James Harden’s game-winner lifts Sixers to wild 116-115 overtime win to even series with Boston Celtics

A Wells Fargo Center crowd that spent more than two hours waving blue rally towels throughout Sunday afternoon’s Game 4 spontaneously turned into a unified sea of arms crossing and separating, motioning a referee’s “no good” signal in belief that Marcus Smart’s three-pointer had left his hands after final buzzer of overtime.

And when the video replay officially confirmed as much, those 76ers fans erupted into a frenzy.

That secured the Sixers’ instant-classic 116-115 victory over the Boston Celtics — with James Harden’s game-winning corner three-pointer preceding Smart’s too-late shot — to re-inject life into their Eastern Conference semifinal series by pulling them into a 2-2 tie.

“No matter how it plays out, I just want to win,” Harden said after scoring 42 points and adding nine assists and eight rebounds in a massive bounce-back performance. “Quite frankly, today was do or die for us.”

This series is now guaranteed to at least come back to Philly for Game 6 after Harden’s second 40-point outing in four games against the Celtics. It arrived after the future Hall of Famer went a combined 5-of-28 from the floor in Games 2 and 3, drawing multitudes of outside criticism. NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid, who continues to play with a sprained knee, added 34 points, 13 rebounds, and four assists in 46 minutes following the quick turnaround after Friday’s Game 3.

It was fitting that the Sixers two stars connected on the game-winning bucket, when Embiid found Harden on the strong side for the deep shot. After Embiid got into the paint against the smaller Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown moved in from the corner to help defensively, the big man delivered what Harden called an “unbelievable” pass for the catch-and-shoot opportunity.

“That was an easy play,” Embiid said. “The trust that we talked about all season long.”

Still, the Sixers needed to keep pace after a furious Celtics rally from 16 points down in the third to take a five-point lead with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. Harden forced overtime with a floater that tied the score at 107 with 16.1 seconds to play, before Smart misfired on a three-point try just before the buzzer.

Boston initially pulled even at 96-96, when Tatum followed back-to-back three-pointers by Smart and Brown with a scooping reverse layup with less than six minutes to play. Then, after Embiid and Tyrese Maxey were blocked at the rim, Al Horford flew down the lane for a dunk and celebrated by shimmying his shoulders to his former home crowd.

That Celtics lead grew to 105-100 on consecutive three-pointers by Smart and Malcolm Brogdon, before a layup by Harden and an old-fashioned three-point play on an underneath finish through contact by P.J. Tucker tied the game at 105 with about a minute left. Two Smart free throws on the Celtics’ next possession gave them a two-point advantage before Harden’s tying shot.

The Sixers led by as many as 16 points in the first half, when Harden slung an alley-oop advance pass to Embiid with less than two minutes to play before the break. They maintained a double-digit lead for much of the third quarter, before scoring just 15 points in the final period of regulation to fuel Boston’s comeback.

Tatum led the Celtics with 24 points, 18 rebounds, and six assists, while Brown had 23 points and five assists. Brogdon, the NBA’s sixth man of the year, added 19 points and eight rebounds off the bench.

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Boston, before Game 6 Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center. As for how Sunday’s thriller could provide positive momentum heading back to TD Garden, Tucker said, “We’ll know in a few days.”

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Long before Harden’s crucial late-game buckets, the home crowd reacted with cheers that felt like a blend of enthusiastic and sarcastic when he converted a driving layup in the first quarter.

But then those shots kept falling. And falling. And falling. He buried seven of his first eight attempts — more than he made in Games 2 and 3 combined — and scored 21 first-half points.

Twelve of those points came in the second quarter’s first five minutes, feasting during Embiid’s customary rest period. He hit a three-pointer while falling to the floor. Then a pull-up jumper. Then a floater. Then another deep shot. And another.

Harden then hit two three-pointers in the third quarter, including one that put the Sixers back up, 76-61, and prompted him and Embiid to encourage a roaring crowd to get louder as they headed back to the bench for a timeout. He made seven of his nine shots in the third and fourth quarters, before his game-winner.

Harden and Rivers credited the Sixers’ solid screens, along with improved floor-spacing by running wide instead of congregating on one side of the floor, with helping unlock Harden’s shot-making. Getting into actions early in the shot clock was also beneficial, Harden added. Rivers even sent Harden a gospel song called “You Know My Name” as some pregame motivation.

“For a day in a half, James had to get himself back,” Rivers said after Harden’s rough performances in Games 2 and 3. “No one did that but James.”

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The Sixers largely built their 16-point first-half lead with their defense, holding the Celtics to 38.3% from the floor.

Boston’s offensive struggles came following a scorching start from Brown, who made his first five shots and scored 12 of his team’s first 14 points. But the rest of the Celtics shot a combined 2-of-16 in the first quarter. Tatum missed his first eight shots in the first half, before hitting a jumper in the final minute before the break.

“We were just aggressive,” said Tucker, one of the Sixers’ anchors and prime communicators on that end of the floor. “I think, for us, being assertive, being aggressive is the difference between most of our games. When we come out early and we assert ourselves and everybody’s tied in together, we’re tough. And when we don’t, we’re not.

“We might score a lot of points and still win the games, but more times than not in the playoffs, you’re not going to win when we’re not [aggressive]. We’ve got to continue to do that.”

That did not hold in the second half, when Boston shot 57.1% to roar back. They outscored the Sixers, 57-48, anchored by 17 points by Tatum on 6-of-8 shooting.

Rotations often shrink as the playoffs progress, and Sixers wing Jalen McDaniels was squeezed out Sunday.

That put both Harden and fellow starter Tobias Harris on the floor for the start of the second and fourth quarters alongside De’Anthony Melton, Georges Niang, and Paul Reed. That personnel grouping helped unleash Harden in the second quarter. But after the Celtics cut the Sixers’ lead to seven about two minutes into the final frame, Maxey and Tucker quickly subbed back in.

Though Rivers said after the game he believed going with a shorter bench “was the right thing to do,” the coach acknowledged it led to fatigue and loss of offensive pace down the stretch. Four of their five starters played at least 45 minutes. A late timeout Rivers used was “literally just to give us some rest, and I thought we kind of gathered ourselves and got our wind back.”

“That one stretch, we were running on [empty],” Rivers said. “We couldn’t get the ball up the floor, and that’s when they made their run. ... It’s tough to draw up a play when everybody’s fatigued, let me say that.”

Niang was the second unit’s top performer, going 3 of 6 from long range for nine points in 19 minutes.

McDaniels, who was acquired by the Sixers at the February trade deadline, averaged two points on 25% and 1.7 rebounds in 11.8 minutes in this series’ first three games.

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