BOSTON — Joel Embiid took a glance at his watch. It was a few minutes after midnight.
Dressed in a black T-shirt, adorned with black sunglasses and an omnipresent smile, the Philadelphia 76ers star big man basked in the glow of the first Game 7 victory of his career. It was over two hours since his Sixers defeated the Boston Celtics 109-100 before a stunned TD Garden crowd. His head coach, Nick Nurse, had given him and the rest of the Philadelphia roster one objective:
Take the rest of the night to celebrate. Then on Sunday, the focus needed to turn to the Sixers’ second-round opponent, the New York Knicks.
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It’s hard to discount what Embiid and the Sixers accomplished against Boston. They once trailed the series 3-1, then became the first team in franchise history to rally from such a deficit. They hadn’t won a Game 7 on the road since 1982. There hadn’t been a No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference to topple a No. 2 seed since 2003. Philadelphia did all of that.
Embiid hadn’t beaten the Celtics in a postseason series in his career. He took care of that on Saturday night.
He was dominant in doing so, throwing in a 34-point, 12-rebound masterpiece. Boston did what it could to stop him, but he was too big and imposing and skilled for anyone in a green uniform. He looked to have hyperextended a knee, which led to him limping through the last minute of the game, then walking gingerly around the locker room following the win. But after going through a round of treatment, he told the media that he felt amazing.
“We have a lot that we want to accomplish,” Embiid said. “We have a lot of work to do. No shades to the guys that have played here, but this is different. The fight is just there. I’ve been a part of some of these teams, and this team is different.”
It has been an injury-riddled season for the 76ers. They have rarely had a full roster, forced to mix and match lineups, and slog through the regular season with a basketball in one hand and duct tape in the other. The eternal hope was always that the roster would get healthy, so that team president Daryl Morey’s vision could be on display.
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The three consecutive wins, especially Saturday night’s crescendo of a Game 7, seemed improbable on paper. It certainly flew in the face of recent history. But in taking a deeper look, the signs of a comeback could be diagnosed starting in Tuesday night’s Game 5. Embiid took up residence in the paint. Tyrese Maxey sliced and diced through Boston’s defense. Paul George did a little bit of everything. VJ Edgecombe continued to be the all-around weapon he’s been for the entirety of his rookie season.
The Celtics had the commanding 3-1 series lead, but once Embiid joined the series, they were on borrowed time. The Celtics couldn’t stop Embiid from getting to any spot he wanted. They tried to double-team him, but he’s become such a good passer that he picked the tactic apart. Maxey figured out by Game 4 that nobody could guard him off the dribble. By the time Game 5 rolled around, the 76ers extended the series with a rousing win in Boston and saw their confidence grow. They knew the Celtics should have finished them off. When that didn’t happen, they understood that there was a real chance to win the series.
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“We’ve had this weird swag about us all year,” Maxey said. “We’ve had this confidence in that we know who we can be. And, we know who we are. We have never wavered. This group has always believed in each other. This group really likes each other, and we want to see each other succeed.”
Embiid has never been to a conference finals, let alone seen an NBA Finals. The closest he’s had to a title team was seven years ago, when he was paired with Ben Simmons, prime Jimmy Butler and a host of elite-level role players. That team, ironically enough, was thwarted by one led by his current head coach, Nurse’s Toronto Raptors.
The Eastern Conference is wide open, and Philadelphia just took out the team many believe was destined to win it. What happens against the Knicks remains to be seen. New York is a tremendous group. But Philadelphia believes it can win, and belief can take a team a long way. What stood out on Saturday night was its resilience, particularly in the face of pressure.
The 76ers were in control for much of the game, leading by as many as 18 points. When the Celtics cut that lead to a single point in the last five minutes, it seemed as if Boston would pull off the miracle comeback. The Celtics were energized. The Sixers were gassed. But Maxey put his head down, got to the basket and finished at the rim on multiple possessions. Those were tough, playoff-level baskets when Philadelphia needed them the most.
That stretch spelled the difference between this version of the Sixers and the regular-season one. They have displayed an attention to detail and a level of precision and execution over the last three games that wasn’t there during the year.
“The Knicks are a really great team,” Edgecombe said. “A really great team. Obviously, they’ve played together for a minute. They have a lot of great chemistry. They have one of the best starting five groups in the league and they play really hard.”
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Philadelphia and New York last met in the playoffs in 2024, a first-round series that the Knicks won in six games. Philadelphia’s confidence as a group should translate to the matchup against New York. That being said. Saturday night was one for Embiid to cherish. After all the injuries and all the criticism, both on and off the floor, beating the Celtics measures as a real accomplishment.
When the final buzzer sounded, Maxey ran over to the stands and hugged his family. Embiid went over to his family, too. For so many seasons, the playoffs have brought disappointment. Not so on Saturday night, when the Philadelphia 76ers came away with one of their biggest wins in decades.