EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsBOSTON -- It took 44 years, but the Philadelphia 76ers have finally beaten the Boston Celtics in a playoff series.Behind arguably the best playoff performance of Joel Embiid's career, the 76ers claimed a heart-stopping 109-100 victory in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. Philadelphia also became the 14th team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-7 series."It feels good to win," said Embiid, who had 34 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists. "Obviously we got a bigger goal in mind."But finally beating these guys feels pretty good."Before Saturday's win, the 76ers had gone an NBA-record 0-18 when trailing 3-1 in a series. Boston was 32-0 when holding a 3-1 series lead.Philadelphia beat Boston in the playoffs for the first time since 1982, snapping a streak of six consecutive series losses -- the last three of which included Embiid. The two teams have played each other in 23 series total, more than any other matchup in NBA playoff history.Behind Embiid's 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists and Tyrese Maxey's 30 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists -- making them the first teammates in NBA history to each have at least 30-10-5 in a Game 7 -- the 76ers finally broke through against one of their oldest rivals."I just really wanted the ball," Maxey said of his late-game heroics. "Early in the fourth, we went to Joel, and I just felt like it was time for me to step up and make a play."The 76ers will now move on to the Eastern Conference semifinals, where they will get to take on another longtime nemesis, the New York Knicks -- the team that knocked Philadelphia out of its last trip to the playoffs in six games in the first round two years ago. That series will begin Monday.The unexpected twists that defined Game 7 began hours before tip-off, when Jayson Tatum was a surprise inclusion on Boston's injury report due to left knee stiffness."He just came in today with knee discomfort," Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said during his pregame media availability a few minutes after Tatum was officially ruled out. "And we decided, the medical staff and myself, that he would not play."Without Tatum, Mazzulla decided to start Derrick White, Baylor Scheierman, Jaylen Brown, Ron Harper Jr. and Luka Garza, a grouping that had never played together before the biggest game of Boston's season. They were outscored by 7 points to open the game, and Boston was fighting uphill virtually the rest of the way. Mazzulla never went back to the lineup again."Yeah, I mean, I thought there was a couple of things we saw tactically we wanted to test out, you know, obviously give the series a little bit of a different feel and take advantage of the roster that we've had and take advantage of the guys that can impact plays and whatnot," Mazzulla said of his starting lineup decision postgame. "So I thought it was great by the guys, and we came up short."After Philadelphia leapt out to an early 15-point lead in the first quarter, the game kept going back-and-forth in a similar manner. Boston erased that deficit in the second, taking its only lead of the game before the 76ers re-asserted control late in the second quarter and throughout the third.When the 76ers went on a 14-3 run -- including 11 points with Embiid on the bench -- late in the third quarter to see their lead balloon to as much as 84-66, it looked like the game could finally be getting away from Boston.But the Celtics -- in a fitting fashion for both this game, and this rivalry -- stormed back, pulling to within one point on four different occasions in the fourth quarter. Philadelphia's offense completely bogged down for much of the quarter and the Celtics, riding the energy provided by a raucous sellout crowd, looked like they might hand the 76ers their most devastating loss yet.Only they didn't, as after Brown's bucket made it 97-96 Philadelphia with 5:02 remaining, Boston missed 10 consecutive shots. And while Philadelphia missed a few shots during that stretch, too, Maxey made back-to-back layups that officially put the game out of reach."Yeah, it was great," 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. "Obviously they were very timely, and he hadn't turned on the jets much all night ... but then he made a couple, and they were huge."While Philadelphia was able to let out a huge sigh of relief over finally escaping from a series with Boston, the Celtics found themselves still trying to wrap their heads around how quickly their season had come to an end. It was just six days ago that Boston had demolished Philadelphia on its home court in Game 4 of this series, making the 76ers look completely discombobulated in Embiid's return.At that point, hardly anyone was expecting the longstanding history of this rivalry to be turned on its head.Only it was -- up to and including Tatum's sitting out of Game 7. Boston now heads into the summer having failed to advance out of the first round for just the second time in the last decade. They will be hoping that a full offseason for Tatum to recover from his Achilles tear -- the one-year anniversary of which is this week -- plus some offseason additions will be able to have them in championship contention again next year.For their part, though, the Celtics were defiant about their season, and their approach."No feelings of regret whatsoever," said Brown, who led Boston with 33 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks. "Obviously we would have liked to close it out ... but Philadelphia is a good basketball team, and they've gotten better since the regular season."It's the playoffs. We knew it was going to be a fight, and we didn't expect nothing less. Nothing to hang our head over. Got no regrets."
