The Celtics will look to close out the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night and punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
After failing to do the job on Tuesday night, the Boston Celtics are looking to wrap up their first round series with the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night in Philadelphia.
The Celtics lead the series 3-2 and have beaten the 76ers in Philadelphia twice already in this series, so there should be plenty of confidence, but the group still needs to go out and execute better than it did in a disappointing Game 5 defeat.
While Jayson Tatum (24 points) and Jaylen Brown (22) had solid offensive nights, the Celtics generally struggled offensively. Payton Pritchard scored 12, down from a game-high 32 in Game 4, and no other player scored in double figures for Boston.
The Celtics shot just 28 percent from three-point range.
Game 6 will be played at 8 p.m. ET and will air on NBC Sports Network and Peacock.
Tatum did move up historic list in Game 5
With his 24-point performance, Tatum surpassed his idol, Kobe Bryant on an impressive list in basketball history.
Tatum now has 3,059 points in his playoff career, which is second to only LeBron James before turning 29 years old. Bryant had 3,053. Tatum just turned 28 in March.
Bryant went to the NBA straight out of high school, meaning that he had essentially one extra year to accumulate playoff stats, making Tatum's accomplishment all the more impressive. He played one year at Duke while James also went to the NBA straight out of high school.
Tatum has been to the playoffs in each year of his nine-year career and has played in 126 career playoff games entering Thursday. He's started every one of them and has averaged 24.3 ppg along with 8.3 rebounds.
Tatum has been a part of two Celtics teams that went to the NBA Finals (2021-22 and 2023-24), winning in '23-24.
More about Tatum
The former No. 3 overall pick in the NBA Draft, Tatum is a six-time All-Star, a five-time All-NBA selection and a former All-Star Game MVP. He also won MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021-22 and was a member of 2024 Team USA gold medal winning Olympic team.
He's averaged 23.5 ppg for his career to go along 7.4 rebounds. In just 16 games this season because of his recovery from a torn Achilles, he averaged 21.8 ppg but also secured 10 rebounds.
Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) drives the ball against Philadelphia 76ers guard Vj Edgecombe (77) in the second half during game five of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. David Butler II-Imagn ImagesWe'll have full coverage of Game 6 after it concludes right here at Celtics Roundtable.
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