We’re Back: Sixers architect Sam Hinkie checks in after historic playoff comeback

They did it, the Sixers actually did it. With their backs against the wall, Joel Embiid and company completed the 3-1 comeback over Boston Saturday night, marking the first 3-1 comeback in 76ers history and the first playoff win over Boston since 1982.

I don’t care if it was just the first series of the postseason. This was bigger than basketball.

The Sixers have never been so back

JOEL EMBIID. #TrustTheProcess pic.twitter.com/sFXL9bVPp8

— The Liberty Line (@LibertyLinePHL) May 3, 2026

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Nothing spoke to the weight of the moment more than this.

The architect behind The Process, Sam Hinkie, tapped in after the win.

pic.twitter.com/KLYKxu2mZx

— Sam Hinkie (@samhinkie) May 3, 2026

This was not just a good win. This was a franchise exorcism.

The Sixers beat the Celtics 109-100 and finished off a 3-1 series comeback that this franchise had never pulled off before. Ever. Not in the Iverson era. Not in the Barkley era. Not in any of the fake hope years where we all convinced ourselves the vibes were different. This was the first time the Sixers ever won a series after trailing 3-1.

And of course, they did it against Boston.

Before this series flipped, the Sixers had basically treated playoff games in Boston like a haunted house. They had won three postseason games there since 1983. Three. In 44 years. Then this team went up there and won three in 12 days like TD Garden was just another gym.

That is insane.

They won Game 5 in Boston. They won Game 7 in Boston. And now the Celtics get to live with the fact that they became the first Celtics team ever to blow a 3-1 series lead. That is real history. Hang the banner.

Joel Embiid was the center of it all. The man had an appendectomy a few weeks ago and still gave the Sixers 112 points, 48 rebounds, 29 assists, and 7 blocks in the four games he played. That is not normal. That is barely human. That is the type of stat line you make up in 2K when you turn fatigue off.

Embiid became the first Sixer since Wilt Chamberlain to put together that kind of four-game postseason stretch. That is usually the point where the conversation ends. If your name is getting dragged into a sentence with Wilt, you probably did something ridiculous.

He was not alone either.

Tyrese Maxey was out there playing like a man who knows Boston fans hate joy. Back-to-back 30-point, 5-assist playoff games against the Celtics. No Sixer had ever done that before. And the list of guys who have done that in Boston in the playoffs is basically basketball royalty. LeBron. Giannis. Kareem. Jerry West. Oscar Robertson.

Now add Maxey to it.

That is the leap. That is the star turn. That is the kind of performance that changes how people talk about you.

And then there was V.J. Edgecombe, who somehow picked Game 7 in Boston to remind everybody he is not just along for the ride. The rookie dropped 23 points, the most ever by a Sixers rookie in a Game 7. He also became the youngest player ever to score that many in a Game 7 against the Celtics.

A rookie doing that in Boston, in that spot, is absurd. Most rookies look like they need a juice box in a Game 7. Edgecombe looked like he belonged in the middle of the chaos.

But the real story was the defense. That is where the series turned.

The Sixers held Boston under 42 percent from the field in each of the final three games. They also held them under 30 percent from three in all three of those games. For a Celtics team built on shot-making, spacing, and torturing teams from deep, that is a full system failure.

Boston did not just miss shots. The Sixers made them uncomfortable. They sped them up. They took away clean looks. They forced them into ugly possessions. By the end of the series, the Celtics looked like they were waiting for someone else to save them.

Nobody did.

That is what makes this whole thing so ridiculous. The Sixers lost Game 1 by 32. Then they lost Game 4 by 32. Normally, that means the series is over and everybody spends the offseason arguing about trades, coaches, and whether the franchise is cursed.

Instead, they became the first team in NBA history to win a playoff series after losing two games by at least 32 points.

That is disgusting. That is beautiful. That is Sixers basketball in the most deranged way possible.

They got embarrassed twice. They looked dead. They were down 3-1. They had to win in Boston over and over again. And somehow, they did all of it.

Now they move on. The Knicks are waiting in Round 2. But before getting there, this one deserves a second to breathe.

The Sixers did not just win a series.

They beat Boston in Game 7. They erased a 3-1 deficit. They buried decades of playoff misery in the same building that created so much of it.

For once, the collapse belonged to somebody else.