PHILADELPHIA _ The 76ers are on the brink of elimination.
The Boston Celtics have a series advantage of three games to none after Saturday's 101-98 overtime victory in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference best-of-seven semifinal at the Wells Fargo Center. Game 4 of the series is Monday at Wells Fargo. The Sixers would have to win four straight games to advance.
This setback marked their first loss on their home court since March 13.
On this night, Boston's Al Horford came up with two huge plays in the closing seconds of overtime.
The All-Star post player's four-foot layup gave the Celtics a 99-98 lead with 5.5 seconds left. Then, after the Sixers called a timeout, he stole Ben Simmons' inbounds pass to Joel Embiid. Horford raced down the court and was fouled with 3.0 seconds remaining. Horford then made both free throws to give Boston a 101-98 cushion.
Marco Belinelli misfired on a 3-pointer right before the buzzer, and the Celtics escaped with the win.
Belinelli, a reserve guard, helped the Sixers avoid disaster in regulation.
That because JJ Redick passed the ball to Simmons in the closing seconds of regulation. But Simmons, who was headed toward in the paint, wasn't looking for the ball. So it bounced across the court and into the hands of Celtics point guard Terry Rozier. He scooped it up, raced down court and found Jaylen Brown, whose layup gave Boston an 89-87 lead with 1.7 seconds left.
The Sixers called timeout and got the ball at their end of the court. That's when Belinelli hit a long 2-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime.
An arena employee thought Belinelli's shot was a game-winning 3-pointer. So he fired off a confetti gun, and the teams had to wait until the confetti landed and was swept off the court before starting overtime.
Boston's Jayson Tatum led all scorers with 24 points. Horford had 13 points with six rebounds.
Embiid paced the Sixers with 22 points, 19 rebounds, one block and three turnovers. Redick had 18 points, while Simmons had 16 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, four turnovers and two blocks.
It appeared to be a solid bounce-back game for Simmons, who had one point and missed all four of his shot attempts on Thursday. Saturday marked the seventh time this postseason Simmons had at least 10 points, five rebounds and five assists. That's the most by a rookie since Hall of Famer Magic Johnson had 10 for the Los Angeles Lakers back in 1980.
It didn't take long for the rookie-of-the-year frontrunner to score more than he did in Thursday's Game 2 setback. Simmons made his first shot attempt 44 seconds into the game. His second basket, a driving layup, came with 5:41 left in the quarter. He finished the quarter with four points on 2-for-4 shooting as the Sixers led 20-19.
