If you haven’t been watching the NBA Playoffs, you have missed some good ass games from this Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers series. If anything, this was the most entertaining matchup in the postseason thus far, with both teams playing physical, taunting each other and having a young core that will be a forced to reckon with for years to come.
In a must-win game for the Sixers, Joel Embiid put The Process on his back and tried to will the game to victory, but came up short.
It was Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier who came through for the Celtics tonight, who scored 25, 24 and 17 points respectively. Al Horford also dropped 15 and snatched 8 rebounds and Marcus Smart provided a spark off the bench on both sides of the floor, finishing the game with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists.
Embiid had 27 points and 12 rebounds on the game, while Dario Saric had a monster game with 27 points and 10 rebounds, but The Process ended the season today at the hands of Boston at TD Garden. Ben Simmons finished the game with 18 points, 6 assists and 8 rebounds.
Philadelphia had its opportunities to take the lead down the stretch but squandered some with open an open layup missed by Embiid. JJ Redick made it a one point game with a late 3-pointer, forcing Boston to make their free throws to extend the game. Smart missed his first free throw and tried to miss the second, yet it went in.
With no timeouts remaining, Simmons lobbed the ball across court and it was picked off by Smart to end the game.
The Celtics will now face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second year in a row, interestingly, without Kyrie Irving playing for his old team. Can the young core of Boston continue playing their game and slow down LeBron James to do the unthinkable?
“Nobody expected us to get this far”
“We don’t back down from anybody”
“We have a bright future”
We can’t wait to watch and find out.