The Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Boston Celtics for Game 4 of this best-of-seven series.
Joel Embiid returned for the Sixers after missing two weeks due to appendectomy surgery. Philly fans were ready for his return but unfortunately it would be over before it got started.
Neemias Queta got the scoring started with an emphatic dunk on Kelly Oubre Jr. who attempted to take the charge. Oubre Jr. would find Embiid for the slam in transition for his first made field goal since his return. He had all six Philly points early in the first. VJ Edgecombe did a ball fake that made Payton Pritchard look away and drilled the foul-line jumper. Pritchard would begin to catch fire as he made back-to-back threes, the second one being from deep. At the end of the first, Pritchard made a three on one leg to beat the buzzer and talked smack heading to the bench.
Boston went on a 22-5 run and led 34-18 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, Pritchard hit a stepback three over Quentin Grimes that forced a timeout as the Celtics led by 21. Jaylen Brown put he moves on Paul George and then hit a sidestep three before the shot clock expired. Boston made 11 threes as a team in the first half. They led 56-38 at halftime
Tyrese Maxey made a three right out of the gates to get the scoring started for Philly. Jayson Tatum responded with an and-one, one-legged fadeaway over Oubre Jr. for the three point play. Derrick White had a chase down block against Tyrese Maxey and led to a Jaylen Brown fade away and-one over Paul George during an inbound play. Embiid recorded an and-one foul line jumper over White. Brown and Tatum scored every Boston third quarter point with 22 until a Pritchard three with 3:43 left in the third quarter.
Pritchard was cooking towards the end of the quarter as he scored eight straight for the Celtics. Boston led 95-74 entering the fourth quarter. Tatum had a four-point play as he pushed Boston’s lead to 30 after the free throw. The Celtics continued their dominance as they won 128-96.
Pritchard led the way for Boston with 32 points. Tatum had 30 points and Brown had 20. Maxey had 22 points and Embiid had 26 points along with 10 rebounds securing the double-double in his return. Boston set a franchise playoff record with 24 made threes.
The Celtics lead the series 3-1 as the series returns to Boston for game 5 this Tuesday April 28 at 7 p.m.
