Unrecognizable Celtics let Philadelphia win 103-115 and make the series 3-2
Tatum and Brown were too alone and couldn’t handle Embiid’s 33 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks.
The Sixersdriven by a tireless Joel Embiid, walked in Boston with a resounding victory 103-115 and leave the series with a 3-2 in their favor, one win away from the Eastern Conference final. The Sixers now have a chance to finish off the Celtics in Philadelphia on Thursday and advance to the Eastern Conference finals, something they haven’t done since the 2000-2001 season. In the other East semifinal, the Miami Heats have a 3-1 lead over the New York Knicks.
Embiid, who is still recovering from the right knee injury he suffered in Game 3 of the playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets, scored 33 points and was his team’s top scorer. His teammate Tyrese Maxey completed a great night with 33 points. Tobias Harris was not far behind with a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds. And James Harden also had a double-double of 17 points and 10 assists.
For the Boston Celtics, the leading scorer was Jayson Tatum, who had a double-double of 36 points and 10 rebounds despite a dismal first quarter in which he only scored 2 points. Jaylen Brown was perhaps the most toned Celtics player all night, with 24 points and six rebounds. In contrast, center Al Holford stood out for not getting any points after missing seven triples. The Dominican, lackluster, only had five rebounds in the entire game.
Embiid shows that he is the MVP
Embiid came out willing to show that no one had given him the MVP title. His first action was a triple that was the first three points for his team. The Cameroonian center did not let up in the first quarter, helped by the poor defense that first Holford and then Robert Williams applied to him. 6 of the Sixers’ first 8 points came from Embiid. With the help of some successful Harden, Harris and especially Maxey (3 triples of 4 attempts in the first quarter), the Sixers began to pull away on the scoreboard in the first minutes of the game.
Opposite, the Celtics were having a night to forget, without organization in defense or success in attack. Tatum missed everything he shot in the first quarter, three 3-pointers and two of two. At least he made two free throws with 2:30 left in the first quarter, his first points of the game. Holford was even worse. To the poor defense on Embiid he added 0 points in the first quarter (0 of 2 3-point attempts and 0 of 2 of 2). Smart was more successful and finished the first 12 minutes with 6 points. Only Jaylen Brown was at the party. When it was his turn to defend Embiid, the forward put the center in trouble. And in attack, Brown scored 9 points with a good shooting percentage.
The first quarter ended with a 26-33 in favor of the visitors, a seven-point difference that was not enough for the bad game displayed by the Celtics.
The Celtics, full of mistakes
In the second quarter, the Celtics kept making the same mistakes. A weak defense that gave space to Embiid and Harris combined with a cumbersome attack allowed the Sixers to increase their lead to 15 points (27-42) in the first two minutes of the second quarter, after a 0-10 run for the visitors. Brown was still the only one from Boston who really seemed to want the win. The locals responded with a 10-0 run based on eight consecutive free throws that put them five points behind the Sixers, 37-42.
But it was a mirage. Without the points from Tatum and Holford -between the two they had missed the nine triples they had launched-, the Sixers posted a 0-7 run and distanced themselves again on the scoreboard, 41-51. Tatum’s first 3-pointer came with 1.26 minutes left before halftime. When the players went to the locker room, the score was 49-58.
After the break, nothing improved for the locals. Halford, Derrick White and Marcus Smart all failed to make a basket in the third quarter. Tatum, on the other hand, woke up from his lethargy and scored 2 of 4 triples and a total of 16 points in the period. But it was already useless. The Sixers did not need to make a great effort to continue increasing their lead, which reached 19 points, although at the end of the third period it was 16, 72-88. By then, the TD Garden in Boston had already erupted in boos at his team.
The last quarter had no history, although it was the only one in which the Celtics scored more points than the Sixers (31 to 27), which left the final score at 103-115.