Observations after Sixers complete 3-1 comeback vs. Celtics, make history with Game 7 win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
BOSTON — The Sixers no longer have a Celtics curse.
Until Saturday night, the Sixers hadn’t beaten Boston in a playoff series since 1982. They changed that 44 years later in comeback fashion.
With a 109-100 Game 7 victory Saturday night at TD Garden, the Sixers completed their comeback from a 3-1 series deficit and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. There’s now 14 teams in NBA history who have won series after trailing 3-1.
The seventh-seeded Sixers will face the third-seeded Knicks in Round 2. Game 1 is set for Monday at 8 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden.
Joel Embiid had 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.
Tyrese Maxey posted 30 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. VJ Edgecombe scored 23 points.
The Celtics’ top scorers were Jaylen Brown with 33 points and Derrick White with 26. Boston was missing a star in Jayson Tatum, who sat out with left knee stiffness.
Here are observations on the Sixers’ historic Game 7 win:
Celtics’ surprising starters don’t do the trick
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla made massive, bold changes to his starting lineup with Tatum sidelined.
Brown and White were the only holdovers from Game 6. They were joined by Ron Harper Jr,, Baylor Scheierman and Luka Garza.
The Sixers didn’t take the Celtics’ starters lightly or look at all unprepared as Mazzulla might have hoped. Embiid short rolled and knocked down a jumper from the right elbow on the night’s first play. Paul George pivoted past White and drove in for a slam. Edgecombe’s catch-and-shoot three-pointer gave the Sixers a 9-0 lead.
Boston was scoreless until a long-range White jumper at the 8:57 mark of the first quarter. The Sixers maintained their high defensive level from Games 5 and 6. One of the early highlights was Edgecombe blowing up Payton Pritchard and Garza’s dribble handoff in front of the Celtics’ bench and forcing a turnover.
Embiid was the hub of the Sixers’ offense and continued to be a poised, precise decision-maker out of the post. He was happy to attack against Garza, drew two early fouls on the Boston big man, and scored 10 points in the first quarter on 5-for-7 shooting. On an especially impressive sequence, Embiid waited patiently until the Celtics’ double team arrived and then fed Kelly Oubre Jr. for an easy hoop inside.
He finished with 28 assists and eight turnovers over his four games in the series. Even with his irregular availability, Embiid has made serious progress as a passer the last few years.
Edgecombe had a tremendous start, too. His lefty fast-break layup put the Sixers up double digits late in the first quarter. Maxey notched one of his six first-period assists on that play.
Sixers shaky without Embiid in first half
The Sixers’ lead grew as high as 15 points in the first quarter.
In a very familiar scene for the Sixers, the Celtics made a big run early in the second quarter with Embiid out. Andre Drummond was a giant downgrade from Embiid on both sides of the ball.
Rookie wing Hugo Gonzalez’s energy and hustle helped spark Boston. The home crowd found its voice again and Sixers head coach Nick Nurse called timeout after a Neemias Queta layup.
The Sixers lost offensive rhythm and took some rushed shots. They also saw several jumpers spin around the rim and out. Three-balls from White and Pritchard lifted the Celtics to a 37-36 edge. White stepped up in the first half and broke out of the shooting slump he was in for much of the series.
Ultimately, the Sixers regained stability. Playing through an illness on his 36th birthday, George sunk a timely three late in the second quarter. George had 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting in the game.
The Embiid-Maxey duo came up big in the closing moments of the second quarter. Embiid denied Brown’s audacious attempt to dunk over him. Maxey hit a mid-range jumper with 6.9 seconds left in the second and the Sixers entered halftime with a 55-50 lead.
Sixers hold on for dear life
Edgecombe and Maxey both drilled a three in the first 90 seconds of the third quarter.
The Sixers kept forcing Garza to guard pick-and-rolls and generated comfortable shots. A Maxey baseline jumper restored a double-figure Sixers lead and prompted a Boston timeout.
Mazzulla turned to small ball, removing Garza and using the 6-foot-6 Brown on Embiid. Offensively, the Sixers’ early returns against that lineup were positive. Embiid had a couple of post-up buckets on Brown and stayed both forceful and low-mistake in his approach.
The Sixers’ Embiid-less minutes in the second half were far better than in the first.
Drummond swung the ball to Edgecombe on the wing and the rookie drilled a three to extend the Sixers’ advantage to 84-66. White’s layup beat the third-quarter buzzer to trim the Celtics’ deficit to 13 points.
Naturally, the Sixers were not going to stroll to the finish line.
The Celtics made further inroads early in the fourth quarter. White stripped Embiid as he went up for a jumper and scored a layup seconds later. Queta converted an and-one hoop, and the crowd volume became ear-splitting. Brown made an and-one leaner. The Sixers’ lead was suddenly all the way down to 92-91.
Embiid responded with an enormous pick-and-pop three and waved his arms to tell Celtics fans to be quiet.
Still, the Sixers were too content to settle for jumpers and didn’t put much pressure on Boston’s defense to defend drives or post-ups. Brown tried to be ultra-physical with his lower body against Embiid and prevent him from catching the ball anywhere near the paint.
Brown had a clean look at a go-ahead three with a little over three minutes remaining and narrowly missed it. Pritchard was off on a corner jumper and the Sixers stayed in front despite their offensive cold spell. Many players were obviously fatigued.
The Sixers were bound to eventually start scoring again.
At the tail end of a 45-minute night, Maxey did the job with the two largest driving layups of his life and the Sixers got to celebrate history.
