This is what the Sixers were supposed to look like. This is who they were supposed to be, from the moment Paul George arrived in the summer of 2024, satchelful of Josh Harris’ cash in hand and visions of greatness dancing in his head.
Which is to say, connected and competitive. Explosive and entertaining. Versatile and voracious.
With the season seemingly lost, they have suddenly found themselves, beating Boston twice to even their best-of-seven first-round playoff series at three games apiece, with
Game 7 scheduled for Saturday night in TD Garden.
Nobody saw this coming. Not after the Celtics clubbed the Sixers last Sunday — yes, it was just five days ago — to go up 3-1 in the series. But the Sixers used a dominant fourth quarter to win Game 5 on the road, and on Thursday stormed to a 23-point lead before prevailing, 106-93.
The offense hummed. The defense was active. The crowd was alive.
Pretty complete night. Except for one thing.
“It really does not matter,” Nick Nurse said.
He noted that in the playoffs, each game is an entity unto itself, that momentum is a myth. Which was his way of saying that none of this means a thing if they don’t finish the job.
“I’m tired of losing to them,” said Joel Embiid, who has seen the Celtics end the Sixers’ season three times in his 10 seasons. “We have a chance to accomplish something special.”
Certainly his return three games ago from an emergency appendectomy has galvanized the team. He poured in 33 points in Game 5, and while he shot poorly Thursday (6-for-18), he “commanded the offense,” in Nurse’s estimation, assembling a 19-point, 10-rebound, eight-assist stat line. (In another lifetime, Brett Brown would have said Embiid “quarterbacked the gym.”)
Meanwhile Tyrese Maxey was slithering his way to 30 points, and George was providing two-way excellence, scoring 23 while jousting defensively with Boston’s two excellent wings, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Kelly Oubre Jr. and VJ Edgecombe scored 14 points apiece, and the Sixers won the rebound battle for the first time in the series. (It’s also possible they had something to do with the C’s dismal 12-for-41 three-point shooting, though it appeared Boston missed a ton of open looks, too.)
Again, this was the blueprint when George, a nine-time All-Star, signed his four-year, $212 million free-agent contract with Philadelphia in 2024. This was Daryl Morey’s fever dream. But ill health has plagued Embiid and George, the major reason the Sixers won just 24 games in 2024-25 and eked out a so-so 45 this season. (Not to be forgotten, either, is the 25-game suspension George served this year for violating the NBA’s anti-drug program.)
Now, George said, they are “super, super close” to becoming the team they hoped to be, way back when — a team on which “no one has to go out there and do it alone,” as he put it.
“I was more than fine coming in, being a third option and allowing those guys (i.e., Maxey and Embiid) to be themselves offensively,” he added. “I told ‘em, ‘I’m gonna get the stops. You guys go out there and go score, and be who you are on the offensive end.’”
So optimistic was George that on Media Day 2024 he declared that the team “should compete for a championship.” Turns out that the only good thing to come out of the season was the opportunity to draft Edgecombe at No. 3 last June.
Even so, the Sixers have seldom had their entire team on the court. Now they do. Now things have “kind of been playing out” the way George envisioned.
“I mean, it’s a joy and a pleasure to watch Tyrese get better, and Joel out there healthy,” he said. “It’s been fun.”
In Game 5 the Sixers repeatedly dumped the ball down low to Embiid in the second half, and he either exploited his mismatch with Boston’s centers or when double-teamed pitched the ball out to open shooters. The Sixers wound up outscoring the Celtics 28-11 in the fourth quarter to win, 113-97.
That put the fans in a giddy mood for Game 6. They cheered loudly when public-address announcer Matt Cord, in what might or might not have been his last game, noted that there were no Sixers injuries to report shortly before tipoff, and cheered even louder when Embiid joined his teammates on the court for warm-ups.
He went right to work, scoring the Sixers’ first five points on a short jumper and a three-point play. Boston nonetheless led after a quarter, 23-20, but Maxey notched 13 of his points in the second quarter and George added 10 of his points in the third, as the Sixers outscored the Celtics 62-40 over those two periods to take command.
In one sparkling sequence early in the third, Embiid and George fired respective behind-the-back passes to Oubre and Edgecombe for dunks, the latter after Oubre denied Brown at the rim to ignite a fast break.
Now the place was really jumping, and at night’s end the fans reprised their “We want Boston” chant, first heard in the play-in game against Orlando and mocked by Boston followers in Game 4.
But again, none of this matters anymore. All that matters is Game 7, and in looking ahead Maxey dipped deep into the cliche handbook.
“Sometimes it’s not about the X’s and O’s,” he said. “It’s about the Jims and Joes.”
Or, at least, the Jos. Among others.
“It’s gonna be a dogfight,” Maxey added. “It’s gonna be extremely difficult, every single second. Gonna be a roller-coaster ride.”
As Oubre said, “I wouldn’t say we’ve gotta be perfect, but we’ve gotta be close to it.”
Really, though, they just need to be themselves. They need to be who they thought they could be, and who they have finally revealed themselves to be. And not a moment too soon, either.
