BOSTON — The Boston Celtics saved their ugliest fourth quarter for the worst possible time, and it came at a steep price.
Leading 3-1 and with a chance to close out their first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Garden, the C’s collapsed — in near historic fashion. Boston missed its final 14 shots over the last 12 minutes and finished 3-of-22 in the frame, tying a franchise playoff record for fewest field goals in a fourth quarter, per NBC Sports Boston’s Dick Lipe. The anticipation of ending Philadelphia’s season quickly turned into silence shared between Boston’s bench and a home crowd that began filing out before the final buzzer.
Instead of celebrating and catching its breath while awaiting a semifinal opponent, Boston squandered the opportunity and now heads back to Philadelphia for Game 6.
“It was just having an understanding of we were in a good situation and just didn’t execute,” coach Joe Mazzulla said. “So we just have to be able to bounce back from that. I think when you have empty possession, empty possession, and at the other end you’re not getting stops, it gets frustrating.”
Boston held a 13-point lead with 10:13 remaining in the third quarter before the meltdown. Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid — who missed the first three games of the series and was listed as probable an hour before opening tip — finally broke out. Embiid scored a game-high 33 points, grabbed four rebounds, and tallied eight assists. Celtics bigs had no answer for him as Neemias Queta, Nikola Vučević, and even Luka Garza struggled to subdue Embiid’s dominance.
Eventually, that caught up to Boston.
When Embiid took a trip to Philadelphia’s locker room limping with an apparent left knee injury late in the third quarter, only to return minutes later, the Celtics were in control. They carried an 86-85 lead into the fourth quarter, only to lose their grip.
“We played great up until that point, and then they made more plays down the stretch,” Mazzulla added.
It felt much like the postseason losses Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown had endured for years before clearing the title hurdle in 2024 — but far, far uglier. Tatum attempted just two shots in the fourth quarter, while Queta and Sam Hauser accounted for Boston’s only three field goals, as the Celtics finished with as many made shots as turnovers.
“It was a stretch where we weren’t making shots, and they were coming down and hitting shots and getting fouled, and we just kept having to play against a set defense,” Tatum said. “So getting stops would’ve helped, for sure.”
The standard they’ve strived to meet all season simply wasn’t met. Boston’s 11 points in the fourth marked the fewest scored throughout the entire regular season and playoffs. The same energy that forced Philadelphia’s crowd to evaporate at Xfinity Mobile Arena and turn into a “We want Boston” chant from the traveling Celtics fans didn’t return with the team back home.
Even Brown admitted the performance wasn’t up to par.
“Just not good enough overall from the Celtics tonight,” Brown said. “The result was the result, but gotta move on, play in another couple of days and get a chance to respond. So we look at it, learn from it, and move forward.”
Brown continued: “Just can’t sum it up — a lot of different areas were just not good enough. We’ll watch it, and we’ll make sure we’ll come out with the right energy, the right mindset, the right mentality on the road in Philadelphia. So that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
The Celtics entered Tuesday night with three chances to put the Sixers away for good. They’ll have their second chance in Game 6 on Thursday night in Philadelphia.
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