Joel Embiid and the Sixers nearly performed a miracle against the Celtics on Saturday night.
Embiid, who had 41 points and 12 rebounds, lifted nearly the entire court after Jayson Tatum’s clutch long-haul jumper put the Celtics three points ahead.
He did it… but the shot was fired just after the last buzzer.
The Sixers fell to 39-20 and 0-3 this season against the top-seeded Celtics in a 110-107 loss at the Wells Fargo Center.
Jaylen Brown led Boston with 26 points.
Dewayne Dedmon missed a second straight contest with left hip strain. Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said before the game that Dedmon will likely sit out the next “few games” but the team doesn’t believe his injury is “serious.”
Next up for the Sixers is a Monday night game in Philadelphia vs. the Heat. Here are observations on their narrow loss to the Celtics:
Nice transfer for Harris, Tucker
Both Tobias Harris and PJ Tucker immediately brought to Boston the qualities they showed in the closing minutes of Thursday’s Sixers comeback win over the Grizzlies.
Ready to shoot from three-point range, Harris knocked down a pull-up jumper to give the Sixers a 7-0 lead. Tucker also sunk a corner three.
The Sixers picked up the pace as a team in the early stages, for better and for worse. They committed a couple of rushed turnovers that helped the Celtics get the transition rolling. Still, the basic idea of putting pressure on Boston’s defense and not having to throw the ball every time Embiid had possession was reasonable. Embiid even made a bold dash with the ball despite being asked to double dribble.
Tucker recovered very well in his opening stint and the 37-year-old’s sloppiness on the glass was valuable. He snagged six rebounds in the first quarter and set up James Harden for a three-pointer immediately after one of his offensive boards. Tucker won’t win most direct rebound duels against taller players, but he’s shown he can still snag commanding rebounds and tear down important Who Wants More boards. He remained active and effective as a rebounder, breaking his season-high 10 so far late in the second quarter. Tucker finished with 16 rebounds.
With the exception of consecutive missed free throws late in the quarter, Harris was good during the first. Both Harris and Embiid played the entire quarter and combined for 20 points in the first period. Boston ended the quarter on a 9-2 run, however, and a baseline jump from Robert Williams III reduced the Celtics’ lead to 30-28.
Big fights of the second unit
For the second straight game, Rivers started with Paul Reed at backup center before turning to Tucker.
The Sixers struggled early in the second quarter with Harden surrounded by four benchers. It clearly made sense to avoid all second unit minutes since Boston has several starter-level players coming off the bench, but the Sixers were still second best across the board. Rivers called a timeout after a Malcolm Brogdon three-pointer extended the Celtics’ lead to 39-32.
He substituted out for Reed and played Tucker for the five for the next 82 seconds. This short stint was offensively positive. Tyrese Maxey converted a driving hoop, Harden assisted a Jalen McDaniels layup and pulled two free throws, and the Sixers were in slightly better form when Embiid checked back in.
Embiid soon gave chase to Marcus Smart and forcefully repelled his shot. Unlike on Thursday, he also showed his usual imposing, efficient self offensively. Al Horford tends to be robust and smart up the post against Embiid, but the Sixers added some useful offensive variety in the second quarter. Instead of running everything in the mail through Embiid, they featured him all over the floor. He executed a deft fake handover before driving in for the layup, drilling an open jumper down the right wing and showing off his multiple skills.
The Sixers placed Embiid alongside four bench players late in the third quarter, and that unit was ineffective. Another banker-heavy lineup featured Harden early in the fourth quarter, but it was short-lived. Reed was pulled out for a layup, Derrick White hit a three to give the Celtics an 85-78 advantage and Tucker replaced Reed just 70 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Saturday night’s box score contained a couple of extreme plus-minus lines; the Sixers were outplayed by 23 points in McDaniels’ 15 minutes and 22 points in Georges Niang’s 13. Those numbers never tell the whole story, but the Sixers’ bench was indeed a little worse than the Celtics’.
White played a key role in Boston’s win, just as he did earlier in February when he scored 18 points in 7-for-9 shooting. Overall, the Sixers’ bench had 12 points in 6-for-18 shooting (0-for-5 from three-point range).
Embiid wears Sixers almost late
The Sixers started the second half sharply. Harris scored the first five points of the third quarter and three-pointers from De’Anthony Melton and Harden extended the Sixers’ lead to 67-52.
After playing just 13 minutes against Memphis, Melton received 25. When the Sixers take on Boston in the postseason, they’re hoping Melton’s ability to “cover” will be an advantage. Tatum and Brown are always difficult to deal with, but the Sixers seem capable of defending this duo relatively well. Maxey eventually played the vast majority of the fourth quarter against Melton on Saturday.
Boston immediately took a 7-0 lead after falling 15 points behind, but Embiid grabbed it by plowing through a thicket of Celtic arms and making an and-one layup. A few minutes later he had a similarly powerful, determined drive.
However, these games by no means drained the Celtics. In fact, Boston gained momentum in large part due to Horford’s sharp shooting. The ex-six hit four threes in under four minutes in the late third quarter. Meanwhile, shootouts from Harden (21 points, 5 for 16 from the floor) and Maxey (eight points, 4 for 10 from the floor) hampered the Sixers. They went down 95-85, 7-11 to go into fourth when Brown stole the ball from an unsuspecting Embiid and rolled in for an easy layup.
Still, the Sixers seem to have a shot whenever Embiid is out there. In the next few minutes, he made three middle-distance jumps and six free throws. That brought the Sixers within a point of Boston, and they took an unlikely lead when Embiid blocked a Brown layup attempt and then Maxey fired the other way for a lay-in.
Horford fired another three-pointer and Boston forged a 107-103 advantage on a tip-in from Tatum with a minute left. Again, however, the Sixers went into the clutch to Embiid and got what they needed. Brown fouled him with a fadeaway jumper and Embiid drained both foul shots to tie the game at 107-all, setting up the dramatic final seconds.
The Sixers will try to avoid being swept up in the regular-season series when they host the Celtics on April 4.