The Philadelphia 76ers ended decades of playoff heartbreak on Saturday, outlasting the Boston Celtics 109-100 in a dramatic Game 7 comeback to finally win a postseason series against their historic rivals for the first time since 1982.
Led by a dominant all-around performance from Joel Embiid, who finished with 34 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists, Philadelphia overcame a tense, back-and-forth battle to complete an almost impossible 3-1 series comeback and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Teammate Tyrese Maxey matched the moment with 30 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists in a breakthrough performance that helped seal the win late.
The victory snapped a painful stretch of six straight playoff series losses to Boston and marked the first time the 76ers had beaten the Celtics in the postseason after a long 44 years. It also made Philadelphia just the 14th team in NBA history to recover from a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series.
Boston briefly seized momentum in the second quarter and repeatedly threatened in the fourth, cutting the lead to a single point four times. But after a final push that brought the score to 97-96 with five minutes remaining, the Celtics missed 10 straight shots as Philadelphia closed the game with poise. Maxey’s back-to-back layups in the final stretch finally put it away.
“It feels good to win,” Embiid said. “Obviously, we got a bigger goal in mind. But finally beating these guys feels pretty good.”
The Celtics were already at a disadvantage after star forward Jayson Tatum was ruled out pregame with knee discomfort. Coach Joe Mazzulla admitted the lineup experiment in Tatum’s absence failed to hold up in a high-pressure Game 7.
Despite the loss, Boston forward Jaylen Brown led all Celtics scorers with 33 points, but the team’s late-game drought proved decisive.
Philadelphia now moves on to face the New York Knicks in the next round, carrying renewed confidence after finally breaking one of the franchise’s longest-standing playoff curses.