On the court after Jayson Tatum resurrected from an effort that could have forever stained his legacy to outscore the Philadelphia 76ers by himself in the fourth quarter, Jaylen Brown embraced his Boston Celtics co-star with a smile that belied the intensifying doubts about the longterm viability of their partnership.
The All-NBA duo lived to fight another day together, surviving a rollercoaster 95-86 victory in Philadelphia to even the Eastern Conference semifinals at three games each and force Game 7 in Boston on Mother’s Day.
It cannot be understated how poorly Tatum performed through the game’s first 43 minutes. Boston’s 16-point first-half lead vanished by the final quarter, when Tatum was in the midst of a meltdown. A heinous transition turnover and a worse clear-path foul gifted the Sixers an 83-81 lead with six minutes remaining.
Tatum was 1 for 14 from the field when he rose up over reigning MVP Joel Embiid for a corner 3-pointer with 4:14 on the clock and his team trailing by two. He found net for the first time since a second-quarter layup ricocheted in, and on Boston’s next possession he found it again from 28 feet. He drilled two more 3s down the stretch, including the dagger in the final minute. The fourth quarter finished: Tatum 16, Sixers 13.
“It’s tough to believe in somebody when they only made one shot, but I know my guys believe in me until the clock hits zero,” said Tatum, who scrapped together a 19-9-6 with two blocks and a pair of steals.
The Celtics were minutes from an offseason of questions about first-year head coach Joe Mazzulla’s job status, Tatum’s ceiling, Brown’s next contract and trade scenarios involving every member of the rotation.
The pressure shifts to the Sixers, whose own leadership group’s Game 7 experiences are a nightmare. Embiid has not won a Game 7 in two previous tries, including an abysmal loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the conference semifinals two years ago. Co-star James Harden has shot 34.6% from the field and 14.3% from distance in four Games 7 since leaving his reserve role the Oklahoma City Thunder to become a superstar.
Then, there is Philadelphia head coach Doc Rivers, whose nine losses in 16 career Games 7 are a record. He has lost four straight Games 7 since the 2015 Western Conference semifinals, when his L.A. Clippers blew a 3-1 series lead. He has never won a road Game 7, and his teams have blown six 3-2 series leads.
Just 48 hours after the franchise’s biggest win in more than two decades, the Sixers are staring at a litany of offseason questions of their own. Rivers almost certainly will not remain as coach if they lose. Harden may head back to the Houston Rockets in free agency. And Embiid’s record in the second round would run to 0-4. How might he feel about Philadelphia’s championship prospects in the wake of another early exit?
Meanwhile, the Celtics are 5-1 in Games 7 since Brown’s rookie season, their lone loss suffered at the hands of LeBron James in the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, when Tatum was barely 20 years old. They won back-to-back Games 7 en route to last year’s NBA Finals, the first at home and the second in Miami.
They know the score, and they rediscovered their identity in Game 6. Mazzulla started Robert Williams III for the first time in these playoffs alongside Al Horford in a double-big lineup that wreaked havoc defensively in last year’s playoffs and throughout this past regular season. They built a 15-3 lead that grew to a 16-point advantage midway through the second quarter, and Williams finished a team-best +18 in his 28 minutes.
Boston’s three-headed point guard combination of Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon and Derrick White sustained the Celtics through Tatum’s shooting struggles and Brown’s dribbling woes, combining for 47 points (on 10-of-19 shooting from range), 15 rebounds and 10 assists. It feels as if Tatum and Brown are due for a monster night in a moment they have met before and a home environment that will be electric.
The Celtics are 4-1 in Games 7 at home against the Sixers in the rivalry’s lore, an Andrew Toney explosion in the 1982 conference semis marking the lone exception to a rule that says the hosts win 75% of the time.
Both Harden and Embiid have looked fatigued at points in this second round, including Game 6, when Embiid twice grabbed his sprained right knee in pain and Harden finished 4 for 16 from the field, missing all four of his fourth-quarter shots. They will have two days of rest for the first time in this series, and they have already won two of three games in TD Garden. An explosion of their own could end their rival’s season.
One team will walk away heartbroken on Sunday, the other as championship favorites. Game 7, the two most glorious words in basketball, and history will begin a new chapter when the ball is tipped in Boston.