Online Reporter
Joel Embiid tossed in 33 points and added eight assists as the visiting Philadelphia 76ers avoided elimination by beating the Boston Celtics 113-97 on Tuesday in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Embiid, who missed the first three games of the series following an appendectomy, went to the locker room with an apparent knee injury with 4:35 to play in the third quarter, but returned to the game with 2:00 left in the third.
“Obviously he was very, very good,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “Give him credit. He worked really hard to get back through the procedure that he had. Played a lot of minutes. I was super-impressed with him on the defensive end tonight.”
Tyrese Maxey added 25 points and 10 rebounds for the seventh-seeded 76ers, who entered the fourth quarter down one but outscored the Celtics 28-11 over the final 12 minutes. Paul George finished the game with 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as Philadelphia cut its deficit in the best-of-seven series to 3-2.
“I mean it’s disappointing,” Boston’s Payton Pritchard said. “Every game you lose in the playoffs is disappointing. But the playoffs is life of its own. You never know when you’re gonna get it done, so you gotta move on and get ready for (Game 6 ) … We don’t have time to dwell on it. We’ve got to go to Philly tomorrow and get ready.”
Philadelphia took an 88-86 lead on a George 3-pointer early in the fourth, and had its largest lead to that point after Edgecombe knocked down a 3-pointer that made it 109-94 with 2:25 to play.
The Celtics shot 3-for-22 from the floor in the fourth quarter. – Reuters
