Before tonight the Celtics had won 6 straight playoff series against Philadelphia and handed them gut-punch exits. Tonight the Sixers walked into TD Garden, stared down a Game 7, and sent Boston home with a 109–100 win that felt like an exorcism as much as an upset. For a franchise that had never before climbed out of a 3–1 hole and had repeatedly watched its seasons die at the hands of the Celtics, this wasn’t just another playoff win; it was a narrative rewrite.
From the opening tip, you could tell the Sixers weren’t interested in feeling things out. They punched first, racing out to a 32–19 lead in the first quarter that immediately took the crowd out of its usual we’ve got this swagger. Boston did what good teams do and responded with an 18–4 run in the second, briefly grabbing the lead and making it feel like they were on their way to the same old script Philly hot start. Instead, the Sixers settled, went into halftime up 55–50, and never really surrendered control again, no matter how tight it got.
Joel Embiid picked a hell of a time to play what might be the best playoff game of his career, putting up 34 points, 12 boards and six assists while constantly navigating double teams and still anchoring the defense. This wasn’t the version of Embiid we’ve seen in past Game 7s, fading into contested jumpers and letting frustration set in. This was a guy who decided the story about him and Boston was changing right now.
But if Embiid was the anchor, Tyrese Maxey was the adrenaline shot. 30 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, efficient shooting, and those back-to-back late layups that finally broke Boston made one last push. But this was the kind of performance that flips the nice young guard label into legit playoff closer. The wild part is Maxey and Embiid became the first teammates ever to each drop at least 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists in a Game 7, which is the kind of stat you’d expect to see attached to peak LeBron-and-somebody or a Warriors duo, not a franchise that’s been well-known for second-round exits.
You could feel the weight of history in the building, and not just because it was Sixers-Celtics again. Before last night, Philly was 0–18 all-time when trailing 3–1 in a series, literally the worst such mark in NBA history. Boston? A ridiculous 32–0 when they held a 3–1 lead, the ultimate we don’t blow this franchise. That’s why the whole comeback — from dead in the water after getting blasted in Game 4 to storming all the way back and finishing the job on the road — feels like more than numbers. It’s as simple as something shifted in a rivalry that’s been absurdly one-sided for 40-plus years.
Of course, this wasn’t Boston at full strength. Jayson Tatum was out with a knee issue, leaving Jaylen Brown to carry a massive offensive load, and to his credit, he did everything he could with 33 points and nine boards. Derrick White added 26 and tried to keep the Celtics’ offense afloat from deep, but when your team goes 13-for-49 from three in a Game 7, there’s only so much two guys can do.
That stretch in the fourth where it felt like the TD Garden was about to explode and the Sixers were hanging on by a thread? Boston cut it to one multiple times, and after Brown sliced it to 97–96 with just over five minutes left, you could feel every Sixers fan go, Here we go again. Then Boston missed ten straight shots, the offense completely stalled, and Maxey stepped in with those two massive drives that pushed the lead back out and basically told everyone, Nope, not this time.
There were quieter heroes too. The Sixers won the rebounding battle over the series and leaned into that physical edge again, punishing Boston on the glass and in the paint while the Celtics kept firing away from deep. Neemias Queta chipped in 17 points and 12 boards for Boston, which tells you how much they were scrambling for interior offense without Tatum’s usual shot creation. For Philly, those little hustle plays — extra possessions, tough defensive stands during that late Boston drought — added up to something bigger than their usual star-centric but brittle identity.
Zooming out, beating the Celtics in a series for the first time since 1982 is a huge psychological hurdle cleared. Six straight playoff series had gone Boston’s way since then, including multiple heartbreaks with Embiid on the floor, and you could hear it in his postgame comments: this wasn’t just moving on to the next round, it was getting free of a very specific ghost. Add in the fact that this was only the second Game 7 win in Sixers playoff history — the last one also coming in Boston back in 1982 — and the symmetry is almost too neat.
Here’s the thing, folks: Now, instead of another round of blow it up, what do you do around Embiid, is this core capped out, the Sixers are walking into an Eastern Conference semifinal against the Knicks with momentum and a suddenly different narrative. They didn’t just survive. Nope, they became the 14th team ever to erase a 3–1 deficit and did it against one of the league’s flagship teams, on their floor, in a rivalry that has haunted them for generations.
With that… It was just one first-round series on paper. But for the Sixers, for Embiid, and for anyone who has watched this matchup tilt green for basically their entire life, last night was something more. It was the night the script finally broke, the curse finally cracked, and the team in red, white, and blue walked out of TD Garden as the ones who got to say, We did it to them this time.
If you cannot play with them, then root for them!