Marcus Smart Compares Celtics-76ers Series to 'Frazier and Ali' Ahead of Game 7

Marcus Smart is not sugarcoating the importance of Sunday's Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers.

"It's Frazier and Ali. You gotta be ready," the Boston Celtics guard told reporters Saturday. "Those first couple of rounds, teams are feeling good. Round 1, Round 2, we're feeling good, they're feeling good. Now it comes down, zero-zero, the last match, who's going to win?"

Thursday's Game 6 certainly had all the makings of a slugfest, with both teams struggling with their shot making before Boston pulled away late for a 95-86 win in Philadelphia.

The Celtics will now have a chance to close out the series at home in the lone second-round series to go the full seven games. The Miami Heat await the winner after finishing off the New York Knicks in six games Friday night.

Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier famously fought three times over a four-year span from 1971 to 1975 in one of the greatest boxing rivalries of all time. Frazier handed Ali his first career loss in their first fight, but Ali came back to win the last two bouts.

If you look at Games 5-7 of this series as a trilogy, there's something to be said of Smart seeing the Celtics as the "Ali" in this scenario, coming back from the brink to save their season.

That said, with LeBron James and Stephen Curry just having finished their fifth playoff series against each other, there was arguably a second-round matchup more worthy of the Ali-Frazier distinction than Celtics-Sixers.