Payton Pritchard scored a career-playoff-high 32 points off the bench and the Boston Celtics took a 3-1 series lead with a convincing 128-96 road victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night.
Jayson Tatum made five treys and recorded 30 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds and Jaylen Brown added 20 points and seven rebounds as the second-seeded Celtics moved one victory away from winning the Eastern Conference first-round series. Game 5 is Tuesday in Boston.
Pritchard made six 3-pointers and was 12-of-21 from the field while Boston knocked down a franchise-playoff-record 24 treys to help finish off a second straight victory in Philadelphia.
“Try to change the energy, try to change the pace of the game,” Pritchard said of his objective when coming off the bench. “The first two games, I didn’t like how I was attacking the paint, so these last two games, I’ve been more aggressive and getting downhill and it opened everything up for me, and the 3-balls started going, which was good.”
Joel Embiid played for the first time in the series for the seventh-seeded 76ers after undergoing an appendectomy two-plus weeks ago. He scored 26 points on 9-of-21 shooting and collected 10 rebounds and six assists while playing 34 minutes.
“You try to do the best job possible with the conditions,” Embiid said. “You’ve still got to go out there and try and play and win a basketball game. We didn’t do that tonight. We didn’t play well.”
Tyrese Maxey scored 22 points and Paul George added 16 for the 76ers.
Boston held a 51-30 rebounding advantage and collected 14 boards on the offensive end.
“They were more aggressive, quicker, wanted to chase them down more than we did,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “Just didn’t seem like we could get bodies on them. It was a huge problem.”
The Celtics made more 3-pointers than 2-point baskets (18) for the second straight game. Boston shot 48.3% overall and 45.3% from 3-point range.
Embiid was cleared shortly before tipoff and was aggressive at the outset by scoring the 76ers’ first eight points. He wore a brace underneath his jersey to protect his midsection.
Philadelphia made 41.2% of its field-goal attempts, including 9 of 30 (30%) from behind the arc. Quentin Grimes scored 12 points off the bench.
Pritchard began making an impact with 13 first-quarter points, including a quarter-ending 3-pointer to give Boston a 34-18 lead.
“We’re at our best when he’s aggressive, and he’s bought into any role as necessary to (impact) winning, and just cares about the right stuff,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said about Pritchard.
Pritchard knocked down another trey to make it 40-19 with 8:51 left in the half. He had 18 at the break as the Celtics led 56-38.
“That can’t happen,” Maxey said about taking just three shots in the first half while scoring seven points. “That’s unacceptable. That’s on me. I take full responsibility on that one.”
Boston kept the assault going in the third quarter when Brown scored six straight points and Tatum added a trey as Boston’s lead grew to 69-43 with 7:57 left in the third quarter.
Pritchard scored the final four points of the period as the lead sat at 95-74 entering the fourth quarter.
Tatum’s four-point play capped a 9-0 run to start the fourth and pushed the lead to 30. Boston’s advantage topped out at 32 as it cruised to the finish.
“You got to have humility,” Pritchard said. “You have to go back home and take care of Game 5. That’s the most important thing.
“We did our job tonight but going back home, we got to take care of business.”
–Field Level Media
