Celtics-76ers Game 4 takeaways: Boston's historic night, plus the good and bad from Joel Embiid's return

Boston’s bench outscored its Philadelphia counterparts, 55-24.

Joel Embiid makes his series debut

Embiid looked a lot like Embiid, which is to say he was laboring a bit. Understandable, considering he is less than three weeks removed from an appendectomy, his latest bizarre injury. But let’s not pretend he did not look a lot like this in the regular season, playing 1,200 minutes over 38 games on a surgically repaired left knee and right foot.

Embiid looking like Embiid also meant he was ever-present for stretches, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing. He did average a 27-8-4 in the regular season.

It was a good thing for the first seven minutes. He scored Philadelphia’s first eight points and ignited the home crowd, even staking the Sixers to an early 13-12 edge.

It was not a good thing for the rest of the game. Embiid totaled 26 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, but he had no wind for defense. He could not guard over the space necessary to compete with Boston’s shooters, who drilled a franchise-record 24 of their 53 3-point attempts.

Tatum, Brown own the third quarter

That the Celtics led by 18 at halftime was somewhat of a surprise, given how Tatum and Brown had performed to that point. They combined for just 13 points on 4-for-16 shooting in the opening two quarters, as Boston’s bench carried the offense instead.

That was a bad sign for the Sixers, who could only hold the Jays down for so long.

Tatum and Brown scored Boston’s first 22 points of the third quarter, as the Celtics stretched their lead to 30. Tatum scored 13 of them in the opening eight minutes of the second half. (This is where we remind you he is 11 months removed from Achilles surgery.) Neither played the final minutes of a second blowout in this series’ four games.