BOSTON — Facing elimination, the Philadelphia 76ers leaned on Joel Embiid’s scoring and a suffocating fourth-quarter defense to beat the Boston Celtics 113-97 on Tuesday night, trimming the Eastern Conference first-round series deficit to 3-2.
Embiid delivered 33 points and eight assists, while Tyrese Maxey added 25 points and 10 rebounds. Philadelphia outscored Boston 28-11 in the final 12 minutes and limited the Celtics to 3-for-22 shooting, including a stretch of 14 consecutive misses — the longest closing drought in a playoff game since 2005, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Closing surge turns game
Boston entered the fourth quarter up 86-85, needing one strong period to advance, but the Sixers flipped the script. Embiid, who had averaged 16.5 feet on his first-half attempts, shifted his attack to the paint after halftime, dropping that average to 9.3 feet and going 7-for-10 in the second half. “Inside, I feel pretty good about my chances of going one-on-one against anybody in this league,” Embiid said.
Maxey called his teammate “dominant,” and Boston had little answer without the interior presence of longtime defender Al Horford. Quentin Grimes supplied 18 points in 24 minutes off Philadelphia’s short bench and helped hound Boston’s perimeter players.
Celtics’ home struggles continue
Jayson Tatum finished with 24 points and 16 rebounds in 40 minutes but acknowledged, “They played well. A few looks that we felt good about we just didn’t make.” Payton Pritchard, who scored 12 off the bench, added, “Honestly, it feels like we’ve been better on the road. We want to be dominant at home and on the road. Definitely got to get that fixed.”
Since the start of the 2023 postseason, Boston is 19-12 at TD Garden and 17-7 away. The club is 1-7 at home when shooting below 30 percent from three-point range, a mark it failed to reach in both home losses this series.
Short rotation, big payoff
Head coach Nick Nurse essentially used a six-man rotation. Embiid logged just under 39 minutes, Maxey 42, Paul George 43, and rookie VJ Edgecombe nearly 40. Nurse acknowledged the heavy workload but said the priority was extending the season. “It’ll take everything we’ve got,” Maxey noted when asked about Game 6.
What’s next
The series shifts to Philadelphia for Game 6 on Thursday night, where the 76ers will again try to stave off elimination and force a decisive Game 7 back in Boston.
Source: ESPN
