TTP: Joel Embiid, Sixers comeback from 3-1 series deficit to beat the Celtics in Game 7
The Sixers beat the Celtics 109-100 in Game 7 at TD Garden on Saturday night and advanced to the second round. A 3-1 comeback against the two seed in Boston. It marked only the 14th team in NBA history to pull that off and it was the first playoff series win for the Sixers over the Celtics in 44 years.
Sixers Make History
The Boston Celtics blew a 3-1 series lead to a seven seed missing its best player for the first three games. Let that marinate. The mighty Celtics, the team that every national media member had penciled into the conference finals before the playoffs even started, blew a 3-1 lead to the Philadelphia 76ers.
That actually happened. In real life. On national television.
Every person who wrote this team off after Game 1 can shut up. Every talking head who said the series was over after Game 4 can shut up. Every Celtics fan who flooded my Instagram comments laughing and trolling after the Sixers lost by 32 at home can absolutely shut up. 3-1 lead. Blown. You had us dead and buried and you couldn’t finish the job. That’s on you. That’s your franchise. That’s your legacy now.
The prophecy has been fulfilled.
Tatum Sat Out and the Sixers Still Had to Earn It
Jayson Tatum missed Game 7 with left knee stiffness. I know the Celtics fans are going to cling to that for the rest of their lives. I don’t care. The Sixers played Games 1, 2, and 3 without Joel Embiid, who was recovering from literal surgery, and nobody in Boston gave us an asterisk for those games.
Nobody said “well the Sixers didn’t have Embiid so the wins don’t really count.” They celebrated those blowout victories like they’d won the championship. Now Tatum misses one game and suddenly the entire series has a footnote? Miss me with that.
The Sixers still had to go into TD Garden and beat Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and a building full of 19,000 people who wanted to watch them fail. Nobody handed them anything.
Mazzulla overhauled his starting lineup with Harper Jr., Scheierman, and Garza, hoping the unfamiliarity would throw the Sixers off. It didn’t. Embiid scored on the first play of the game with a short-roll jumper from the right elbow.
George slammed one home on White. Edgecombe hit a catch-and-shoot three to put the Sixers up 9-0 before Boston even scored. The Celtics were scoreless until the 8:57 mark of the first quarter. The tone was set immediately and the Sixers never looked back.
The Celtics Made Their Run Because They Always Do
Boston cut the lead to one in the second quarter during the Embiid-less minutes. Drummond was a massive downgrade on both ends. White and Pritchard started hitting threes and the crowd found its voice. The lead evaporated at 37-36 Celtics.
This is the part where previous Sixers teams would have folded. This is the part where the Process dies and the doubters get to say “I told you so” for another summer. Instead, George hit a clutch three late in the second quarter while playing through an illness on his 36th birthday. The man hadn’t slept all night, had a sore throat, and still competed for 42 minutes because he refused to let this team lose. Then Embiid denied a Brown dunk attempt at the rim. Then Maxey hit a mid-range jumper with 6.9 seconds left to send the Sixers into halftime up 55-50.
That sequence right there is why every take about this team lacking heart and toughness has always been garbage. Sick Paul George hitting a three. Embiid rejecting Brown at the rim. Maxey closing the half. That’s a team that decided it was not going home.
The Fourth Quarter Nearly Killed Me but Embiid Killed Boston Instead
The Celtics cut it all the way to 92-91. Thirteen points evaporated in minutes. The building was deafening. Every Celtics fan in TD Garden was standing, screaming, believing the comeback was theirs.
Then Joel Embiid, three weeks removed from having an organ removed from his body, pulled up for a pick-and-pop three with the lead down to one point and drained it. Then he waved his arms at 19,000 Boston fans and told every single one of them to shut up.
That is the moment. That is the image. That is the legacy play. Every person who has ever called Embiid soft, who has ever said he doesn’t show up in big moments, who has ever questioned whether he has the heart to lead a team in the playoffs, needs to watch that clip on a loop until it burns into their brain. Down to a one-point lead. Game 7. On the road. Three weeks after surgery. He pulled up from three, buried it, and told the entire arena to be quiet.
That’s my MVP. That’s my franchise player. Blood oath until the day I die.
Brown had a clean look at a go-ahead three with three minutes left and missed. Pritchard was off on a corner jumper. The Sixers survived the drought. Then Maxey drove to the basket twice in the final minutes and finished both layups on pure fumes and adrenaline. Back-to-back driving finishes that sealed the game, the series, and 44 years of Celtics dominance over this franchise.
The Embiid Haters Have Nowhere Left to Hide
I’ve been saying it for years. I’ve been saying it through the injuries, through the early exits, through the 24-win season, through the surgery, through every single “Joel Embiid is the problem” take that has poisoned basketball discourse for the better part of a decade. Joel Embiid is a generational talent and the single most important player this franchise has had since Allen Iverson.
Thirty-four points, 12 rebounds, six assists in Game 7. Twenty-eight assists and eight turnovers over his four games in the series. Patient in the post. Precise with his passing. Dominant against every big man Boston threw at him. He posted up Garza. He posted up Vucevic. He posted up Brown when Mazzulla went small. None of them had an answer.
Joel Embiid: 34 PTS | 12 REB | 6 AST
The narrative that Embiid can’t perform in the playoffs is officially retired. Bury it. Delete the tweets. Burn the articles. The man just led a 3-1 comeback against the Celtics in Boston while playing on a body that had surgery three weeks ago.
There is nothing left to say. The haters lost. The Process won.
Tyrese Maxey. The Closer.
Thirty points, 11 rebounds, seven assists. The two biggest layups of his life in the final minutes when the offense had gone cold and someone needed to just go get a bucket. When the game was hanging by a thread and every player on the floor was exhausted,
Maxey put the ball on the floor and drove to the rim twice because he’s built for these moments. That’s the guy you pay max money for. That’s the guy you build around alongside Embiid. That’s the future of this franchise finishing a Game 7 on the road with ice in his veins.
Edgecombe Is a Star and Everyone Knows It Now
Twenty-three points from the 20-year-old rookie in a Game 7 on the road. He hit threes, blew up plays defensively, ran the floor in transition, and played with the confidence of a ten-year veteran.
A superstar was born in this series. The rest of the league is now on notice. VJ Edgecombe is not a project. He’s not a future piece. He’s here right now and he’s already one of the most impactful young players in basketball.
George Played Sick on His Birthday Because That’s What Winners Do
Paul George hadn’t slept the night before. Sore throat. Playing through illness on his 36th birthday. Thirteen points in 42 minutes with a clutch three when the lead was down to one.
The man showed up because that’s what you do when your team needs you. No excuses. No sitting out. No load management. He competed for 42 minutes while his body was fighting him the entire way.
The Knicks Are Next
The seventh-seeded Sixers advance to play the third-seeded Knicks in the second round. Game 1 is Monday at 8 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden. New York is going to be a different challenge. The Knicks are physical, and Madison Square Garden in the playoffs is one of the toughest environments in basketball.
But the Sixers just came back from 3-1 against Boston. They won three straight elimination games. They have Embiid playing the best basketball of the postseason, Maxey locked in as a closer, and a rookie in Edgecombe who doesn’t know what pressure feels like because he’s never experienced a moment too big for him.
I’m not guaranteeing anything because this team has taught me that guarantees are stupid but I’m not betting against them anymore.
The Celtics blew a 3-1 lead. The 44-year drought against Boston is dead. Joel Embiid waved off TD Garden and hit a three in their faces. The haters are quiet this morning. My comments section is crickets from every Boston fan who was talking shit two weeks ago.
Funny how that works. The Process lives. On to New York.
Join The Chase
Read More
Miami Heat accidentally post ‘LeBron James Introductory Press Conference’ livestream to YouTube for July 27th before quickly deleting it
The Miami Heat have been one of the top teams…
Rich Paul called “Trust the Process” a negative thing and he’s kind of right and kind of wrong
Rich Paul went on “Game Over” with Max Kellerman and…
Rich Paul just told everyone to shut up and that’s actually good news for the Sixers
Rich Paul went on his podcast Monday night and confirmed…
Comments (0)