Joel Embiid came to the rescue for the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday.
Facing elimination in Game 5 of their first-round series against Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics at TD Garden in Boston, Mass., Embiid dominated the Celtics and scored 33 points on 12/23 shooting with 8 assists and 4 rebounds.
The former NBA Most Valuable Player was a headache the Celtics couldn’t cure all game long, and Tatum acknowledged that after Boston’s 113-97 loss.
“Give him credit. He played well. He put a lot of pressure on us … we’ll go back, make some adjustments and be ready for Game 6,” Tatum, who scored 24 points, said of Embiid, via Bobby Manning of Celtics on CLNS.
That loss must be deflating to the Celtics, as they have to go through another game to try and eliminate the pesky Sixers instead of starting their preparation for the second round.
With Embiid clearly regaining his form after missing the first three games of the series while recovering from an appendectomy, the 76ers have become a tougher matchup for the Celtics, who will look to close out the series in a hostile environment in Game 6 on Thursday at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pa.
