Joel Embiid’s Sixers come from behind to eliminate the Celtics from the playoffs | Basketball | Sports

The last time the Philadelphia 76ers had defeated the Boston Celtics in a playoffsJulius Erving led the group in 1982. 44 years later, the Sixers broke the curse led by and won again against their green beast after overcoming what had never been overcome by the most successful franchise in the NBA, a 3-1 loss in the best of seven games. The final clash, resolved 100-109 at 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.

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 tie to resolve it in favor of their team, having recovered from an appendectomy performed at the beginning of April. With averages of 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, he highlighted certain shortcomings in the paint of a Celtics team without Jayson Tatum, who was removed from the decisive duel due to discomfort in his left knee an hour and a half after the opening kickoff. “Winning feels great, but obviously we have a bigger goal in mind. Being able to beat these guys feels very, very good,” confessed the Cameroonian.

“Joel put a lot of pressure on us, and we didn’t have an answer for him,” acknowledged Jaylen Brown, the main reference for the Massachusetts franchise this season. His 33 points and nine rebounds were not enough to stop some very sharp Sixers 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 yours-mine with Embiid. In the last six playoff meetings between both groups, the Celtics had always prevailed, and on this occasion the Sixers beat them three games in front of their home crowd.

Philadelphia led practically the entire seventh game on the road, arriving with a five-point lead 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 cornered for the rest of the tie, threatened with a comeback at the start of the last quarter, leading 91-92 on the scoreboard. But Maxey kept a cool head and resolved the situation in the decisive minutes, completing a revenge that was very present in the minds of the visiting troops. “We had the opportunity to beat them three years ago and we didn’t, but today we came here and we did it,” boasted the 25-year-old point guard.

The Celtics said they had no regrets after ending their season so soon. 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 the fans they already saw themselves in the NBA Finals again after the ring won by the same hard core in 2024. Joe Mazzulla’s experiment worked during the regular season, but last night he skidded when he revolutionized the starting quintet with three changes on the most decisive day of the entire year. Without aim in the three-pointers (13 of 49 in the seventh game, 27%), the group became unbalanced and ended up saying goodbye much sooner than expected. There were quite a few who labeled them favorites in the East, where neither they nor the Detroit Pistons, the number one in the table, have performed as expected.

For their part, the Sixers now aspire 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 round out the starting quintet, they have few more arguments and need to face the duel against the New York Knicks with renewed confidence. After all, a team had never come back from 3-1 down against the Celtics, who had claimed victory in the previous 32 instances. It is the fourteenth time that a team has come back from 3-1 down in the competition’s 80-year history.

The rest of the draw in the East is resolved tonight with Detroit-Orlando (9:30 p.m., DAZN) and Cleveland-Toronto (01:30 a.m., League Pass), from which the last semifinal match will emerge.