Joel Embiid's monumental return transformed the series, igniting a historic comeback. Discover how his singular presence derailed the Boston Celtics dominance.
Joe Mazzulla’s postgame line said plenty about how this series turned.
“What changed in the series was Joel Embiid came back," Mazzulla said.
It was a simple answer, but it was able to describe what Embiid means to the Philadelphia 76ers. Once Embiid returned, Philadelphia stopped looking like a team surviving on guard play and started looking like a team with a real half-court focal point.
That shift was obvious in the numbers.
In Game 4, Embiid returned from an appendectomy and gave the Sixers 26 points and 10 rebounds, then followed it with 33 points and eight assists in Game 5; 19 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists in Game 6; and 34 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists in Game 7.
Philadelphia won three of those four games after falling behind 3-1, completing the franchise’s first-ever comeback from that deficit, and beating the Celtics in a series for the first time since 1982.
Embiid’s presence changed how the Sixers could play. With him on the floor, the offense slowed down, became more deliberate, and gained a real identity. Boston could no longer just run Philly off the line and load up on Tyrese Maxey; Embiid’s gravity forced doubles, opened up kick-outs, and created cleaner possessions.
This proved to be their key to victory, as Boston struggled to contend with both Embiid grilling them in the mid and low-post areas and Maxey blowing by any defender Boston put in front of them.
This also says something bigger about Embiid himself. For all the injuries, setbacks, and missed time, he still looked like the same elite force when it mattered most. He returned only 17 days after an emergency appendectomy, and yet he still controlled a Game 5 win and helped push the series to a Game 7 upset.
That is why this comeback matters. Embiid has once again proven that even with his injury history, he is one of the most dominant centers the NBA has ever seen; without him, it is almost certain that Philadelphia would have been eliminated by Boston.
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Wes Dixon is a contributing writer to 76ersRoundtable. He can be reached at dixonwesley286@gmail.com.