Joel Embiid scores 52 points as Sixers hold off Celtics, clinch at least No. 3 seed

Emotionally, this game was about pride. And Joel Embiid wouldn’t allow the 76ers to wear the stain of a sweep.

Before Wednesday night’s game, Doc Rivers was asked if there was anything his team could do to avoid a sweep.

“No, just you don’t want to get swept,” the Sixers coach said. “But other than that, no. And that’s not coach-speak. That’s a fact. I’ve been on both sides when it happened and beaten a team in the playoffs. But you just don’t want to. You are competitive. Part of that should not want you to. That’s about it.”

The Sixers don’t have to worry about that now.

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Embiid finished with 52 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, and two blocks, leading the Sixers to 103-101 victory over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. It was his third 50-point performance of the season.

“The MVP race is over,” Rivers said. “Really. Tonight, we couldn’t make shots. ... The man scored half our points. The man scored half our points in an NBA game. And I’m biased, but the MVP race is over.”

Embiid, the MVP frontrunner, scored a career-high 59 points against the Utah Jazz on Nov. 13. Then he had 53 points versus the Charlotte Hornets on Dec. 11. On Tuesday, he made 20 of 25 shots and went 12-for-13 from the foul line.

“The best one was probably the Utah game. There’s no question about it,” Embiid said of ranking his 50-point outings. “I was doing everything on the floor, offensively and defensively. But given the team that we played, Boston, and getting a win, I don’t know [this game is] probably up there.”

However, it came down to the final possession. The Sixers escaped with the victory after Jayson Tatum missed a 14-foot jumper with 0.2 seconds remaining.

The Sixers avoided being swept by their Atlantic Division foe in this season’s four meetings. The victory also assured the Sixers (52-27) of at least the Eastern Conference’s third playoff seed. Boston (54-25), however, still remains one win or one Sixers loss in the final three games away from clinching the second spot.

It really mattered to Embiid that the Sixers beat the Celtics at least once this season.

“We’ve struggled against them this year, obviously,” Embiid said. “Down 0-3. So tonight was much needed.”

The Celtics were without Jaylen Brown and Robert Williams III.

Embiid lacked aggression in the previous few games in an effort to avoid injury. He vowed to be more aggressive after Sunday’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. And that was obvious from the start against the Celtics.

The 7-foot-2, 280-pounder made his first three baskets on a 9-foot turnaround jumper, an 11-foot turnaround fadeaway, and a driving layup. He went on to score 18 first-quarter points on 6-of-7 shooting along with making 6 of 7 foul shots. Embiid also had seven rebounds and one assist while playing the entire first quarter.

He was on the bench at the start of the second quarter, but checked back into the game with 6 minutes, 42 seconds before intermission. It took him a little while to regain his rhythm, and he missed his first three attempts. But he followed that by making his final three attempts of the quarter.

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Then in the third quarter, Embiid continued where he left off. He made all six of his shots before making a pair of foul shots with 26.7 seconds left in the period, giving him 38 heading into the fourth.

His 40th point came on his first shot attempt in the fourth quarter with 7:46 remaining. Then, after Boston scored on the ensuing possession, Embiid answered with another basket to knot the score at 81 with 7:06 left. Then his three-point play gave the Sixers an 89-88 lead with 3:40 to play.

Jayson Tatum knotted the score, 89-89, when he split a pair of foul shots with 3:13 left. But Embiid assisted corner three-pointers by P.J. Tucker on the Sixers’ next two possessions. Then Embiid made a technical foul shot, scored on a dunk, and found Tucker for another corner three that gave the Sixers a 101-95 lead with 53 seconds left.

“They just kept doubling,” Embiid said of what the Celtics did to him that enabled Tucker to be so wide open on his three-pointers. “Obviously, as I kept making shots, they made an adjustment, especially every single time. It was really Marcus [Smart]. They just kept sending doubles and making the right plays, and whatever happens, happens.

“And P.J. ... P.J. was huge. Three huge corner threes. We don’t win that game without him.”

Then Embiid scored his 51st and 52nd points on a pair of foul shots with 9.1 seconds left to put the Sixers up seven points.

Told that Rivers and his teammates said the MVP race was over, Embiid responded, “They’re probably right. But we got bigger goals.”

Tucker scored nine of his 11 points in the fourth quarter. He made 4 of 5 shots, including make all three of his three-pointers. James Harden had 20 points, a game-high 10 assists, five rebounds, two blocks, and one steal.

Derrick White paced the Celtics with 26 points, Tatum added 19, and Malcolm Brogdon had 18 points.

Rivers has been on both sides of the Sixers-Celtics series.

He spent nine seasons as the Celtics coach, winning the 2008 NBA title and compiling a 416-305 regular-season record. For him, the rivalry is intense on both sides.

“It might have been my first year in Boston, second year … but we lost to Philly one game and we’re flying back,” Rivers said. “[Celtics great and announcer] Tommy Heinsohn grabbed me, because I would also pick him up and take him to his car. … We get in the car, and he says, ‘Don’t ever lose to Philly again.’ And he had never said anything like that. For me, I was new to it. It wasn’t a rivalry at the time. So I kind of got the message that these two cities like beating each other.”

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