Payton Pritchard scored a playoff-career-high 32 points, and the Boston Celtics cruised to a 128-96 road win in Game 4 of their first-round series with the Philadelphia 76ers. Boston now leads 3-1.
Pritchard came off the bench to score 13 points in the first quarter before adding 14 in the third quarter while hitting 6 of 10 3-pointers, spoiling the return of Sixers star Joel Embiid, out since April 6 after undergoing emergency appendectomy surgery. Embiid scored 26 points with 10 rebounds and six assists in 34 minutes.
Jayson Tatum added 30 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists for Boston, and Celtics star Jaylen Brown chipped in 20 points and seven assists.
Here are some takeaways with Game 5 set for Tuesday in Boston.
Celtics put foot on the gas
Jaylen Brown didn’t score until the second quarter. Jayson Tatum missed seven of his eight field goal attempts during the first half. They combined for 13 total points before halftime.
The Celtics still led 56-38 at the break, partly because of how thoroughly they dominated on the glass. They recorded 10 offensive rebounds in the first half compared to just two for Philadelphia. In a category that Nick Nurse has harped on as one of the most important in this series, Boston gave itself plenty of extra chances while the 76ers failed to do the same.
During one possession late in the first quarter, the Celtics piled up four offensive rebounds, much to their bench’s satisfaction. On the sideline, assistant coach D.J. MacLeay yelled with enough intensity to wake up a sleeping baby back in Boston.
Payton Pritchard went off. Sixers star Joel Embiid went quiet for a while after a quick start in his return. But regardless of individual performances, the Celtics will have a tough time losing games if they continue to rebound the way they did on both ends of the court in Game 4. They gave themselves a huge margin for error by keeping the 76ers without any second-chance points over the game’s first 29 minutes. By the time Embiid scored his team’s first three second-chance points about five minutes into the third quarter, they only cut Boston’s lead to 71-48. — Jay King, Celtics beat writer
Sixers fall short in Embiid’s return
The Boston Celtics are just a better basketball team.
This has been known for much of this series against the Philadelphia 76ers. That being said, Game 4’s effort from Philly was simply not good enough. The defense to begin the game wasn’t good. The offense for the entirety of the first half slogged through mud. The belief that a win was possible was waning early in the second half. You could see it in the players’ eyes.
What Boston did to Philadelphia was embarrassing for the 76ers. The Celtics put together their best game of the series, and they made Joel Embiid’s return to the lineup obsolete. On Sunday night, the Boston Celtics looked like potential NBA champions. The Philadelphia 76ers looked like what they are — a seventh-seeded team that struggled to get into the playoffs, struggled with continuity and is far away from NBA title contention.
The two teams will meet in Game 5 in Boston. But this series might as well be over. It’s just a matter of when the Celtics will administer the final blow. When the offseason begins for the 76ers, they will be a group that will have to look itself in the mirror. That is another conversation for another day. But, for today, the Celtics gave the Sixers a dose of harsh truth. — Tony Jones, Sixers beat writer
Crushed on the glass
Here’s one big difference from this Celtics team and other recent versions, including their 2024 champions: When the Celtics aren’t torching you from 3, they can also pound you on the glass.
Only four teams rebounded a higher percentage of missed shots than the Celtics this season, and for a Sixers team that ranked 26th in defensive rebound rate that presented a potential problem coming into the series. In Game 4, it wasn’t just a problem — it was a catastrophe.
Boston grabbed nine offensive boards in the first half alone — compared to zero for the Sixers — en route to grabbing an 18-point lead at the break, and the Celtics were never seriously threatened afterward. Even when the Sixers put in rebounding specialist Andre Drummond, the Celtics still cooked — dragging Drummond out to the perimeter and then sending in hordes of guards to chase down their rare misses.
Boston won the rebound battle 30-16 in the first half and 63–40 for the game, including one trip where they grabbed four straight long rebounds off missed 3s before the Sixers finally fouled Nikola Vučević on the last one.
While the Sixers’ inability to grab defensive boards was frustrating, the lack of an offensive rebounding presence was arguably just as destructive. Philly didn’t rebound any of their 24 first-half misses, something that would have softened the blow of ice-cold 33.3 percent shooting in the half, and finished the night with just six offensive boards. — John Hollinger, Senior NBA writer
