By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Sixers get their first sneak peak at the new-look Boston Celtics team on Friday night, as they host them at the Wells Fargo Center in their second preseason game.
A lot has changed from just four months ago for Boston, who took the league by storm after earning the top seed in the Eastern Conference last season, before falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Gone are Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, and Jae Crowder, as the Celtics only returned four players to their roster for this season.
Enter in Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, and the Celtics actually have a team that can challenge the Cavs for the Eastern Conference crown at season's end.
Perhaps the biggest storyline between the Sixers and Celtics is their epic trade before this year's draft when they swapped the first and third overall picks.
The Sixers, of course, selected Markelle Fultz at No. 1, and the Celtics took a gamble on selecting Jayson Tatum over Josh Jackson.
Fultz was expected to join the Celtics before Boston general manager Danny Ainge and Sixers general manager Bryan Colangelo worked out a blockbuster trade that sent the first overall pick to Philadelphia. Fultz will have to wait to play against the Celtics after being ruled out of tonight's game with a sore right shoulder.
More looks for the starting five:
The Sixers got a chance to show off their starting five on Wednesday against Memphis, as Ben Simmons lived up to the hype fully. There wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind after the game that thought that Ben Simmons didn't look like a future superstar.
Grizzlies coach David Fizdale even seemed scared of Simmons, hoping he doesn't have to see much more of him going forward.
Oh my god, I don’t want to see that for the next 15 years. That kid, they’re not talking about him enough — the way he moves with the ball, his ability to see the floor, the way he can get places on the floor.
Then once he gets confidence in his shot where you really got to close out on him to the three… Wow, he’s a big-time talent.
Just 10 seconds into the game, Simmons proved to everyone exactly what he's capable of, and what people had been missing out on for over a year since he was drafted.
J.J. Redick got going from beyond-the-arc and will only become more and more vital to the Sixers' offense as the regular season starts up in a couple weeks.
Richaun Holmes lit up the night on the receiving end of an alley-oop dunk from Simmons. But Holmes shared the load with Jahlil Okafor, who got the edge in center play by game's end.
Related: Joel Embiid officially cleared for full 5-on-5 practice
Holmes will get the start for the Sixers tonight, but expect Okafor to play more of a role from the backup spot similar to what he played on Wednesday night.
The starters each played around 20-22 minutes on the floor before being benched for the other bench players, so it wouldn't surprise me, if for the second preseason game, the starters play around the same amount of minutes.
The Sixers are definitely not looking for their players to get hurt, they just want them to play enough to have more experience so that when the regular season is here, they are prepared and ready to play.
The Bench needs to play much, much better:
There's a reason why the Sixers only trailed the Grizzlies by one point on Wednesday going into the locker room for halftime. The starting lineup just completely outplayed the bench.
The bench actually was a big part of the Sixers last season, where even in games against tough opponents, the bench was actually able to hold their own and keep games close.
The bench just was never able to keep this game close on Wednesday, and the Grizzlies were actually missing most of their starters. That itself is worrisome, and hopefully it's just preseason jitters, because otherwise, something needs to be done.
Justin Anderson, Kris Humphries, Emeka Okafor, and Nik Stauskas were among the bench players for the Sixers that just struggled when they were out on the floor.
Anderson couldn't figure out his shot, which is something he's not really known for in the first place. He went 2-for-7 from the field and 1-for-5 from downtown.
Humphries went 0-for-2 from the field, but the box score won't tell you that he looked lost a lot of times on offense and on defense. There's a slim chance Humphries makes the team anyway, but he's not really doing anything to convince the Sixers to keep him around.
Stauskas did go 7-for-7 from the free throw line, but went 1-for-4 from the field and didn't even get a look for an outside shot, which is his bread and butter.
Boston has a ton of role players on their bench, but they still aren't completely flashy. Jayson Tatum looked good in his preseason debut and Marcus Smart coming off the bench is a huge advantage for this team.
The Sixers will have a lot of work to do when it's time for their bench players to be inserted into the lineup, especially if the game is close at the time.
The Sixers' bench in my opinion, makes or breaks the Sixers' chances of winning this game.
Related: Sixers recognized by league GM's in NBA's annual survey
Ro-Co vs. Hayward & Simmons vs. Horford:
These matchups are so intriguing to me, because there's just so much that can happen and so much star power here.
Gordon Hayward can be a big scorer for the Celtics this season, but he's also a pretty good defender. Along with Rudy Gobert, Hayward helped make Utah one of the NBA's most elite defenses last season. This year, he takes his defensive approach over to Brad Stevens' Boston team.
But Robert Covington also knows defense, and he's considered one of the most elite wing defenders in the NBA.
However, in the last matchup between Covington and Hayward last season back on December 29, Hayward got the best of the small forward matchup. Covington went 0-for-11 from the field and 0-for-7 from three.
Hayward, on the other end, had 20 points, and went 3-for-6 from beyond the arc.
Covington has improved greatly since that December 2016 matchup, but Hayward is still a burden to have to play against.
And finally, the matchup of the veteran Al Horford and Ben Simmons is going to be a lot of fun to watch.
Expect Simmons to be in the same mindset he was in on Wednesday when he drove to the rim with an increased amount of force and court vision unlike you've ever seen before.
In a rivalry game, with so many more player factors to add in, the competition level is almost destined to shine on a much bigger stage than the Grizzlies game was.
| Matchup Preview | October 6, 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Boston Celtics (1-0, 0-0 Away) |
Philadelphia 76ers (0-1, 0-1 Home) |
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Broadcast Info:
Where: Wells Fargo Center
When: 7 p.m. ET
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Listen: 97.5 The Fanatic
Sixerdelphia Audio Preview
Sixers-Celtics 10/6/17 Audio Preview
