Celtics, 76ers meet in Game 7 after Philadelphia forces comeback showdown in Boston

Boston entered Game 7 with the heaviest burden in the building. The Celtics had led this East playoff series 3-1, then watched Philadelphia win Games 5 and 6 to turn a near-closedout matchup into a winner-take-all night in Boston, with a trip to face the New York Knicks in the conference semifinals on the line.

This was the 23rd playoff series between the Celtics and 76ers and the ninth time the rivalry reached Game 7, a reminder that the sport’s oldest powers still carry the highest expectations. For Boston, the pressure was about more than survival. It was about what a collapse from 3-1 would say about a team built to chase a title. For Philadelphia, it was about breaking a long postseason drought against its most familiar tormentor and forcing the conversation away from failure and toward legacy.

The matchup tilted sharply after Jayson Tatum was ruled out with left knee stiffness and soreness. Boston had leaned heavily on Tatum’s ball-screen actions against Joel Embiid when he was available, and the Celtics’ attack had already shown how dependent it was on shot making from deep. In their three wins, Boston scored 28 more points per 100 possessions than in its three losses, with the wins coming on better than 36% shooting from 3-point range and the defeats all falling below 30% from long distance. Without Tatum, that margin for error narrowed even further.

Philadelphia arrived with momentum and a star center who had already changed the series. Embiid scored 33 points in Game 5 to keep the season alive, then followed with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists in Game 6 as the 76ers won 106-93 to force Game 7. Tyrese Maxey supplied the late-series surge, averaging 25.7 points on 65.4% true shooting over the final three games after opening the series with 27 points per game through the first three. Philadelphia had gone 15-3 when Maxey scored at least 30 points on true shooting of 60 or better.

The stakes cut differently for each franchise. Boston had more to lose because it had controlled the series and then let it slip away. Philadelphia had a chance to do something it had not done since 1982, when the 76ers beat the Celtics 120-106 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals at Boston Garden. Forty-four years later, the numbers said the same thing: one team was trying to protect a window, and the other was trying to kick one open.