NBA Playoff Bracket 2018: TV, Live-Stream Schedule for 76ers vs. Celtics Game 1

The NBA playoffs continued on Sunday, highlighted by LeBron James scoring 45 to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 105-101 win over the Indiana Pacers and James Harden dropping 41 in a 110-96 victory over the Utah Jazz.

Cleveland moves on to face the Toronto Raptors in the second round, while Houston took a 1-0 second-round series lead over Utah.

The Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics are up next Monday for their Eastern Conference semifinal matchup. Here's a look at the television schedule and live-stream information for the game in addition to a series breakdown and a look at the playoff bracket so far.

Monday TV Schedule and Live-Stream Information

8 p.m. ET on TNT and the TNT App: Philadelphia at Boston

NBA Playoff Bracket: Eastern Conference

1st Round

No. 1 Toronto Raptors 4, No. 8 Washington Wizards 2

No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers 4, No. 5 Indiana Pacers 3

No. 3 Philadelphia 76ers 4, No. 6 Miami Heat 1

No. 2 Boston Celtics 4, No. 7 Milwaukee Bucks 3

2nd Round

Toronto vs. Cleveland

Philadelphia vs. Boston

Conference Finals

Winners of second-round matchups face off. Higher seed has home-court advantage.

NBA Playoff Bracket: Western Conference

1st Round

No. 1 Houston Rockets 4, No. 8 Minnesota Timberwolves 1

No. 5 Utah Jazz 4, No. 4 Oklahoma City Thunder 2

No. 6 New Orleans Pelicans 4, No. 3 Portland Trail Blazers 0

No. 2 Golden State Warriors 4, No. 7 San Antonio Spurs 1

2nd Round

Golden State 1, New Orleans 0

Houston 1, Utah 0

Conference Finals

Winners of second-round matchups face off. Higher seed has home-court advantage.

NBA Finals

Eastern Conference winner vs. Western Conference winner. Team with better regular-season record has home-court advantage.

Philadelphia vs. Boston: Who Has the Edge?

Backcourt

The Boston Celtics got some bad news regarding Jaylen Brown, who suffered a hamstring injury during Game 7 of his team's first-round series with the Milwaukee Bucks, per Jay King of The Athletic:

Without Brown, Marcus Smart should move into the starting lineup, with Shane Larkin emerging as the first guard off the bench. Smart is a tough, hard-nosed defender who is routinely a pest on the court, so the Celtics defense shouldn't skip a beat.

However, Smart is a 36 percent career shooter, and if point guard Terry Rozier isn't in "Scary Terry" mode, the backcourt might have significant issues scoring.

On the 76ers side, point guard Ben Simmons has been unstoppable in the playoffs (18.2 points, 10.6 rebounds, 9.0 assists, 2.4 steals). Shooting guard JJ Redick is capable of shooting the lights out at any time, like when he scored 27 in a series-clinching win over the Miami Heat.

With Brown healthy and on the court, this is a closer call, but either way, the edge goes to the 76ers here.

Frontcourt

Although the starting lineups have not yet been revealed, Taylor C. Snow of Celtics.com said the following about the Boston frontcourt: 

"Aron Baynes was removed from Boston's starting lineup midway through the first round in favor of going small with Horford at the 5 and rookie Semi Ojeleye at the 4. It's very likely, however, that Stevens will reinsert Baynes as the starting 5 against the 76ers in order to combat the interior dominance of All-Star center Joel Embiid."

The 6'10", 260-pound Baynes is a much better bet to man the post against the 7-foot, 250-pound Embiid—who averaged 22.9 points and 11.0 rebounds per game—so expect him to join the lineup alongside Al Horford down low.

Baynes should be able to provide some resistance against Embiid, but the 76ers center might be able to cause problems thanks to his three-point shooting ability. For the season, he made 30.8 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. 

As far as the power forwards go, Horford should still be productive (he averaged 16.3 points and 7.0 rebounds versus the 76ers last year), but this is a much tougher matchup for him than Milwaukee, which offered little resistance against him on the glass. Horford may also have a tough time against 76ers power forward Dario Saric, who made 39.3 percent of his three-pointers this year.

The power forward slot may be closer to a tie here, but the center edge goes to Embiid, so the 76ers should have the advantage in the frontcourt as well.

Bench

The Celtics rotation will look different in Game 1 with Brown on the bench. As noted before, expect Smart in the starting lineup with Larkin leading the way off the bench.

The issue is that the C's don't have much scoring punch on the second unit outside of Marcus Morris, who averaged 13.3 points per game against the Bucks. The problem is that no other bench player scored more than 6.7 points per game, and the person who accomplished that feat (Smart) will likely start.

It's possible that we see a bit more of Greg Monroe in this series to help provide some offense for the second unit: The big man averaged 5.6 points in just 11.8 minutes of action during the playoffs.

For Philadelphia, Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova could be big problems for the Celtics defense, especially if they get hot from three-point range. Belinelli averaged 16.6 points per game against the Heat in the first round, while Ilyasova nearly registered a double-double (10.8 points, 9.2 rebounds) in 27 minutes.

Given the scoring disparity, Philadelphia should have the advantage off the bench.