Just Like The Old Days

Is Shank having a flashback?

Boston-Philadelphia. Basketball wars.

The Celtics are playing the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round of the NBA playoffs and it is a renewal of hostilities that goes back 60 years. This is the 20th postseason meeting between Boston and Philadelphia. It is as close to Red Sox-Yankees as you are going to get in any Celtic spring.

In one of their more impressive wins of the season, the undermanned Celtics (no Jaylen Brown, no Kyrie Irving, no Gordon Hayward, no Malcolm Butler) thrashed the white-hot Sixers, 117-101, in a 48-minute Game 1 frenzy that honored six decades of playoffs featuring the Colonial rivals.

It’s odd that this is only the third time the cities have dueled in the NBA tournament in the last 33 years. Celtic fans of a certain age remember when it seemed like Boston and Philly jousted in the playoffs every spring.

That's where Shank tears open the time capsule. That part is interesting, mostly because we don't read about it often from Shank or anyone else.