Round #1 - Tracker#6 | BOS vs. PHI

76ers win Series 4-3

My prediction: Celtics 4-1 · 76ers win Series 4-3

Latest Game:

Game 7: Embiid Returned From Surgery. Boston Had No Answer.
Celtics 100, 76ers 109 · 76ers win Series 4-3

Jayson Tatum was ruled out 90 minutes before tip-off with left knee stiffness. Boston's coaching staff learned about it 45 minutes before the game. Jaylen Brown found out on the bench.

Philadelphia won 109-100 anyway — but the Tatum absence is the wrong frame for what happened in this Game 7. The right frame is Joel Embiid, who debuted in Game 4 after an appendectomy, scored 34 points with 12 rebounds in the deciding game, and became the first player in NBA history to score 100 points in a playoff series despite missing the first three games.

The 76ers completed their comeback from 3-1 down. It is the 14th time in NBA history a team has done this. Philadelphia has now done it twice, both times against Boston.

How Philadelphia Controlled a Game 7

The 76ers led for 98% of the game. Their largest lead was 18 points. They outshot Boston from three (39% vs. 27%) and committed only 9 turnovers against the Celtics' 5 — a disciplined performance from a team playing its most important game of the season in an arena that had beaten them twice in this series.

Embiid shot 12-of-26 from the field, went 9-of-11 from the free throw line, and finished with 12 rebounds and 6 assists. That line — 34 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists — from a player 18 days removed from abdominal surgery, in a Game 7 on the road, is not a medical curiosity. It is an argument.

Tyrese Maxey added 30 points and 11 rebounds, playing 45 minutes. VJ Edgecombe scored 23 on 5-of-11 from three. Embiid and Maxey became the third duo in league history to each record 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists in a Game 7.

What Boston's Three-Point Dependence Cost Them

Boston entered this series as the East's second seed, with 56 wins and the league's most dangerous three-point offense. They finished Game 7 shooting 13-of-49 from three (27%) — their third consecutive game below 30% from distance.

Nick Nurse built a scheme that funneled every Celtic toward the perimeter and dared them to beat it from range. When Boston shot well, they won. When they didn't, Philadelphia's interior dominance — Embiid's gravity, Maxey's slashing — took over. Derrick White had 26 points and Neemias Queta finished with 17, but without Tatum and without a functional three-point offense, there was no second gear available.

Boston fell to 32-1 all-time when leading a series 3-1. The one exception, now, is Philadelphia.

The Celtics made their earliest playoff exit since the 2020-21 season. The second seed, the home court, the three-game lead — none of it held.

Embiid had 18 days to recover. He needed all of them. Boston had no idea.

Series History:

Preview: Better Than It Sounds, Worse Than It Is

The Celtics-76ers rivalry carries historical weight that this particular matchup does not fully deserve. Boston is the best team in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia is missing Joel Embiid. What sounds like a classic rivalry is, in practical terms, a mismatch between a healthy contender and a team held together by one good player and optimism.

My prediction: Celtics in five. Tatum and Brown as a tandem rank among the best duos the East has produced in a decade. The supporting cast — Holiday, White, Porzingis when healthy — is built for exactly this kind of series. Philadelphia needs their backcourt to go nuclear in at least four games. Without Embiid, the margin for error is zero.

Three questions that decide the series: First, is Jayson Tatum fully himself — not just healthy, but sharp, assertive, operating at the level he showed in the second half of the regular season? Second, can Tyrese Maxey carry Philadelphia offensively for five or six consecutive playoff games against a defense that ranked among the league's best all season? Third, does the 76ers' backcourt — specifically the players around Maxey — find enough offensive consistency to make this competitive beyond Game 2?

Game 1: No Contest
Celtics 123, 76ers 91 · Celtics lead 1-0

The margin was 32 points — the largest in a playoff opener in Celtics franchise history. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 51 points on 20-of-38 shooting in Tatum's first playoff start since rupturing his Achilles last season. Boston made shots from everywhere. Philadelphia had no answer for any of it.

The tactical reality of Game 1: the Celtics don't have a weakness Embiid-less Philadelphia can exploit. Their switching defense eliminates isolation opportunities. Their spacing creates problems for a 76ers defense without the rim protection Embiid provides. Their depth means every Philadelphia run is answered by a different Celtic coming off the bench.

Tyrese Maxey scored 22 points. He was Philadelphia's only reliable creator and their only player who consistently made the right decision under pressure. He will need 30-plus in every remaining game for the 76ers to win one.

Question for Game 2: Does Philadelphia's coaching staff make any meaningful adjustment — different spacing, more off-ball movement, something to disrupt Boston's defensive rhythm — or does the talent gap make tactical adjustments largely irrelevant?

Game 2: Edgecombe Took TD Garden. Now The Series Is Real
Celtics 97, 76ers 111 · Series tied 1-1

Game 1 was a blowout. Boston 123, Philadelphia 91. Celtics by 32. The narrative wrote itself: the 76ers weren't ready, Paul George looked disinterested, Edgecombe was overmatched, and this series would be over in five games at most.

Game 2 was something else entirely.

Philadelphia won 111-97 in Boston, evening the series at 1-1 and making every assumption from Game 1 look naive. VJ Edgecombe scored 30 points on 12-of-20 shooting, added 10 rebounds, and was a +17. Tyrese Maxey added 29. The 76ers shot 48% from the field and 49% from three — numbers that would look good in a regular season win, let alone a playoff road upset against the defending East finalists.

The Celtics, by contrast, shot 39% overall and 26% from three. Jaylen Brown scored 36 points — the only Boston player who showed up — but his 11-of-24 shooting and the -9 next to his name tell the full story. Tatum finished with 19 on 8-of-19 and was a +1 in a game his team lost by 14. The supporting cast was nearly invisible: Derrick White shot 3-of-12. The bench combined for very little.

Edgecombe is the story of this series. The rookie was dismissed after Game 1 as an overachiever who had simply been overwhelmed by the Boston atmosphere. What Wednesday night showed is something more concerning for the Celtics: he is a genuinely difficult matchup. His combination of size, athleticism, and three-point shooting (6-of-10 in Game 2) forces Boston into decisions it doesn't want to make on defense. The Celtics had no satisfying answer.

The context matters here. Philadelphia entered this series as the No. 7 seed, picked by virtually nobody in a ESPN expert poll, coming off a chaotic regular season that included a lengthy Paul George suspension and persistent injuries. Edgecombe has been the unexpected engine of their playoff push. The Hoop Collective noted before the series that Boston, despite the top-two seed, had real vulnerability if Philadelphia could generate transition offense and hit open threes. In Game 2, they did both.

What happens next: the series shifts to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4. The 76ers have been good at home this season — 22-19 on the road, which means home games matter significantly for their probability of advancing. Philadelphia hasn't beaten Boston in a playoff series since 2012. Home court advantage is now genuinely meaningful.

For Boston, the question is whether the Game 2 performance was an anomaly or a signal. The Celtics lost by 14 at home with Jaylen Brown giving everything he had. Tatum's passivity in big moments has been a recurring concern since last spring. If it resurfaces in Philadelphia, this series gets complicated fast.

One number that matters going forward: Boston shot 13-of-50 from three in Game 2. That is not sustainable in either direction. The Celtics will shoot better. The question is whether Philadelphia's defense — which was aggressive, physical, and disciplined — can keep them uncomfortable enough to keep the gap from opening.

Game 3: The Boston Power Tandem Is Back
76ers 100, Celtics 108 · Boston Leads 2-1

50 points. That is what Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for in Game 3, and that number is the clearest indicator of where Boston stands heading into the rest of this series.

Tatum: 25 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists. Brown: 25 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists. Both men playing 40-plus minutes, both men making the big shots, both men finishing together in a fourth quarter that Philadelphia simply could not match. The Celtics won 108-100 in Philadelphia, Payton Pritchard added 15 off the bench, and Boston now leads 2-1 in a series that looked dangerously competitive after Game 2.

This version of the Celtics is not the championship machine of two years ago. The depth is thinner, the margin for error smaller, the dominance less automatic. But when Tatum and Brown both show up — and tonight both of them showed up — Boston is still the best team in the Eastern Conference, and still the favorite to come out of it.

The structure of this team holds when the two stars are aligned. It becomes vulnerable when one of them disappears, which is precisely why Game 2 — where Brown carried and Tatum struggled — felt fragile despite the result. Game 3 was the answer to that fragility. Two first options, both operating, together. That is the Celtics at their ceiling.

Philadelphia's problem is simple and structural. Tyrese Maxey scored 31 points on 12-of-31 shooting. He was brilliant in moments and inefficient in aggregate. He was the best player on the floor in stretches. He was not enough. Without Joel Embiid, Maxey needs to be the undisputed best player on the floor by a wide margin for Philadelphia to win games in this series. 31 points on 31 shots is not that margin.

Paul George added 18 but was minus-4. VJ Edgecombe — 10 points, 10 rebounds — showed the athleticism that made him a lottery pick while also demonstrating the inexperience that makes him unreliable in closing situations. Adem Bona was plus-9 in 22 minutes and may be the most interesting piece of this team's future. None of it was enough.

Boston shot 43% from three on 47 attempts. Philadelphia shot 34% on 35. That gap is the series in a single statistical line.

Game 4 is in Philadelphia on Monday. Boston has all the leverage.

Game 4: Embiid Came Back. It Didn't Matter
76ers 96, Celtics 128 · Celtics lead 3-1 · Game 5: Tuesday in Boston

Joel Embiid returned from emergency appendix surgery in 18 days. Boston led by 16 after one quarter.

The final score is 128-96, and it is not as close as that suggests. The Celtics dominated every dimension of this game — rebounding, three-point shooting, transition, depth — and Philadelphia's most important player was essentially irrelevant to the outcome. Embiid finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists in 34 minutes. The 76ers lost by 32. The series is 3-1. Game 5 is Tuesday in Boston, where Philadelphia has not won since Game 2.

Embiid's return was the story. Boston made sure it wasn't.

Payton Pritchard Ended This Game in the First Quarter

Philadelphia held a 13-12 lead with 4:41 remaining in the first quarter. It would be the last time they led. Payton Pritchard hit a three in response, ignited a 22-5 Boston run, and finished the quarter with a running three off one leg at the buzzer — 34-18 Celtics after 12 minutes.

Pritchard finished with 32 points on 12-of-21 shooting and hit 6 three-pointers in 35 minutes off the bench. Through two games in Philadelphia, he has scored 32 points Sunday and 32 points in Game 3 — 64 points combined, 11 three-pointers made. That is not a hot streak. That is a player who has found the series. Jayson Tatum added 30 points with 7 rebounds and 11 assists. Boston had 14 offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone — more than Philadelphia had in the entire game.

The 76ers' Three-Point Problem Is Structural, Not Situational

Through four games, Boston has made 29 more threes than Philadelphia. That is an 87-point advantage at the three-point line across a single series. The Celtics have shot 45% from deep on Sunday — Philadelphia shot 30%. Tyrese Maxey took only three first-half shots and called it "absolutely unacceptable." Kelly Oubre Jr. went 0-for-6 from the field. Paul George scored 16 but was minus-13.

This is not Philadelphia having a bad shooting night. This is Boston's defensive system — the same one Joe Mazzulla has deployed for years — forcing the 76ers into exactly the shots they cannot make consistently, while generating exactly the looks Boston lives on. The Celtics are the Eastern Conference's second seed for a reason that has nothing to do with regular season record. They are structurally built to dismantle teams like this one.

Philadelphia's only path back into this series is solving a problem they have not solved in four games.

Embiid Was Good. The Team Around Him Was Not

There is a version of this narrative where Embiid's return is heroic — emergency surgery, 18 days, back on the court against the best team in the East. That version is true. It is also incomplete.

He scored Philadelphia's first eight points. He drew fouls early and looked physically capable. But the Celtics adjusted, the game got out of hand, and Embiid's individual numbers became decoration on a 32-point loss. His jumper — which he himself acknowledged — was not there. He shot 9-of-21 from the field. More critically, there was no second option capable of punishing Boston's attention on him. Maxey was invisible in the first half. George was a non-factor. The 76ers shot 41% from the field and 30% from three as a team.

One player returned from surgery. The other ten did not show up.

Boston Is One Win From the Second Round. Philadelphia Needs a Miracle

The 76ers must win in Boston on Tuesday — a place they lost Games 1 and 3 by a combined 40 points — just to stay alive. Down 3-1, only 13 teams in NBA history have ever recovered. Philadelphia is not built like those teams. They are built around a 32-year-old center who has been through Bell's palsy, a fractured orbital bone, a meniscus injury, a knee sprain, and now an appendectomy — all in playoff contexts. The injury history is not background. It is the story of this franchise.

Boston has an 87-point advantage at the three-point line through four games. That number does not reverse in one elimination game.

Embiid said getting one win in Boston is "going to be tough." He is right. The tougher question is what Philadelphia does this summer with a roster that has now been eliminated — or is about to be — in the first round for the second straight year, built around a generational talent whose body refuses to cooperate when it matters most.

The Celtics are one win from the second round. For Philadelphia, the more pressing series is the one they need to have in the front office.

Game 5: Embiid Took Over. Boston Missed 14 Straight
Celtics 97, 76ers 113 · Celtics lead 3-2. Game 6: Thursday in Philadelphia

The Celtics led 86-85 entering the fourth quarter. They scored 11 points in the final 12 minutes.

Philadelphia outscored Boston 28-11 in the fourth, held the Celtics to 3-for-22 shooting including 1-for-14 from inside the arc, and won 113-97 to cut the series deficit to 3-2. The 14 consecutive misses to close the game was the longest such streak in the playoffs since 2005. Boston is now 1-7 at home when shooting under 30% from three — which is exactly what they did in both of their losses in this series.

Joel Embiid scored 33 points and looked nothing like a player who had emergency surgery 21 days ago. Philadelphia is alive. The series goes to Game 6 in Philadelphia on Friday.

Embiid Solved the Problem He Created in Game 4

In Game 4, Embiid averaged 16.5 feet on his shot distance in the first half. On Tuesday, that number dropped to 9.3 feet in the second half — a tactical adjustment that turned the game. Without Al Horford, Boston has no dedicated post defender capable of handling Embiid one-on-one in the paint. Nick Nurse saw it. Embiid exploited it. He scored 18 of his 33 points in the second half on 7-of-10 shooting, attacked the basket relentlessly, and drew the fouls Boston could not afford in a tight game.

His average shot distance dropping 7 feet between halves was the second-largest such decrease in his career in games with at least 10 shots each half. That is not a hot streak. That is a player reading a defense and dismantling it with precision.

Maxey, George and the Depth Nurse Compressed

Nick Nurse cut his rotation to effectively six players. Embiid played 39 minutes, Maxey 42, Paul George 43, VJ Edgecombe 40. The bet was simple: trust the starters, limit the exposure of a thin bench, and force Philadelphia's best players to decide the game.

It worked. Maxey finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds — his best rebounding game of the series. George added 16 with 9 rebounds. Quentin Grimes provided 18 points in 24 minutes off the bench — the one reserve Nurse leaned on — and delivered quality man-to-man defense that disrupted Boston's ball movement in the fourth quarter.

The question Nurse cannot yet answer is whether this minute load is sustainable. Philadelphia is playing every other day at playoff intensity. Embiid, 21 days removed from surgery, played 39 minutes. Maxey played 42. Bodies break under that weight. Tuesday was enough. Whether it is enough across Games 6 and a potential Game 7 is the only question that matters now.

Boston's Home Court Problem Is Real

Since the start of the 2023 playoffs — Joe Mazzulla's first postseason — the Celtics are 19-12 at home and 17-7 on the road. They have been the better team away from TD Garden throughout their deep playoff runs. Payton Pritchard acknowledged it directly after the game: "We've been better on the road. We don't want that to necessarily be the case."

The pattern in this series is specific: Boston shoots poorly at home and loses. They shot under 30% from three in both losses. In Games 2 and 4 in Philadelphia, they shot 45% and 45% from deep respectively, and won both convincingly. The Celtics are 87 made threes ahead of Philadelphia through five games — a staggering structural advantage that has carried them through four of five games. But when their perimeter shooting collapses, as it did in Game 5, their size disadvantage in the paint becomes decisive. Embiid had his way. Boston had no answer.

The Celtics are still a 56-win team playing a 45-win team in an elimination context. The odds remain firmly in Boston's favor. But a franchise that has won at least one playoff series in nine of the last ten postseasons knows better than anyone that the number on the scoreboard at the end of Game 5 is the only one that matters tonight.

Series Reset: 3-2 Boston. Everything Is Still Possible — For One More Game

Philadelphia must win Game 6 at home to force Game 7 in Boston. The 76ers are 2-0 in Philadelphia this series — Games 3 and 5 — and 0-3 in Boston. That home/away split is the series in a single statistic.

Embiid said after Game 5 that he doesn't think he can be stopped going one-on-one in the paint. He was right on Tuesday. The Celtics will adjust, shrink the paint, and dare Philadelphia's perimeter shooters to beat them — the same adjustment they've made in every series over the past three seasons. Whether Paul George, Maxey and Edgecombe can make enough open threes to keep Boston honest is the question that defines Game 6.

Down 3-2, with their best player operating at genuine dominance and their home crowd behind them, Philadelphia has everything they need for one more night.

Game 6: Embiid Was on the Bench. Philadelphia Led by 23 Anyway.
76ers 106, Celtics 93 · Series tied 3-3. Game 7: Sunday in Boston

Joel Embiid played 34 minutes in Game 6 and scored 19 points. Tyrese Maxey scored 30. VJ Edgecombe had 14 with a thunderous putback dunk that ended the third quarter with Philadelphia leading 82-63.

None of this was supposed to be possible 18 days after an appendectomy.

The 76ers won 106-93, forced a Game 7 in Boston, and led for 86% of the game. Boston's largest lead was 5 points. Philadelphia's was 23.

The Maxey Game That Changed the Series

Tyrese Maxey shot 11-of-22 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line for 30 points in 40 minutes. He was the best player in a game that Boston's Jaylen Brown — 7-of-17, 18 points, three fouls in the first half — couldn't control. The Celtics entered Game 6 having won by 32 points twice in this series. They managed 93.

The difference was Philadelphia's third quarter. Boston went more than four consecutive minutes without a point to close the period. The 76ers outscored them 24-14 in the third, turning a 55-50 halftime lead into an 82-63 advantage. The Celtics never recovered.

Paul George had 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting — his most complete performance of the series, hitting five threes at moments when Boston needed stops. George signed a four-year, $212 million contract with Philadelphia expecting to compete for championships. This series, including a 25-game suspension that cost him the start, has been a disaster interrupted by one night when everything worked.

For one game, it was enough.

Boston's Three-Point Problem Has a Name

The Celtics shot 29% from three in Game 6 (12-of-41). They shot 29% from three in Game 5. They shot 27% in Game 7. The pattern across the last three games of this series is not variance — it is a structural problem that Nick Nurse's defensive scheme identified and exploited.

Jayson Tatum had 17 points and left the game in the third quarter for unspecified treatment on what was described as a calf issue. That detail matters for Game 7. Boston's starting five without a healthy Tatum — already missing its reliable rhythm — becomes a team entirely dependent on Brown carrying them through 48 minutes.

Brown has averaged 26 points in this series. He has also watched three consecutive games slip away.

Game 7 is Saturday in Boston. The second seed has not lost a home Game 7 in the Mazzulla era.

But Philadelphia was down 3-1 and led Game 6 by 23. The Celtics have run out of reasons to feel safe.