Despite Joel Embiid’s Return, 76ers Struggle In 32-Point Game 4 Loss

At 6:13 Sunday night, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid walked on the Xfinity Mobile Arena court, stopped by the scorer’s table to put rosin blend powder on his hands, performed the sign of the cross and raised both pointer fingers to the sky. Embiid, who hadn’t played since undergoing an emergency appendectomy on April 9, then went through an 11-minute workout. Five minutes later, the 76ers upgraded Embiid from questionable to available.

Despite Embiid’s return, the 76ers were no match for the Boston Celtics, losing 128-96 on their home floor to fall behind three games to one in the Eastern Conference first round series. It was the second-worst home loss in 76ers’ playoff history, only trailing a 36-point defeat against the Milwaukee Bucks in 1970.

Embiid led the 76ers with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists in just over 34 minutes, but he struggled on defense, as did his teammates. The Celtics shot 24 of 53 on 3-pointers, setting a franchise-record for most 3’s in a playoff game and falling one shy of the NBA record held by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and Milwaukee Bucks in 2023. Ten Boston players had at least one 3 on Sunday.

Boston scored 72 points in the second half on 22 of 40 field goals, including 13 of 25 on 3’s, and 15 of 17 free throws. The Celtics also held a 51-30 rebounding advantage, while the 76ers only made 41.2 % of their shots, including 9 of 30 on 3’s.

The blowout was reminiscent of Game 1 when the Celtics won, 123-91, in Boston and made 50% of their field goals, including 16 of 44 3’s. And it was a surprising and confounding effort after the 76ers played well in a 111-97 victory in Game 2 and a 108-100 loss in Game 3 during which Philadelphia was in it until the final minute.

After Sunday’s game, 76ers coach Nick Nurse interrupted a reporter who asked about the team’s defense, calling it “very, very bad” before trying to explain what went wrong.

“I’m not so sure why,” Nurse said. “It just didn’t seem like any matchup could guard anybody one on one tonight…We had them pushed out and bottled up and physical and really off kind of rhythm (in Games 2 and 3), and there was none of that tonight.”

He added: “I don’t know why we couldn’t block out better or rebound better or move better on defense or whatever. We just seemed a half-step behind energy-wise. Whatever it was, we were a half-step behind on everything. Even the shots, none of them were going in.”

Embiid, who had wrapping around his midsection, scored Philadelphia’s first eight points, but he was inconsistent at times, an understandable situation considering he was coming off surgery and just started workouts a few days ago. During a more than 17-minute stretch from the start of the second quarter through almost midway through the third quarter, Embiid went 0 of 7 from the field. He then scored 10 points in the final 6:51 of the third quarter, but the 76ers still trailed, 95-74, as the Celtics scored 39 points in the third. Embiid made 9 of his 21 shots but missed five of his six 3-pointers.

“I thought he certainly played a lot better offensively in the second half,” Nurse said. “I’ve got to look at the tape a little bit more to see the other end, but the other end wasn’t very good tonight, which is really disappointing. Not just him, I’m just talking about everybody. I thought he had a lot of good looks. A lot of them went in and out, and that certainly wasn’t helping our offense.”

Payton Pritchard led the Celtics with 32 points off the bench, including 18 in the first half when he made 7 of 12 field goals, including 4 of 6 on 3’s. It was Pritchard’s career playoff-high, topping the 23 points he scored against the New York Knicks in Game 3 of their second round series last May. And it was two points shy of Boston’s record for most points scored by a reserve in a playoff game, set by Kevin McHale in May 1991 in an overtime loss to the Detroit Pistons that ended the Celtics’ season.

Jayson Tatum added 30 points for the Celtics, including 25 in the second half, while Jaylen Brown had 20, all in the final three quarters. Meanwhile, the 76ers couldn’t get much going on offense with Embiid back in the lineup. Rookie VJ Edgecombe continued his struggles and had just 6 points on 2 of 9 shooting, while fellow starter Kelly Oubre Jr. had two points and missed all six of his shots. Edgecombe had 30 points in the Game 2 victory, but he has made just 13 of his 42 field goals in the other three games, including going 0 for 16 on 3’s.

Tyrese Maxey, who led the 76ers and ranked fifth in the league in scoring in the regular season with 28.3 points per game, had 22 points, but he only had three field goals in the first half. At halftime, teammate Paul George (16 points) told Maxey to get more involved in the offense, which he did in the second half, but it was too late as the Celtics were already well on their way to victory.

“That can’t happen,” Maxey said of shooting three times in the first half. “That’s on me. That absolutely can’t happen. That’s unacceptable by me. I was playing within the flow of the game. It kind of happened that way. It wasn’t Nick (Nurse)…We can’t win basketball games with that happening.”

With Game 5 Tuesday night in Boston, the 76ers now face a difficult task. Of the 298 teams that have trailed three games to one in an NBA best-of-seven playoff series, only 13 (4.4%) have won the series. The 2020 Denver Nuggets were the last team to achieve that feat, coming back from deficits in the Western Conference first round and semifinals. The 76ers have never won a series after losing three of the first four games in a series.

Several times in the final minutes Sunday night as thousands of Philadelphia fans left early, the Celtics fans stayed around and chanted “We Want Boston!,” mocking the 76ers supporters who screamed the same mantra after Philadelphia defeated the Orlando Magic in the play-in game earlier this month. It was another lowlight for a 76ers franchise that hasn’t defeated the Celtics in the playoffs since 1982 and hasn’t made the Eastern Conference finals in 25 years. Still, Nurse insisted all hope was not lost.

“Listen, our kind of MO all year is to have a lot of things thrown at us and pick ourselves up and fight back,” Nurse said. “We just have to do it again.”