Joel Embiid, who had played in roughly a quarter of Philadelphia's regular-season games, finished a Game 7 in Boston with 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Tyrese Maxey threw in the dagger layups. The Boston Celtics went home, Jayson Tatum watched in street clothes with a knee that wouldn't let him play, and the most lopsided round-one matchup in the East on paper became the most stunning result.
Draymond Green walked through the win on Tuesday's episode of his show, and the first thing he wanted on the record was that this Sixers team is now a real second-round threat — provided one man holds together.
"Joel Embiid in particular, to have the season that he's had, pretty much playing in 20 to 25 per cent of the games and pretty much be counted out by everyone, and to come back and play a series like that — those last three wins that they needed to pick up, he was excellent in all three of them and everyone else fell in line," Green said.
The other half of the story was who wasn't on the floor for Boston. "Al Horford not being in Boston," Green emphasised. "Al has guarded Joel great in any time that they've faced up in the regular season and playoffs. There's a large part of their dominance over the Sixers up until this point."
When the Celtics confirmed Tatum would not play Game 7, Joe Mazzulla started Luka Garza, Ron Harper Jr. and Baylor Scheierman around Jaylen Brown and Derrick White — three players who had not started many games this season, in a do-or-die game on national television. Green couldn't square the choice. "It's Game 7. I think you've got to go all out. My starters would have been Peyton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, [Neemias] Queta and Sam Hauser. All five of these guys have experience in these type of situations. You essentially threw three guys out there that had zero experience. Now granted, Ron Harper Jr. played four minutes, Luca Garza played nine, Baylor Scheierman played 22 — so they aborted the mission really fast. But I just don't think you want to set that tone in a Game 7."
Tatum's absence rippled into the Sixers' film room, too. Maxey told reporters his team felt the game just got harder when they learned Tatum was out. Green explained why that wasn't false modesty. "You've prepared for six games to face Jason Tatum, and now you're going into this one game series, which is Game 7, with not a real understanding of who they're going to start, what they're going to do. What type of offence are they going to run now? What will be their scheme to try to make up for Jason Tatum not being out there?"
The other story Green addressed was Jaylen Brown going on his stream after the game and calling Embiid out: "Flopping has ruined our league. Joel Embiid is one of the greatest players that has played basketball, but he flops and he knows it, too." Green acknowledged Embiid embellishes some calls. He still wasn't a fan of the timing.
"Not a huge fan of calling the guy out once you lost," Green said. "It comes off as excuse-making. A lot of people are trying to say, 'Oh man, Jaylen Brown making an excuse,' when you in fact could be telling the dead-honest truth — but because you lost, people are always going to say there's the excuse. So it ultimately doesn't hold weight. You end up wasting one of your bullets."
Green also pushed back hard on the framing of Embiid's night as a "legacy game". "Hell no. Joel Embiid is a great player, an NBA MVP, gold medallist, perennial All-Star — one of the best bigs in this league. For Joel Embiid to have legacy games, Joel Embiid has to get to the conference finals, then push that team to the NBA Finals. I don't think if you spoke to Joel Embiid he would say, 'Oh man, that game I had in round one this year versus Boston is a legacy game.'"
The sober note Green ended on was Embiid's body. "Each game gets more physical. As the series goes on, it gets more taxing. Joel — can he stay healthy? It seems like every game he's out there, he falls, he grabs something, and you're just holding your breath." The Sixers travel to New York for Game 1 of the second round on Sunday, riding the most unlikely closeout of round one and the lingering question of whether the man who delivered it can do it again.
