Joel Embiid showed just how tired of losing to the Celtics he was — he overpowered the Celtics inside and scored 16 of his 34 on the night in the paint, plus he pulled down 12 rebounds. He was the best player on the court and a force all night.
And he got help, especially from Tyrese Maxey, who scored eight straight points in the clutch, finishing with 30 on the night.
Embiid also got help from the Celtics, who shot just 13-of-49 (26.5%) from 3-point range on the night and were 0-of-9 in the clutch (the final five minutes).
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All of that combined to give the 76ers a 109-100 victory and make history: Philadelphia beat Boston in a Game 7 for the first time since 1982. It’s the first time the 76ers have ever come back from 3-1 down to win a series in franchise history, and also the first time Boston has ever lost a series up 3-1 (it is now 32-1).
Philadelphia advances to take on a rested New York Knicks team starting Monday night in Madison Square Garden.
“What changed this series is Joel Embiid came back and they’re a completely different team,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said.
Boston had to play Game 7 without star Jayson Tatum, who was ruled out earlier in the day with left leg stiffness. It’s a sad way for Tatum’s season to end after he battled back from a torn Achilles last playoffs to be on the court for his team in this series, only not to be able to play in the biggest game of the season.
On the other side, this was a cathartic moment for Embiid, who was 0-for-3 in Game 7s in his career — and was gutting it out at the end. He earned this win, and in the final minutes was playing through a sore knee after Maxey had fallen into him.
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This night went Philadelphia’s way from the start.
With Tatum out, Mazzulla tried to inspire his team by making a dramatic change to his starting lineup. Only Brown and White remained as starters from Game 6, with Baylor Scheirman, Luka Garza and Ron Harper Jr. getting the start.
It didn’t work. Boston started 1-of-7 from the floor with three turnovers and was quickly down nine, which grew to 13 points by the end of the first quarter. Boston became the first team in NBA playoff history to have three starters go scoreless (Scheirman, Garza and Harper).
Things started to change in the second, and Boston went on a 22-6 run behind White getting red hot and Mazzulla leaning more into guys he had gone to all season in Payton Pritchard and Neemias Queta. It also started to change because the Celtics hit their 3-pointers. After going 2-of-12 from deep in the first quarter, they hit 5-of-7 in the second, and Derrick White led the way with 19 points. Still, Philadelphia was up five at the half, 55-50. Embiid had 19 points, five boards and five assists in the first half, plus one monster block on Brown at the rim.
White had just seven points in the second half.
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“[VJ Edgecombe] came out at halftime said “I got White”….” Philly coach Nick Nurse said. “White was cooking, and I think he had 2 points in the 3rd quarter. Those are the things that make a big difference in these games.”
The third quarter looked a lot like the first, except that Mazzulla went small for a stretch and Embiid just started to take over, overpowering Brown in the post and talking to him the whole time. Mazzulla was banking on the math of made 3-pointers, but the Celtics made just 4-of-17 in the quarter (23.5%) while the 76ers were scoring comfortably every time down. The lead was 13 after three.
Boston started the fourth on a 16-4 run, and suddenly it was a one-point game. Boston was touching the paint on drives, not settling for 3s, and got some old-school 3-point plays, while their zone defense was confounding the 76ers, who started playing slowly. That said, Philly took the punch from Boston, stayed upright, and the game remained tight the rest of the way.
However, in the clutch, Maxey took over for Philadelphia while Boston went cold from 3, and that ended up being the game. And the series.
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