For the second straight year, the Boston Celtics managed to overcome a 3-2 deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinals to punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat. The script was fairly similar as last year for the most part; the C's threw away Game 5, won a tough Game 6 on the road, and then outclassed their opponent in Game 7 to keep their season alive.
As bad as things looked for the Celtics after Game 5, and even for much of the second half of Game 6, they showed incredible resolve and managed to find a way to push past the Sixers. Boston will have a tough challenge on their hands against Miami in the ECF, even though they are the eight seed in the East, but they will be favored to beat the Heat, and rightfully so.
However, before we fully turn our attention to the upcoming series against the Heat, it's important to take a look back at this Sixers series, because the Celtics managed to do something that not many other teams can do. Not only did they win Games 6 & 7 to avoid suffering a season-ending defeat, but they did so by managing to completely shut down the league's MVP in Joel Embiid.
How the Celtics managed to neutralize Joel Embiid
After turning himself into one of the most dominant all-around players in the NBA, Embiid finally won his first MVP award in the 2022-23 season thanks to his ridiculous statline for the season (33.1 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 4.2 APG, 54.8 FG%). Embiid was at his dominant best throughout the entire season, and it wasn't surprising to see him finally top Nikola Jokic to win the award.
Embiid was obviously playing through a knee injury he suffered in Philly's opening round win over the Brooklyn Nets, but it didn't exactly appear to be hampering too badly throughout this series after his initial return in Game 2. However, Embiid looked nothing like his typical MVP self throughout this series against Boston (25.5 PPG, 9 RPG, 2 APG, 42.1 FG%).
Maybe Embiid is more hurt than he is letting on, but truth be told, this is largely due to the Celtics completely neutralizing the player who was voted to be the best in the league on both sides of the court in this series. Embiid was struggling to assert himself on offense, and was getting picked apart on defense. So how did the Celtics do this?
Slowing down Embiid is a full team effort, but the two players mainly responsible for this are Jayson Tatum and Al Horford. In Game 6, Tatum was horrible up until the final four minutes of the game, when he nailed four three-pointers to go from zero to hero in the blink of an eye. But how he managed to accomplish this actually ended up playing a huge role in his 51-point Game 7 outburst.
Tatum's second field goal of Game 6 ended up being a stepback corner three over Embiid that gave the Celtics an 84-83 lead they never relinquished. He also pulled Embiid out of the paint for the nail in the coffin a few moments later on a stepback three on the right wing. And with that, Tatum finally figured out how to get buckets whenever he wanted.
Tatum was not great throughout this series, but in Game 7, he was getting literally whatever he wanted on offense by getting Embiid to switch on to him. Whether it was a stepback three, or driving past him to the rim, Embiid was getting torched by Tatum for much of this game. There was a stretch of action in the third quarter where this was happening so consistently that it was mind-boggling it took the Sixers so long to adjust.
When all was said and done, Tatum scored 24 of his 51 points when Embiid was his primary defender, hitting eight of his ten shots, including all four of his threes. After looking scared to attack Embiid in the paint all series long, Tatum finally was able to get a matchup on offense that he liked, which just so happened to be Embiid.
On the other end of the court, everyone knew that Horford was going to be the primary defender of Embiid for much of this series. Considering how Embiid scored just 25.5 points per game in this series, that already indicates that he did a pretty good job at slowing him down. Horford wasn't alone, but he certainly deserves a big chunk of the praise.
Again, we will take a closer look at Game 7, where Horford was at his dominant best against Embiid. Embiid finished the game with just 15 points on 5-19 shooting, and pretty much all of that came against Horford. Horford spent ten minutes and 27 seconds as the primary defender on Embiid in the series finale, and he limited Embiid to 4-17 shooting while also blocking three of his shots. That is unreal defense in a do-or-die game.
Embiid made things a bit easier on Horford than necessary by being incredibly passive in the second half again, but the Celtics overall defensive scheme against the star center worked to perfection in this one. Horford was holding his ground whenever Embiid posted him up on the block, and he always seemed to knock him off his spot every time the ball touched his hands. When Embiid is close to the hoop, especially off the catch, bad things happen, but Horford made sure he was keeping him as far away from the rim as possible.
This is important because the second piece of this strategy involves sending help defenders. When Embiid is close to the rim, or puts his head down and makes his way there, it's tough to get any help over to him without committing a foul. But Horford held up, and the helpers swarmed Embiid, who added to his miserable day by committing seven turnovers in this one as well.
Earlier in the series, I noted how Embiid's performance would single-handedly determine how the Celtics would fare in this series. And when the Sixers needed him the most, the Celtics were able to completely shut him down and win this series. With their backs against the wall, Boston stifled the best player in the NBA, and they will look to carry this momentum over to their series with the Heat.
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