Embiid scores 33, 76ers beat Celtics to force Game 6

Joel Embiid absorbed the weight of Philadelphia’s season and pushed it back onto Boston. Less than three weeks after an emergency appendectomy in Houston on April 9, Embiid scored 33 points and lifted the 76ers past the Celtics 113-97 in Game 5 on Tuesday night, forcing the series back to Philadelphia.

The game changed in the same way the series changed, one quarter at a time. Embiid scored 13 points in the second quarter, 10 in the third and eight in the fourth, while Tyrese Maxey added 25 points and 10 rebounds to keep Boston from locking entirely onto Philadelphia’s center. Paul George chipped in 16 points and nine rebounds, and the 76ers closed with a 12-0 run to turn a three-point edge into a runaway. Philadelphia outscored Boston 28-11 in the fourth quarter, and the Celtics missed their final 14 shots.

For Boston, the loss was more than a missed chance to close out a No. 7 seed. Jayson Tatum finished with 24 points and 16 rebounds, and Jaylen Brown added 22, but the Celtics could not keep pace once Embiid started punishing the paint and dictating the tempo. What had been a 3-1 series lead entering the night became a road loss that reopened the door for a team that had looked finished after Game 4.

That shift mattered because Philadelphia had been playing with a shrinking margin for error all season. The 76ers missed the playoffs last year after seven straight postseason appearances, then got into this bracket by beating Orlando in the play-in tournament. They also carried the scar of three home losses by 40 points or more during the regular season, the first team in NBA history to do that. Against the No. 2 seed Celtics, the season had already felt like it was hanging by a thread.

Now the thread runs through two more games. Game 6 is set for Thursday night in Philadelphia, and Game 7, if necessary, would return to Boston on Saturday. The 76ers are still trying to win their first playoff series against the Celtics since 1982, after falling to Boston in 1985, 2002, 2012, 2018, 2020 and 2023. For one night, Embiid changed the emotional burden of the matchup, and Boston suddenly has to answer the questions Philadelphia had been carrying.