Instant observations: Joel Embiid drops 33 points in Sixers’ Game 5 win over Celtics

Apr 28, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) shoots the ball against Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard (11) in the second quarter during game five of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images

Joel Embiid pulled the Sixers back from the brink with a 33-point effort in Game 5, forcing another game against the Celtics with a 113-97 victory in Boston. The 76ers will host a pivotal Game 6 back home in Philadelphia on Thursday night.

Here’s what I saw.

Embiid and the Sixers fight back

Tasked with trying to keep their season alive in Boston, the Sixers had a few thoughtful changes to the game plan on Tuesday night. For starters, Paul George was a focal point of their offense in the opening minutes, with the Sixers trying to capitalize on the excellent shooting touch he has shown all series. George had more three-point attempts at the midway point of the second quarter than he had for the duration of Game 4, and he hit his first two, ensuring that Boston would have to hug him tight on the perimeter.

On the other end of the floor, Philadelphia played with a better level of effort, certainly, but the Sixers also offered a clear adjustment to try to combat Boston’s rebounding outburst in Game 4. Nurse used Joel Embiid in the deepest drop they’ve probably played all season, and to Philadelphia’s credit, they did far better at clearing the porch on Boston misses. For a while, they hung around against the higher-seeded team, lending some hope that they might be able to steal one and send this series back to Philadelphia.

Unfortunately, the guy who returned from appendix surgery after a little over two weeks struggled mightily to find himself on offense in the first half. Embiid’s early shot diet was basically all pick-and-pop jumpers, with the big man hoisting trail three after trail three as the Celtics dared him to make shots. You’re put in a difficult spot when this happens — you can’t just fully abandon open jumpers with the Celtics already playing drop coverage, as it only incentivizes them to play further back and perpetuate the cycle. But the Sixers’ offense withered away and died for stretches of the first half. Even his usually reliable midrange jumper went awry against Boston, causing uncertainty in the big man and, by extension, the rest of the team.

It was another brutal shooting start for the Sixers on Tuesday, with Philadelphia 5/20 from three at halftime. I’m not sure I could pinpoint the exact moment it happened, but it eventually felt like the Sixers’ inability to convert on open looks stalled out the offense. VJ Edgecombe looked particularly gunshy for portions of this game, passing up some potential attacking opportunities to put the Sixers in endless swing-pass situations until the shot clock wound down.

The good news? Once they got the big man downhill, good things began to happen. Embiid showed some excellent fluidity around the basket later in the first half, stepping around Queta and the other Celtics bigs on the roll. Philadelphia did well to clear space for Embiid on the left side of the floor for a few designed post-ups, and you’ll take your chances with him going one-on-one with Queta, Vucevic, or Garza from 14 feet and in, and all the help coming from predictable spots around the floor.

The onslaught was truly on in the third quarter, after a silly fourth foul from Queta convinced Joe Mazzulla to bring Vucevic back in the game. Philadelphia simplified its offense and kept going back to empty-side post-ups for Embiid, dumping him the ball deep on the block and letting him cook a guy who has not been able to guard Embiid at any point in his NBA career. Post play from Embiid hasn’t been this dominant in years, with Embiid setting up on the left side and moving Vucevic wherever he wanted to. After getting some layups at the rim, he began to expand the range, stepping into a pull-up two from the elbow in the middle of his huge third-quarter run, going right back to the block afterward. Almost everything good for Philadelphia on offense came out of the attention Embiid drew in the middle of the floor.

With Embiid finally rolling, it was Quentin Grimes who came out of nowhere with a terrific two-way game, and a lot of his best work came operating out of actions with Embiid or relocating off the ball to offer a shooting option for the big fella out of double teams in the middle. With Grimes knocking down some huge threes in the second half, that energy carried over to the defensive end, particularly on one huge second-half possession, when he hounded Jaylen Brown all the way back to the Celtics’ free-throw line before eventually contesting a harmless midrange miss at the end of the shot clock.

This has been a roller-coaster series for Philadelphia, but this game showed why you bring Embiid back as soon as you can and try to get him up to speed. With a game’s worth of reps under his belt, they were able to problem-solve on the fly and hit the Celtics with body blow after body blow until their legs gave out. Win a game on your home floor on Thursday, and you never know what might happen.

(And let this be said — whatever reservations you have about relying on Embiid, the guy wants nothing more than to help this team win a title. He is a tough SOB, and that was a hell of a mental and physical response in these circumstances.)

Starring in their roles

I think it’s fair to wonder how different this series might have looked if the Sixers had the healthy version of Tyrese Maxey, because he has been able to give the Celtics trouble even while shooting with a splint on. But Boston laid out their terms of engagement on day one, and Philadelphia’s only win of the series came when Maxey was able to shoot them out of drop coverage. His inability to draw the Celtics out of the paint gave the Sixers little opportunity to attack the paint unless Embiid was able to score over smaller guys in the paint.

Maxey’s work as a two-point scorer was pretty excellent in this one, as he snaked around screens and shielded the ball with his body to find little pockets of space from around 15 feet and in. Jordan Walsh has given him some problems in this series, but he did well to neutralize his defender’s advantages on Tuesday, even backing Walsh down in the post to hit a fadeaway two for two of his 13 points in the first half. There was a flurry from deep late in the third, too, though that was the outlier here.

His biggest and best contribution may have come as a rebounder, and Maxey attacked the ball in mid-air with real gusto. Philadelphia clearly came into this game not wanting to go through the same humiliation ritual, leaking out less in transition and gang rebounding whenever they could, and Maxey used his explosiveness to attack the ball and get Philadelphia into their next possession.

It feels that some people will never be satisfied with Paul George at his price tag no matter what he does in Philadelphia, but I think this series has more than proven the difference between a real third option and using Tobias Harris in the same role. He has played with real intent off the dribble, played some pretty good individual defense on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and has been lights out from deep for most of five games. If anything, the crime of this series is that George hasn’t been involved more as a shooter.

Getting him dialed in early was a nice tweak from the Sixers, and it would eventually pay dividends in the second half, with George hunting some tougher pull-up jumpers out of ball screens that haven’t always been there against the Celtics. The Celtics have been in trouble when Philly gets George and Embiid isolated on one side of the floor, with the Celtics scared to send help toward Embiid with George one pass away.

And Edgecombe, quiet as his game was for about 2.5 quarters of this game, made all the right plays and shots exactly when they needed him. He had three huge threes to punish the Celtics for helping off of him, chipped in as a rebounder on both ends of the floor, and battled hard in every individual defensive matchup, fighting over screens and closing out hard to deny Boston a clean look at the rim.

Other notes

— It is hard to believe that Nick Nurse looked at Andre Drummond’s defense in space against Nic Vucevic and Luka Garza backup lineups and opted to make Drummond the first big off the bench in a do-or-die game. Adem Bona brings his own set of problems to the table, but he at least offers the chance to guard Boston when they run 1/5 actions, which is quite often when Payton Pritchard is running the second unit.

Like clockwork, the second the Sixers brought Drummond into the game, the Celtics immediately began spamming actions involving him. Pritchard and Vucevic either got open shots from the perimeter or were able to drift right past him to score in the paint, with Drummond’s only defensive play of note a strong contest of Jaylen Brown late in the first half.

Of course, Drummond is the far superior offensive player, a big screen setter and (evidently) an elite corner shooter, both of which showed up for the Sixers in Game 5. His job was to buy a bit of time for Embiid in spurts throughout the game, and while they got a bit lucky with Boston’s shotmaking struggles, credit to Drummond for doing enough to hold the fort.