The history of the NBA’s most successful franchise turned against itself so that its season ended in dramatic fashion. The Celtics, aspiring to dominate the Eastern Conference, fell in the seventh game against the Sixers 100-109 in their TD Garden fiefdom and are eliminated.
What had almost never happened happened. In a historic rivalry, since the two teams have met 23 times in the playoffs, more than anyone else, it had been 44 years, since 1982, since the Sixers had won a tie against the Celtics. Since then, they had lost six in a row. They are the fourteenth team in history to come back from 3-1 down. Philadelphia had never done it. The 18 times he found himself in that situation he would end up losing. Boston had always resolved its series when it took a 3-1 lead. It had happened to him 32 times.
For the unthinkable to happen, the Celtics had to lose three games in a row, two of them at home. In the fifth they fell 97-113. The tie flew to Philadelphia, where they also crashed in the sixth: 106-93 in a match from which Jayson Tatum limped out. Now without a net, in the seventh, the catastrophe, a 100-109 without its great star. Night for its black history.
The Sixers’ victory was led by Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, the first teammates in NBA history to score 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a seventh game. The center finished with 34+12+6. His work, recently operated on for appendicitis, has been heroic. He is the only player to score 100 points in a playoff series after missing the first three games. Maxey finished with 30+11+7.
Tatum was ruled out 90 minutes before the game due to knee discomfort. After overcoming a ruptured Achilles tendon it was not a matter of forcing. He was missed. Jaylen Brown had 33 points and nine rebounds while Derrick White had 26 points.