Joel Embiid’s Sixers make an unprecedented comeback to eliminate the Celtics from the playoffs

The last time the Philadelphia 76ers had defeated the Boston Celtics in the playoffs, Julius Erving was leading the group in 1982. 44 years later, the Sixers broke the curse led by an excellent Joel Embiid and won again against their green beast after overcoming what had never been overcome against the most decorated franchise in the NBA, a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series. The decisive game, resolved by 100-109 at the TD Garden, once again exalted the 32-year-old Cameroonian center, a shadow of himself due to injuries since he was crowned MVP of the American league in 2023.

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With 34 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists, Embiid was unstoppable for Boston’s defense. The interior only needed to play four games in the series to resolve it in favor of his team, recovered from an appendectomy performed in early April. Averaging 28 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, he highlighted certain deficiencies in the paint of a Celtics team orphaned of Jayson Tatum, sidelined from the decisive duel due to left knee discomfort an hour and a half before tip-off. “Winning feels wonderful, but obviously we have a bigger goal in mind. Beating these guys feels very, very good,” confessed the Cameroonian.

“Joel put a lot of pressure on us, and we had no answer for him,” admitted Jaylen Brown, the main reference of the Massachusetts franchise this season. His 33 points and nine rebounds were not enough to stop a very sharp Sixers team with the outside duo formed by Tyrese Maxey (30 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists) and VJ Edgecombe (23 points, six rebounds, and four assists), a constant threat in the give-and-take with Embiid. In the last six playoff matchups between the two groups, the Celtics had always prevailed, and this time the Sixers won three games in front of their home crowd.

Philadelphia led almost the entire seventh game on the road, arriving with a five-point advantage at halftime (50-55) and extending the lead to 18 points in the third quarter. Boston, with Madrid youth player Hugo González on the court, practically sidelined for the rest of the series, threatened a comeback at the start of the last quarter, getting to 91-92 on the scoreboard. But Maxey kept a cool head and unlocked the situation in the decisive minutes, completing a revenge well present in the minds of the visiting team. “We had the chance to beat them three years ago and didn’t, but today we came here and got it,” boasted the 25-year-old point guard.

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The Celtics said they had no regrets after ending their campaign so early. At the beginning of the year, no one expected them to be so high in the standings (56 wins and second place in the East), but with Tatum’s return in April, 10 months after breaking his Achilles tendon, the fans already saw themselves back in the NBA Finals after the ring won by the same core in 2024. Joe Mazzulla’s experiment worked during the regular season, but last night it faltered by shaking up the starting five with three changes on the most decisive day of the year. Without accuracy in three-pointers (13 of 49 in the seventh game, 27%), the group became unbalanced and ended up saying goodbye much earlier than expected. Many had labeled them as favorites in the East, where neither they nor the Detroit Pistons, the number one seed, have performed according to expectations.

For their part, the Sixers now aim to break their glass ceiling with Embiid on the roster: five conference semifinals in eight playoff appearances and 10 seasons. With veterans Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. to complete the starting five, they have few more arguments and needs to face the duel against the New York Knicks with renewed confidence. After all, no team had ever come back from a 3-1 deficit against the Celtics, who had celebrated victory in the previous 32 instances. This is the fourteenth time a team has come back from a 3-1 deficit in 80 years of competition history.

The rest of the Eastern bracket will be decided tonight with Detroit-Orlando (9:30 PM, DAZN) and Cleveland-Toronto (1:30 AM, League Pass), from which the last semifinal matchup will emerge.

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NBA results and matchups.