The future is here for the Celtics and Sixers

BOSTON — This is what the future looks like. It’s a big man with a new-age game and a throwback mentality. It’s a 6’10 point guard who will soon be the scariest downhill player in the league. It’s a 20-year-old corner forward who can score from anywhere on the court, and it’s a hyper-athletic wing who is barely scratching the surface of his potential as a two-way threat.

By name, the future is Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons on one side and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on the other. There are others involved in this new world, like Dario Saric, Markelle Fultz, Terry Rozier, and Marcus Smart.

The future also includes all-stars like Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward who are still in their prime. Maybe there’s even room for a megastar waiting to take Philly’s cap space this summer or another Danny Ainge blockbuster. The future is Boston and Philly, ancient rivals in two of the NBA’s premier markets with each other’s names circled in red for the foreseeable future.

The Celtics and Sixers played five games in this conference semifinal, which is not the stuff of legend, but three of those games came down to the final few possessions and offered a glimpse of what’s to come.

“For the next decade,” Embiid said. “We’re going to have a lot of fun battles.”

Much like this series, Game 5 belonged to the C’s by the slimmest of margins. They built a nine-point lead going into halftime only to see it evaporate in the third. The final six minutes were chaotic and messy with huge shots interspersed with gut-wrenching turnovers. It was right there for the Sixers until it wasn’t, their lead gone in a flurry of Marcus Smart plays and clutch shotmaking from Tatum. It ended, 114-112, in favor of Boston, a 4-1 series win.

In the end there was mutual respect, and an acknowledgment that this is just the first chapter in a renewed rivalry that may one day live alongside the great contests of years gone by when the names were Russell and Chamberlain and Bird and Doc.

“If we’re going to do anything of any significance, we’re always going to have to go through the Boston Celtics,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “I respect very much this organization. Danny (Ainge) and Brad (Stevens) are fantastic. You’re always looking over your shoulder and watching how they’ve decided to grow their program.”

Stevens was equally complementary of his adversary.

“We’ve had our eye on Philly a long time,” Stevens said. “Brett and his system have put us in a bind in both ends of the floor. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we can play a little bit better. You think about how much we turned it over in the regular season against them, how many issues we’ve had guarding some of their actions.

“He’s a heck of a coach, they have a heck of a situation, and they have a lot of young talent. They’re going to be good for a long time. I don’t take these opportunities for granted, and know they’re not given, so I hope we’re all back here a year from now talking about it.”

That seems like a given, even with the caveat that nothing stays constant in this league for very long. Players get traded, teams break up for inexplicable reasons, and injuries happen.

Yet, Boston and Philly have both built teams that look to be in this for the long haul. While their methods were drastically different, they both built their foundations through the draft with high-impact players all in their early 20s.

The difference in this series came down to to the presence of Al Horford. A grown man’s all-star in a conference loaded with superstars in training, Horford outplayed Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first round and took the measure of both Embiid and Simmons in the second.

“I mean, how good is he?” Brown asked rhetorically earlier in the series. “Really. If we didn’t appreciate Al Horford by now, we’d better wake up.”

Horford was once again magnificent down the stretch. With the series on the line, the C’s called his number on the block again and again, and Horford delivered with four quick points and a pass to Tatum for a dunk.

Horford finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and five steals, a quintessential Horford line. There’s no quantitative measure for being able to guard Embiid and Simmons without help as he did for much of the series.

“The question will be every minute of every game is how much attention you can give those guys outside their matchups because of their shooting and cutting,” Stevens had said prior to Game 1. “The shooting is elite around those guys.”

The answer was provided primarily by Horford. When he wasn’t mirroring Simmons and choking off driving lanes, he battled Embiid in the post matching force with veteran savvy and guile.

With all of his big men in foul trouble entering the fourth quarter, Stevens finally relented and sent double teams toward Embiid. The result was nearly catastrophic as the perimeter finally opened up for the Sixers.

“Any time we got any semblance of lead or cushion, they crushed it right away,” Stevens said. “They have a heck of a team.”

While the Celtics had their unflappable veteran big man to lean on, the Sixers continued what Brown called “expedited learning in a high pressure environment.”

They may look back this summer, or even next week, and lament a series that got away from them. Their eyes have always been on the future, as epitomized by a conversation between Simmons and Embiid.

“Me and Ben have a lot of room to grow,” Embiid said. “Looking at KD and (Russell) Westbrook, what they did the first season together, I think they won 28 games ... We have a bright future. (Simmons) came up to me, showed me his hands, and said there’s going to be a lot of rings.”

That may well be true, but as Stevens noted and as the Sixers surely realize, opportunity is not to be taken for granted. The Celtics grabbed this series early and didn’t let go; their time is not just coming in the future, but here right now. They played with a sense of urgency throughout and were rewarded by the basketball gods with a series victory.

It was a fascinating week and a half with lessons that will carry over until the next time these teams meet in the postseason. How about next May we do it all over again?