PHILADELPHIA _ Let this sentence sink in for a moment: On Wednesday, the 76ers defeated the Boston Celtics, 118-115, at Wells Fargo Center in what was just the fourth victory in the last 25 series meetings.
What do you make of this?
Since the trade deadline, the Sixers (47-25) have been regarded as an Eastern Conference title contender. And they played that way for the most part in their eight games with Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris, Joel Embiid, JJ Redick, and Ben Simmons all in the starting lineup.
They had gone 6-1 in the first seven games. Their lone loss came to Boston (44-28) in a 112-109 setback here on Feb. 12. At the time, the thought was that despite the talented additions, the Sixers were just inferior to their Atlantic Division rival.
Well, that's no longer the case.
Embiid had a game-high 37 points to do with a career-high 22 rebounds to help lead the Sixers to victory. The two-time All-Star center also made a career-high 20 foul shots in 21 attempts.
Meanwhile, Butler scored 15 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter. Harris added 21 points. Redick had 17 points, while Simmons finished with 13 points, 8 rebounds and seven assists.
The starters dominant play enabled the Sixers to overcome their bench scoring just eight points.
Kyrie Irving paced the Celtics with 36 points.
The win extended the Eastern Conference's third-place Sixers winning streak to six games enabled to them to not be swept in the four-game series season against the fifth-place Celtics.
From the start, one had a different vibe. This game was a confidence boost for a squad looking to reach the NBA Finals. From a psychological standpoint, the Sixers needed to learn how to beat Boston.
"To overdramatize it doesn't interest me, but I think there's a little bit of it," Brown before the game.
Emotions were on overload, as the Sixers treated this contest like it was postseason tilt.
There was a pregame video showing favorable Philly highlights from previous series games against the Celtics. The video concluded with a clip of Embiid dunking on Celtics center Aron Baynes.
Former Sixers Eric Snow and Larry Hughes were in attendance and introduced to the sellout crowd.
But the Sixers were more fired up than their fans.
Coach Brett Brown received a technical foul for protesting a foul on Embiid with 4 minutes, 33 seconds left in second quarter.
Then things got heated 54 seconds into the second half.
Marcus Smart took exception to Embiid's hard pick that knocked him to court. The Celtics got up and shoved the center in the back, knocking him to the floor. Embiid got up and had to be separated from Smart. After reviewing the play, the referees gave Smart a flagrant type 2 foul, which comes with an automatic ejection. Embiid received a technical foul.
That seemed to motivate Embiid. The went on to score 15 of his points in the third quarter. After one play, he bent down and talked trash to North Philly native Marcus Morris as he was flat on his back on the court.
Thanks to Embiid's effort, the Sixers were able to battle back from their double-double deficit. Mike Scott's foul shot with 3:48 in the third quarter gave them their first lead (83-82) of the game.
The lead seesawed before the Celtics went on build a 9-point lead (99-90) with 8:58 remaining in the game. But Butler made back-to-back 3-pointers to knot the score at 105 with 5:05 left. Then after a couple of lead changes, Ben Simmons's three-point play gave Philly a 116-113 lead with 40.8 seconds left.
The Celtics were without Gordon Hayward, who is in the NBA concussion protocol. Meanwhile, Baynes suffered a game-ending left-ankle sprain with 5:07 in the second quarter.
