Payton Pritchard’s 32 points led the Boston Celtics to a dominant 128-96 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night despite Joel Embiid’s return from an appendectomy.
The win gives the Celtics a commanding 3-1 lead as the series heads back to Boston for Game 5, when the C’s will have a chance to clinch an Eastern Conference Semifinals berth.
Boston had a clean bill of health for Game 4 and started Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Sam Hauser, Jayson Tatum and Neemias Queta.
On the other side, Joel Embiid
returned to the court for the first time since April 6 and Kelly Oubre Jr., who was listed as questionable with right adductor soreness, suited up, too. They both started the game alongside Maxey, V.J. Edgecombe and Paul George.
At the start, the game was all about the centers. Neemias Queta scored the Celtics’ first 5 points on a couple dunks and a 1 of 2 trip to the free throw line. When Nikola Vučević subbed in early for him about 3 minutes into the game, Vooch scored Boston’s next 4 points.
At the same time, Embiid looked like he always does. He immediately drew a couple fouls and hit all four free throws during his first 7-minute stretch on the court. He had 8 out of the Sixers’ 10 points when he sat, as the Celtics were up by 1.
While the centers were going off, the game was clunky and nobody else could hit anything. Maxey didn’t even have a shot attempt until there were about 3 minutes left in the first quarter.
George hit a three-pointer to put the Sixers up 13-12, but Payton Pritchard immediately answered it with a 3 of his own, then hit another after Andre Drummond (finally!) missed a corner attempt.
Late in the first quarter, the bench went on an 8-0 run of its own. Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh kept a play alive with 3 offensive rebounds off of missed shots and each hit a three-pointer. By the end of the quarter, the C’s bench had 24 points — more than the Sixers’ total 18.
Part of that bench scoring total was a ridiculous running three-pointer from Pritchard to beat the buzzer and put Boston up 34-18.
Jaylen Brown started the second quarter clearly trying to get more involved and, despite missing a pair of free throws early, he hit a corner 3 for his first made shot of the game.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t long before it was the Pritchard show again. He hit his fourth three-pointer a few minutes into the quarter, then drove into Adem Bona for a midrange score to get to 18 points — 13 more than any other Celtic at that point.
After Hauser hit a three-pointer of his own, the Celtics were up 45-24 and Xfinity Mobile Arena started getting quiet. While the Sixers started hitting shots and built up some momentum, a Luka Garza three-pointer and a Brown step back 3 over George helped maintain a solid lead.
By the end of the half, Boston was up 56-38, with Pritchard’s 18 points leading the way. No other Celtic finished with double-digit points, with Brown coming closest with 8.
Both Jays struggled shooting in the first half, with Tatum only hitting 1 of 8 shots and Brown going 3 of 9 from the field. The starters as a whole only had 24 of Boston’s 56 points.
On the other side of the court, Embiid led the Sixers with 12 points, but nobody else had more than 7 — Maxey, on only 3 field goal attempts — and the team looked far less potent than they were over the first three games of the series.
As the second half began with Pritchard on the bench, the Jays got a chance to build some rhythm and both capitalized, as Brown and Tatum quickly scored 7 and 6, respectively.
While the Sixers made an effort to get Maxey more involved — an effort that resulted in a three-point make on Philly’s first possession of the third quarter — the Celtics did a good job of making his life difficult. When Maxey got a breakaway in transition, White turned on the boosters and blocked him from behind to erase an easy basket.
The rest of the Sixers offense struggled to start the half as well, especially Edgecombe, who seemed to have lost all the confidence he displayed in Game 2 after starting the night shooting 1 of 7 from the field.
With about 7 minutes to go in the third quarter, the Celtics were up by 24 points, 71-47. The Sixers started hitting some shots, but could not get stops, so the lead hovered around 20 points for the rest of the quarter.
By the end of the quarter, Brown and Tatum had 18 and 20 points, respectively, but the Pritchard show wasn’t over. He hit two more three-pointers, a tough fadeaway, a pair of late buckets and a couple free throws to finish the third with 32 points — 10 more than anyone else in the game.
By the time the fourth quarter began, the Celtics were up by 21 points and the game was all but over. Then, less than 2 minutes in, a Tatum 4-point play extended the lead to 30 and put it even further out of reach.
Another Tatum three-pointer all but sealed the deal with about 6 minutes left to go, and less than a minute later the Sixers called it quits and emptied the bench.
Pritchard, Boston’s undisputed MVP of the night, finished with 32 points on 57.1% shooting from the field, 6 three-pointers, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and a steal.
Tatum finished with 30 points on 50% shooting, 7 rebounds and 11 assists. Notably, after shooting 1 of 8 from the field in the first half, he shot 7 of 8 in the second half.
Brown finished with 20 points on 40% shooting, 7 rebounds and a pair of stocks.
In his return, Embiid played 34 minutes and racked up 26 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. His playoff record against the Celtics is now 3-13.
Maxey and George put up 22 and 16 points, respectively. Edgecombe finished with only 6 points on 22.2% shooting.
Overall, the Celtics shot 48.3% from the field and 45.3% from three-point range, with 24 three-point makes, while the Sixers shot 41.3% from the field and 30% on threes.
The C’s won the rebounding battle, 51-30, and put up more shots than Philadelphia, 87-80, but finished the game with more turnovers, 12-8.
Game 5 will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, at TD Garden in Boston. It will be broadcast on ESPN.
