May 01, 2026
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Joel Embiid believes the best is yet to come for himself and his team.
PHILADELPHIA – Before the Sixers put the finishing touches on their finest performance in years, Joel Embiid stood at the foul line near his bench and smiled. And for about 30 seconds, as Sixers fans roared in unison, cheering on a mascot atop a massive ladder in the middle of the floor, Embiid just nodded his head. He had a look of satisfaction, one he has rarely displayed during two tumultuous years.
Three weeks to the day since Embiid was diagnosed with appendicitis and had to undergo an emergency appendectomy, which threatened to end his season, he made his third playoff appearance. Embiid came back considerably earlier than anybody anticipated for the chance to take in a moment like the one early in the fourth quarter on Thursday night. The best Sixers crowd in at least three years was buzzing. Embiid just kept on smiling and nodding. About 30 minutes later, Embiid was hugging his son, Arthur, celebrating another win.
"I'm excited," Embiid said after the game. "The one thing I'll say: fans have been amazing."
In Game 6, so were the Sixers, who outplayed the Boston Celtics from wire to wire to force a deciding Game 7 on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at TD Garden. After nearly two years of the Sixers being a team with theoretical upside but eventual disappointment, they have flipped the script. The team that just needed to get healthy and start clicking at the right time is healthy and clicking. And it is the perfect time. With their season on the line, the Sixers have put together back-to-back winning efforts, with Thursday's performance especially excellent.
"Very good game by us," head coach Nick Nurse said. "...It doesn't really matter that much, though, right? I mean, we've seen games, like – this is just one game, that's one story... [W]e're going to have to really dig in and focus and prepare and get ready for adjustments. We're going to have to give a tremendous effort... It's nice to win a couple in a row and it's nice to play the way we did tonight, but it really does not matter. Each game's its own game."
The Sixers would not still be alive without 20-year-old rookie VJ Edgecombe, whose scoring eruption got the Sixers on the board in Game 2, or Quentin Grimes, whose two-way surge down the stretch of Game 5 helped the Sixers seal that victory. Kelly Oubre Jr. was outstanding in Game 6; maybe the Sixers do not hold on without him on Thursday.
But for one night, this was all about the three people it was supposed to be about all along: Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George.
While Embiid was inefficient as a scorer, he was an imposing force on both ends of the floor all night long. The Sixers dictated the tempo of the game all night; Embiid was at the center of that. After five games of being brutalized on the glass, the Sixers won the possession battle by getting stops and punctuating them with rebounds; Embiid was at the center of that. The Sixers moved the ball until it found its way into the hands of someone capable of getting off a great shot; Embiid was at the center of that.
Embiid's passing was particularly proficient on Thursday, and it prompted one of the best sequences of plays in recent Sixers history:
2 POSSESSIONS.
— NBA (@NBA) May 1, 2026
2 BEHIND THE BACK PASSES.
1 BLOCK.
PHILLY IS PUTTING ON A SHOW IN GAME 6. pic.twitter.com/9RKyqFsSMC
Embiid's 6-for-18 shooting line may cloud his 10 rebounds and eight assists, but his impact on the game was massive. Plus, he thinks there is more coming.
"You look at all the shots I'm getting," Embiid said, "everything is short, in and out. At some point, I'm about to have, like, an extremely efficient night. So hopefully it's next game."
The most consistent rhythm on the Sixers' side of this series has belonged to George, who has shot the lights out from beyond the arc and, in tandem with Oubre, made life as difficult as possible for star Celtics wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. George played one of the best defensive games any Sixers player has submitted in years. His 23 efficient points were a bonus, he said.
"Jayson and JB is as good as it gets. And so they're going to make tough shots. They're going to challenge me. They're going to make me look bad in moments. They’re going to embarrass me in moments. But I enjoy the matchups. I enjoy the challenges," George said. "My whole career, I've always been excited on the defensive end. I tell people I've just been gifted to score and be able to have a smoothness on the offensive end. But defensively, I've always appreciated that side of the ball. So it's fun, every minute that I'm on the floor, I want to match up. I want to play against those guys."
The value of those 23 points cannot be understated, though.
George got a quick rest in the middle of the third quarter, which he felt was helpful. He checked back in with about three minutes left in the frame and his team ahead by 15 points. Not a single fan in the arena felt like the Sixers, as well as they were playing, had built a lead that could not be wiped out by a Boston barrage. So, just as he did on the defensive end of the floor, George stepped up and made the plays that his team needed most.
In four minutes and change, George scored three times and notched a steal, which led to the Sixers scoring in transition. The Sixers fed him the ball in the post over and over and let him go to work. He was as dazzling on offense as he was suffocating on defense:
Can’t put into words how good Paul George has been defensively against Jaylen Brown pic.twitter.com/GbLgRVvBLo
— BKS Sports (@BKSecretsports) May 1, 2026
In recent weeks, the Sixers have turned to Maxey to put games away. He has typically obliged. But the sixth-year guard did not need to carry anybody on Thursday night. That his efficient 30-point night – in which he found answers for every single coverage and defender Boston threw at him – was a tertiary storyline in the win speaks to how well-rounded an effort this was from a Sixers team that looked dead in the water four days prior.
TYRESE MAXEY 30-PIECE TONIGHT.
— NBA (@NBA) May 1, 2026
76ers force Game 7 in Boston on Saturday 🍿 pic.twitter.com/CxfEkw8lHb
Embiid, George and Maxey have all spent time envisioning an opportunity like this. Upon signing with the Sixers, George said, he told Embiid and Maxey that he would get all of the stops they needed and that he would have no qualms with being a third option offensively.
Everybody is acknowledging that something has changed dramatically over the last four days, and for the first time, all of this looks like what the Sixers hoped to assemble. Now, they have the chance to do something that no other Embiid-led Sixers team has: eliminate the Celtics.
"I've been playing these guys for so long," Embiid said. "I'm tired of losing. So we have a chance to accomplish something special."
It should be said, too, that a win on Saturday night in Boston would be about so much more than the green jerseys being donned by the Sixers' opponents. In Embiid's entire career, the Sixers have never beaten an elite team in a playoff series.
In the playoffs, high-end talent often wins the day. On Thursday, it certainly appeared that when it came to the top of the rosters, and it was advantage Sixers.
"We stayed together. We stayed confident. We stayed poised," George said. "We've given ourselves a chance here, [after] being down 3-1, with an unbelievable opportunity to go play a Game 7 in Boston... We're still alive. We're still fighting, we're still working, we're still staying together. And, honestly, that's all we can be happy and proud about as a group: that we are connected in these moments, and we're giving it our best shot."
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