Sixers star gives praise to Kelly Oubre Jr. in midst of Celtics series

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers have received big performances from up and down their roster as they have found a way to rally from a 3-1 deficit with the Boston Celtics to force a winner-take-all Game 7 on Saturday back at TD Garden.

An underrated part of their success has been the play of Kelly Oubre Jr. While his offensive numbers haven't been great--he's shooting only 18.2% from deep--he has been a big part of the defensive turnaround against the Celtics. He has had to take on one of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown all series and has done a great job of having to buckle down and battle on the defensive end of the floor.

"He’s been great," marveled Tyrese Maxey. "He's been great. I sent him a text last night to say, ‘Listen, bro, you've been great this series, and your time is coming.’ I feel a big game coming from him and he played well tonight. The defense, he's been amazing. His energy has been fantastic. He's playing a lot of minutes, and he's doing it the right way. So, I'm proud of him."

After Game 1, and even Game 4, it looked like the Celtics were just going to run over the Sixers. They put up big offensive numbers through the first four games of this series, but since then, it has been all Sixers. Both Oubre and Paul George have led a big defensive answer for this group and the rest of the team has followed. Obviously, Tatum and Brown are phenomenal players and they're going to get their points regardless of the defense, but Oubre is just going to keep pushing.

Philadelphia held Boston to just 97 points in Game 5 on 40.4% shooting and 11-for-39 shooting from deep. The Sixers followed that up by holding the Celtics to just 93 points in Game 6 on 41.9% shooting and 12-for-41 shooting from deep.

"Just resilience, man," Oubre explained. "They're going to continue to just attack, be aggressive. They're very efficient and effective in their sets and the things that they run, but at the end of the day, man, I like white rice, and I'm just trying to be the white on the rice. So, you can't shut nobody out, but at the end of the day, I'm not backing down from no challenge. I'm going to continue to just be there, and just make it difficult."