{"id":23825,"date":"2026-05-03T07:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/23825\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T07:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:57:20","slug":"embiid-leads-76ers-past-jayson-tatum-less-celtics-109-100-in-game-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/23825\/","title":{"rendered":"Embiid leads 76ers past Jayson Tatum-less Celtics 109-100 in Game 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON (AP) \u2014 Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals, beating the Jayson Tatum-less<\/a> Boston Celtics 109-100 on Saturday night to complete the NBA\u2019s 14th comeback from a 3-1 deficit.<\/p>\n

Embiid finished with 34 points<\/a>, 12 rebounds and six assists. Tyrese Maxey<\/a> added 30 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. VJ Edgecombe scored 23 points and Paul George had 13. <\/p>\n

Philadelphia, the No. 7 seed, will visit No. 3 New York on Monday night in Game 1 of the second round.<\/p>\n

The Sixers franchise, including its time as Syracuse Nationals, improved to 2-10 in road Game 7s. Its only other win came in 1982 at the Boston Garden. It\u2019s a small measure of revenge after Boston blew out Philadelphia in Game 7 in the second round of the 2023 playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a chance to beat them three years ago, didn\u2019t do it. We came in and got it done,\u201d Maxey said.<\/p>\n

Embiid, who debuted in Game 4<\/a> after recovering from appendectomy surgery, is the first player in NBA history to score 100 points in a playoff series despite missing the first three games. He and Maxey also became the third duo in league history to each have 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a Game 7.<\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown led Boston with 33 points and nine rebounds. Derrick White had 26 points, including five 3-pointers. Neemias Queta finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds. The Celtics struggled from the 3-point line for the third straight game, finishing 13 of 49.<\/p>\n

Brown said Embiid changed tenor of the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe put a lot of pressure on us,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really have the answers for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boston coach Joe Mazzulla shrugged off any notion that his team was too dependent on 3s in the series. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love the looks that we got. I love the process that we had.. But I hate the result,\u201d Mazzulla said. <\/p>\n

The second-seeded Celtics made their earliest exit from the playoffs since the 2020-21 season. Boston fell to 32-1 when leading a series 3-1.<\/p>\n

The Celtics played without Tatum after he was ruled out about 90 minutes before tipoff with left knee stiffness. Brown said he didn\u2019t find out until about 45 minutes before the game. <\/p>\n

\u201cNobody told me anything. But my mindset was the same,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n

Philadelphia led for all but 31 seconds in the game, increasing a five-point halftime edge to 18 points in the third quarter. It was down to 13 at the start of the fourth and Boston opened the period on a 16-4 run to pull within 92-91.<\/p>\n

The 76ers were leading 101-98 when Maxey got free for a layup with 1:15 remaining. Boston missed its next four shots and Philadelphia pushed it to 105-98 on a pair of free throws by Maxey.<\/p>\n

Mazzulla said Tatum came to the team facility Saturday with knee discomfort, and the medical team decided for him not to play. Tatum briefly left Game 6 in the third quarter for unspecified treatment to his left calf. Mazzulla downplayed the significance, saying initially Tatum would play in Game 7. <\/p>\n

With Tatum out, Mazzulla made radical changes to the starting lineup, opting to start Baylor Scheierman, Luka Garza and Ron Harper Jr. alongside Brown and White. <\/p>\n

It was the first time that group started together this season and the Celtics quickly fell into a 9-0 hole. Philadelphia led by 15 in the first quarter and 32-19 when it ended. <\/p>\n

Unlike in their losses in Games 5 and 6, the Celtics weren\u2019t as quick to fire up 3s, instead opting to attack the interior of Philadelphia\u2019s defense to get easier looks.<\/p>\n

Boston started the second on an 18-4 run to take its first lead of the night, 37-36, on a 3-pointer by Payton Pritchard. The 76ers led 55-50 at halftime. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON (AP) \u2014 Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals, beating the Jayson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3041,7009,14620,8,14618,14617,14616,11689,14621,1784,2733,3044,10601,11694,1256,9,2592,11656,14622,1457,2465,7007,14619,1199,5174,7,11660,11657],"class_list":{"0":"post-23825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-derrick-white","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-jaylen-brown","13":"tag-jayson-tatum","14":"tag-joe-mazzulla","15":"tag-joel-embiid","16":"tag-luka-garza","17":"tag-massachusetts","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nba-basketball","20":"tag-nba-playoffs","21":"tag-neemias-queta","22":"tag-new-york","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-pa-state-wire","25":"tag-paul-george","26":"tag-payton-pritchard","27":"tag-pennsylvania","28":"tag-philadelphia","29":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","30":"tag-ron-harper","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-syracuse","33":"tag-top-stories","34":"tag-tyrese-maxey","35":"tag-vj-edgecombe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116509582473551248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}