By DJ Harding –
The Boston Celtics faced the Philadelphia 76ers for Game 5 of their best of seven game series.
Boston would be the home team having home court advantage on their side seems to be in a great position. As 82% of teams that have won game five in a 2-2 series would go on to win the series.
Joel Embiid the current MVP has a rough history against Boston going 2-10 against them in postseason history winning game 4 and his last win coming all the way back in 2018.
Embiid would have 33 points and 7 rebounds in what was a 115-103 win over the Celtics.
The 76ers would take a 13-10 lead in the first five minutes of the opening quarter and wouldn’t look back, keeping the Celtics out of reach the entire night.
Tyreese Maxey would give Embiid support in the win scoring 30 points and grabbing 7 rebounds of his own.
For Boston Jayson Tatum would have another slow start after scoring only 2 points in the first half of game four, Tatum would start 0-6 in this game as Boston would fall behind early.
Tatum who was fourth in the MVP Voting will still end the night with a double double with 36 points and 10 rebounds.
The other half of the star Boston duo Jaylen Brown would score 24 points which made this loss the first double digit loss by Boston when Tatum and Brown combined for 60 or more points.
Last year’s defensive player of the year Marcus Smart would score 14 points and be the only Celtics besides Tatum and Brown to score over 10 points.
The Celtics big men Al Horford and Robert Williams III would both struggle. Williams would only have 4 points in the game while AL Horford would not score going zero for seven from three.
The 76ers now hold a 3-2 series lead as Joel Embiid would win back to back postseason games against Boston in his career.
Game 6 will be in Philadelphia as Boston now has there back against the wall on the brink of elimination.
The good news for Boston fans is this team has been here before as they lost game 5 in a 2-2 series last year against Milwaukee and as a franchise have won 6 series after falling behind 3-2 which is the most in NBA history.
Game 6 tips off Thursday at 7:30 PM EST
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