I can’t believe what I watched on Tuesday night. That was the best Sixers playoff performance in many, many years. Maybe since the magical run to the finals with Allen Iverson more than two decades ago.

Admittedly, I thought they were going to get their doors blown off. I thought they emptied the tank in the game four overtime win and would get totally hammered in game five, take game six, then roll the dice with a game seven. Instead, we got defense, hustle, grit, determination, and elite shot making en route to a fucking BLOWOUT that now puts them up 3-2 in this series and on the doorstep of home court advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Everybody was excellent in this game. Joel Embiid? MVP performance. James Harden? Floor general. Tyrese Maxey? Clutch. Tobias Harris? Assertive. P.J. Tucker? A DAWG. Danuel House? DIALED IN.

If you’re like me, you were probably waiting for the most excruciating fourth quarter of all time. We were waiting for the inevitable Boston run, but it never came. The Sixers took the big lead, answered every punch with a counter left, and forced Celtics fans to boo their own team before exiting the building early.

“These are big games. They really are,” said Doc Rivers at the postgame presser. “The playoffs are hard, winning is hard, and I just thought we played the right way. Guys who went out of the game were shaking the hand of the guy going in. Guys played to exhaustion.”


Holding serve

The non-Embiid minutes to start the fourth quarter went extremely well. The Sixers held serve. They opened the period with an 88-72 lead, rolling a Harden/House/Melton/Niang/Reed lineup. Harris re-entered with four fouls around the 10:45 mark, Maxey hit a killer three to push the lead back to 14, and then Embiid returned at the 9:16 mark with the score at 95-81. Add it up and that’s a -2 overall swing in about three non-Embiid minutes, which you’ll take any day of the week.

This was the key possession in that portion of the game:

Absolutely crucial shot to push the lead back to 14. He made shot after shot, going 6-12 from three and putting up a 30-piece. That was the biggest bucket of the night, in my mind.

WHAT A FUCKING PLAY

Amazing. If this didn’t get a reaction out of you, you have no pulse:

One of Embiid’s best plays ever. That came off his turnover on the offensive end, so not only does he put something on the highlight reel, but he atones immediately for a mistake. There were multiple instances of this on Tuesday night, with guys deciding not to stand around and sulk, but just getting back and making the very next play. No shitty body language, no moping and complaining, just a team that looked unfazed throughout. It was hardly recognizable after the slop we’ve witnessed over the last half-decade.

Pick and roll death

There hasn’t been much to analyze from an Xs and Os perspective in this series. These are two teams that run a lot of pick and roll and iso and look to set up preferred matchups via opponent switches. The Sixers offense really is basic from that standpoint, but this statistic is amazing:

And they were killing Boston in the Harden/Embiid two-man game. Joel just kept finding the return pass around the nail, and he was deadly from mid-range. It was beautiful to watch with Harden dialed in and running a great game. He defined the term “floor general” on Tuesday night.

“I thought James and Maxey both did a great job running pick and rolls,” Rivers said. “And I thought our team understood (that) when we need a bucket, we need to get the ball to Joel, that we need to space, and he makes the plays from there. I thought he did a great job of shooting when he needed to shoot, and passing when he needed to pass.”

Good Tobias shows up

Harris got in foul trouble, but was excellent in the 30 minutes of game time, shooting 7-10 from the field in a 16 point, 11 rebound double-double. He just looked more assertive and active, grabbed a couple of balls off the offensive glass, and got burned a bit on some ticky-tack foul calls. If they can get this Tobias moving forward, they are in great shape.

Danuel House? Danuel House!

Solid minutes for Danuel House! Holy shit!

He played 14 minutes and shot 5-7, hitting a couple of big buckets in the fourth quarter and looking not at all rusty or out of place. House didn’t dick around on the offensive end and sort of slid right into the game naturally, especially in transition. He provided some athleticism on the other end and was a huge positive in this game.

When asked to explain why House got the call, Rivers was honest in his answer:

“Yeah listen, you go with your gut. I can tell you that we talked about it painstakingly (Monday and Tuesday), between guys, who to play. House was not the pick. But I just picked him. I just thought his size, I thought we needed size and athleticism. And that’s something that he has. I also thought he’s the guy who has played with James and most, and he knows how to play with James. So I thought that was important.”

Good call by Doc. Whatever is in his gut is working. Like a good probiotic yogurt in there to balance things out.

Other notes:

  • Credit to De’Anthony Melton. After going ultra-passive on that shot clock violation at the end of the third, he picked Tatum’s pocket and got a fast break on the other end. He was called on in some big moments with Harris in foul trouble.
  • Payton Prichard? Dude didn’t even take a single shot until the game was out of reach. If Joe Mazzulla was looking for some kind of boost there, he didn’t get it.
  • Boston shot worse than 75% from the foul line. Jaylen Brown was 3-8.
  • GREAT timeout from Doc after the Embiid turnover and Celtics three around the 6:45 mark in the fourth. That was a sloppy offensive possession and any modicum of Boston momentum needed to be stuffed. Needed one of the guards to go get the ball instead of leaving Joel stuck near midcourt.
  • Harris didn’t step out of bounds at the end of the game. His heel was above the line.
  • Embiid and Harden were 18-21 from the foul line. That’s 85.7%. Damn good.
  • Boston missed a bunch of decent shots. Just 39.8% from the floor in this game and 31.6% from three.
  • Anna Horford is gonna be beside herself after an 0-7 shooting night from her bro. He hasn’t hit a shot since the shimmy. Shimmy shimmy ya, shimmy yeah, shimmy yay, etc.