The Philadelphia 76ers went against all expectations and defeated the Boston Celtics 109-100 in Game 7 of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden, completing a 3-1 comeback to win the series 4-3 and advancing to the conference semifinals after an impressive series.
With the win, the Sixers become the 14th team out of 302 to overcome a 1-3 series deficit, the last to achieve it being the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 Finals against the Golden State Warriors. This means Philadelphia is the first team to do it again in 10 years.
As a side note, with the win, the Sixers advance over Boston in the playoffs for the first time since 1982, snapping a six-series losing streak, confirming that they went against everything that did not favor them and brought out their best, with a warrior-mode Joel Embiid, a cold-blooded Tyrese Maxey, and a team hungry for success.
Embiid and Maxey’s impact in Game 7
Joel Embiid scored 34 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to propel the 76ers to a 109-100 victory that eliminated the Boston Celtics from the NBA playoffs on Saturday.
Joel Embiid #21 of the Philadelphia 76ers attempts a free throw against the Boston Celtics.
Tyrese Maxey scored 10 of his 30 points in a frantic fourth quarter as the seventh-seeded Sixers thwarted the second-seeded Celtics’ comeback bid, completing their own comeback from 3-1 down in the series to book an Eastern Conference semi-final showdown with the New York Knicks.
The series was the 23rd playoff clash between the two teams and Boston had won the last six, knocking Embiid out of the playoffs in 2018, 2020 and 2023. Embiid had said he was tired of losing to the Celtics, and he and Maxey made sure it did not happen again, keying the 76ers’ first-ever victory in a series in which they trailed 3-1.
The key variable in the matchup
It was not a smooth ride, even with Boston missing star Jayson Tatum, who was ruled out less than two hours before tip-off with a sore left knee. Tatum had exited late in the third quarter of Thursday’s Game 6 blowout loss to the Sixers, and he could only watch from the bench as the Celtics season ended.
Tatum, who ruptured his right Achilles tendon in last year’s playoffs, had missed the first 62 games of the regular season but had gone from strength to strength since his NBA season debut in March. Jaylen Brown scored 34 points and pulled down nine rebounds to lead the Celtics and Derrick White added 26 points, but it was not enough to secure the victory.
