Joel ‘The Process’ Embiid runs down Jaylen Brown for a signature block, leads the Sixers to Game 5 win

BOSTON — “The Process” was magnificent. Again.

The points. The post. The boards. The Block.

With 5 minutes, 42 seconds to play, Joel Embiid turned the ball over. Jaylen Brown, the Celtics’ best athlete — hell, the best athlete on either team — raced downcourt. The Celtics had cut a 19-point 76ers lead to 15, and it was about to be 13, and the TD Garden was rocking like Bird and McHale were still shooting and traveling and hacking and winning.

But then, somehow, Embiid caught Brown. Somehow, Embiid — 50 pounds heavier, with a bum knee, in the fourth quarter — rumbled downcourt like a charging rhinoceros, rose, twisted his body, avoided contact, and snuffed Brown’s layup, from behind. No foul.

“The biggest play of the game was that blocked shot,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said.

It was what LeBron James, Cleveland 2.0 edition, did to Warriors forward Andre Iguodala in the Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. It was that kind of play, by that kind of player, in a crucial moment for the franchise, which took a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals with Tuesday’s 115-103 win.

Players all over the league will tell you that, despite being the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, The Block is LeBron’s signature moment.

For now, this Block is Embiid’s.

“Whenever I can block shots, especially in the fourth quarter like that ... “ Embiid began, “you never know. They get some momentum, and they start believing. But a play like that drains the energy from the crowd and themselves.”

The crowd, indeed, was stunned. The Sixers pushed the lead to 21 in the next two minutes; the crowd began to leave as the Celtics surrendered, subbing in fringe players for token minutes. With The Block, “The Process” had crushed their spirit.

Injured and exhausted, Embiid is putting his stamp on the 2023 playoffs. This is his moment. This is the next step. He won a pivotal game on his archrival’s floor in a game from which there was no real return: Game 5, Eastern Conference semifinal, in Boston, the biggest game in 22 years for a franchise that reset itself in 2013 and built around Embiid for the last seven years.

With a 3-2 lead and a home game Thursday, the Sixers stand one win away from advancing past the second round of the playoffs for the first time in more than two decades. Can Embiid do it again?

» READ MORE: Sixers take pivotal Game 5 win, 115-103, in Boston, lead 3-2

He’d done it two nights before, scoring 34 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in 46 minutes of the overtime game. That’s right: He played his most postseason minutes with a sprained and braced knee, in his third game back after missing 10 days, and yes, he was tired, but clearly, he was the difference.

Tuesday night, Embiid, now unbraced and somehow fitter, scored 33 points, snagged seven rebounds, and blocked four shots, one in legendary fashion, in a virtuosic performance. He called for the ball. He bullied Al Horford. He hit three of seven three-pointers. He was everywhere, and he was all things for the Sixers.

He opened lanes and jump shots for Tyrese Maxey, who dropped 30 points, but Maxey was the sideshow. The Celtics hit 12 of 38 threes, but they were scared to attack the big guy: “A lot of times they don’t want to take a lot of shots around the rim,” Embiid said with self-satisfaction.

Jayson Tatum led them with 36 points, and Jaylen Brown had 24, but Embiid was, without question, the best player on the court.

He is, without question, the best player in the world.

» READ MORE: Sixers now NBA title favorites, according to at least one sportsbook

The Celtics had no answer. Frankly, no one has an answer for this edition of Embiid, even though he lacks full strength and full conditioning. We are witnessing an unparalleled combination of skill and strength and basketball genius in real time, and so we should appreciate it.

Now, you may start speaking of him in the same manner you speak of Allen Iverson. Julius Erving. Moses Malone.

Wilt.

It was a week to the day and on the same court Embiid was named NBA MVP, an honor for which he shamelessly campaigned for the past three years. Tuesday, he erased any question whether he deserved it this year.

» READ MORE: Sixers’ Joel Embiid wins NBA MVP, beating out Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo

“He’s the MVP,” P.J .Tucker said. “That’s what we expect of him. When he’s aggressive, when he’s assertive, we’re a tough team.”

And he’s a tough guy. There was no guarantee that he’d be back at all after spraining his right knee in Game 3 of the first round against the Nets. He sat and watched the Sixers win Game 4, then win Game 1 here, and decided to risk further injury, even if it meant enduring constant agony.

“When I get on the floor I don’t think about the injury, no matter how painful it is. No matter how much it hurts,” he said Tuesday. “It just want to compete every single possession.”

Said like a lion. Said like a winner. Said like a leader. And, good Lord, did he lead.

The Sixers started the game sleepwalking, but Embiid woke them up. He collected an offensive rebound, put it back, and drew a foul. Harris added a put-back on the next possession. Embiid blocked Marcus Smart’s drive, which led to Maxey’s three. James Harden scored five of the Sixers’ next seven points, and the Sixers were alive, up seven points with 5:24 seconds to play in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, as the Celtics cut the lead from 15 points to five, Embiid slowed things down. He repeatedly took Horford to the woodshed, demanding isolations and drawing fouls. Embiid finished the half with 21 points and went 9-for-9 from the line, playing exceptionally physical basketball without a knee brace for the first time since he sprained the knee.

“We all understand that, for us to win, I have to be aggressive,” Embiid said. “They had momentum. The best way to stop momentum is to post up. If they’re going on a run, I want the ball.” He got it.

Similarly, Harden was aggressive and efficient, his only first-half miss a double-teamed shot-clock beater in the last seconds of the half. He had 10 points and four assists, and he finished with 17 points and 10 assists. Not bad work for a sidekick.

Because the Sixers, and the NBA, now belong to Joel Embiid.

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