Joel Embiid ignited a second-half surge, dominating the Boston Celtics' defense with clutch shooting to keep the Philadelphia 76ers' playoff hopes alive.
Joel Embiid's return has given Philadelphia something they have needed in this series: a half-court engine that can carry the offense when games slow down.
In Game 5 on April 28, Embiid scored 33 points with eight assists, and the Sixers beat Boston 113-97 to stay alive in the series. What stood out was the way Embiid dominated the second half and flipped the game when Boston sputtered offensively.
Embiid was not spotless early. He had just two points on 1-6 shooting in the first quarter. However, once Embiid got his rhythm, he was able to dominate. He scored 13 in the second quarter, 10 in the third, and eight in the fourth. Philadelphia used that stretch to take control late. The Sixers entered the fourth down one and then ripped off a 29-11 run to turn the game into a blowout victory.
What made Embiid so difficult to guard all night was the shot-making. Boston had bodies on him all night, but he kept hitting tough looks anyway, finishing the game shooting 12-23 from the field and making contested mid-range and post shots time and time again to keep the Sixers in the game. Others backed up this great performance. Tyrese Maxey finished with 25 points, Paul George had 16, and Quentin Grimes had 18, providing a crucial spark off of the bench.
Boston, meanwhile, showed exactly why its offense can look so explosive one night and fragile the next. The Celtics led 57-50 at halftime and were up 86-86 after three, but they shot only 11-39 from three in the game and went 3-22 from the floor in the fourth quarter. Jayson Tatum finished with 24 points and 16 rebounds, and Jaylen Brown added 22, but the supporting offense never found enough consistency to hold off Philadelphia once Embiid got going.
That volatility has been Boston's playoff warning sign all series. When the threes fall, the Celtics look unstoppable; when they do not, they become vulnerable to long streaks of ice-cold shooting that can cause a game to collapse in a hurry. Now Boston must travel to Philadelphia to try and close out the series in Game 6, while the Sixers are hoping that Embiid can come up big again and force a Game 7.
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Wes Dixon is a contributing writer to 76ersRoundtable. He can be reached at dixonwesley286@gmail.com.