76ers complete comeback, beat Celtics 109-100 in Game 7 on the road
- Philadelphia beat Boston 109-100 in Game 7 at TD Garden on Saturday, erasing a 3-1 series hole and knocking out the defending champs. - Joel Embiid scored 31 points as Boston played without Jayson Tatum, who was ruled out before tipoff with left knee stiffness. - The win sends Philadelphia to New York for a Monday semifinal opener — and ends an 0-18 history when trailing 3-1.
The NBA part is simple — Philadelphia went into Boston, won Game 7, and turned a dead-looking series into a second-round trip. The bigger part is what kind of win this was. The 76ers were down 3-1, had never come back from that deficit, and had to finish the job on the road against the defending champions. Then they did it anyway, 109-100, on Saturday night. (apnews.com) ### What actually happened in Game 7? The 76ers beat the Celtics 109-100 at TD Garden and took the series 4-3. They didn’t steal it with some last-second miracle, either — they led for almost the entire night and kept Boston chasing. That matters, because Game 7 wins on the road usually feel chaotic. This one felt controlled for long stretches. (nba.com) ### Why does the comeback matter so much? Because 3-1 comebacks are still rare, and for Philadelphia this was a very specific kind of baggage. The Sixers had been 0-18 in franchise history in series where they trailed 3-1 before this one. League-wide, this became the 14th successful comeback from 3-1 down. So (nba.com) patterns. (nba.com) ### Who carried Philadelphia? Joel Embiid was the center of it. He finished with 31 points in the AP game story, and the whole game bent around him — scoring inside, forcing help, and giving Philadelphia a half-court answer whenever Boston threatened to make a run. The broader point is that Philly finally got the kind of stabilizing Embiid game that closes a series instead of extending one. (apnews.com) ### What changed for Boston? Jayson Tatum didn’t play. Boston ruled him out about 90 minutes before tipoff with left knee stiffness after he had already missed the end of Game 6. That completely changed the shape of the game. Boston lost its primary scorer, its main bailout option late in possessions, and a huge chunk of its normal rotation gravity all at once. (msn.com) ### Does that make the result fluky? Not really — but it does change how you read it. Boston missing Tatum is obviously massive, and a healthy Celtics team is a different problem. But Philadelphia still had to win an elimination game in Boston, still had to handle(msn.com)ext matters. So does execution. Both can be true. (apnews.com) ### What happens next? Philadelphia gets almost no time to celebrate. The official bracket has the 76ers facing the Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals, with Game 1 set for Monday, May 4, in New York. ESPN’s bracket and other playoff schedules show the same quick turnaround, which is the catch here — emotional highs are nice, but recovery windows win rounds too. (nba.com) ### Why is the Knicks matchup interesting? Because this win changed the East bracket in a real way. Instead of Boston moving on as the higher seed, New York gets a Philadelphia team coming off three straight elimination-game wins. That can mean momentum — or fatigue. Basically, the Sixers bought themselves a bigger stage, but they also bought it the hard way. (sports.yahoo.com) ### Bottom line? Philadelphia didn’t just win a Game 7. The Sixers wiped out a 3-1 deficit, did it on the road, and finally broke a franchise pattern that had followed them for years. Now the story shifts fast — from comeback to whether they have enough left for New York. (apnews.com)
