The Philadelphia 76ers needed just one more win against the Boston Celtics to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2001.

To say the very least, that did not happen last night.

The Sixers shot 0-for-9 from the floor over the final six minutes. They scored a total of 13 points in the fourth quarter of a closeout Game 6 on their home court. The result was a 95-86 loss to the Celtics forcing the cancellation of Mother’s Day and a decisive Game 7 on Sunday in Boston.

The Sixers unraveled in the fourth after a rally in the third quarter in which they outscored the Celtics 30-21. Georges Niang drilled two key three pointers and Joel Embiid knocked down a pull-up jumper to tie the game 81-81.

From there, the Sixers failed to make a bucket over the final 6:13 of the game.

Joel Embiid tried to make sense of what happened last night in a postgame interview that left Sixers fans extremely unhappy on social media.

Joel Embiid Postgame Interview

Joel to answer your question, I do not like Game 7’s when you and the Sixers had the perfect opportunity to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals at home last night.

Also, you are supposed to DEMAND the ball when the rest of your team is clearly struggling to do much of anything on the offensive side of the basketball court. That is why you were crowned the NBA’s Most Valuable Player. 

Now that we have those two statements squared away, obviously people are mad at Joel Embiid for taking the podium after an epic fourth quarter collapse in Game 6 for saying that he didn’t touch the ball enough in the fourth quarter. 

Of course Embiid has to be better.

Saying “I didn’t get the ball” really doesn’t resonate with Sixers fans because he is expected to touch the ball on every every offensive possession.

Talking about Game 7s and asking who doesn’t love them after what the city of Philadelphia had to endure against the Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors is obviously ridiculous but I’m holding out faith that Embiid said that light heartedly and just wanted everyone, including himself, to calm down a bit because the series is not over yet.  

The Sixers shot a miserable 0-for-9 from the floor over the last six minutes in the fourth quarter and not a single person playing or coaching did anything about it.

Philadelphia 76ers in the 4th Quarter of Game 6

• De’Anthony Melton: 0-4
• PJ Tucker: 0-1
• James Harden: 0-4
• Joel Embiid: 3-6
• Tyrese Maxey: 1-3
• Tobias Harris: 0-0
• Jaden Springer: 1-1 

As a team, the Sixers shot just 8-of-34 from three point range (23.5%) and 30-of-83 (36.1%) from the floor. 

De’Anthony Melton shot 0-for-5 from the floor and 0-for-4 from three point range and rushed  a handful of key possessions in the fourth quarter when he really shouldn’t have been shooting the basketball in the first place. 

James Harden shot 4-of-16 from the floor including a miserable 0-for-6 from three point range. 

Tobias Harris shot 1-of-7 from the floor and scored just two points last night. 

I have been screaming and yelling about Tobias Harris being the X-Factor for the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs this season and last night was the perfect example why, paired with a poor shooting effort from James Harden. 

When you have Harris and Harden combining to shoot 5-of-23 from the floor and 0-for-7 from three point range for a total of 15 points, it’s really not hard to see why the Sixers lost Game 6 and only scored 86 points. 

Mother’s Day is Cancelled

It is what it is.

Mother’s Day is cancelled on Sunday and the Sixers will have to go into TD Garden, where they have won twice already this series, and win in Game 7 to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2001. 

After the Game 3 loss at home, you had to know this series was going a full seven games. I thought the Sixers and Celtics series would arrive at Game 7 by Philly losing Game 5 and then winning Game 6 to send the series back to Boston. 

Now, who knows what will happen, but I think it’s safe to say that the Sixers won’t shoot as poorly as they did last night.

Sixers at Celtics: Game 7 Scheduling

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