD Garden averaged 231 points.
The game airs on NBC10 and streams on Peacock, with NBC10 news following at 11 p.m. ET.
