The Philadelphia 76ers survived a furious Boston Celtics comeback attempt, winning Game 4 Sunday, 116-115, to even the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series at two games apiece.
After the Sixers’ shaky win, league MVP Joel Embiid admitted that the team didn’t play their best but aimed most of the criticism at himself.
“We didn’t play our best, and I was terrible tonight,” Embiid said via John Clark of NBC Philadelphia. “I gotta be better, and I will be better.”
In only his third game back since suffering a sprained knee, Embiid acknowledged that the tough 34 minutes he played “got to” him during the final moments of Game 4.
Despite posting a double-double, recording 34 points and 13 rebounds, Embiid was a non-factor at times, and late in the game, Celtics’ veteran Al Horford all but locked down the MVP, holding him to only two points in the fourth quarter.
During the most crucial moments of Game 4, Embiid wasn’t the one to bail the Sixers out. Instead, James Harden took the reigns, forcing overtime before training the game-winner in the extra session.
The Sixers led by as many as 16 points on Sunday, but late in the fourth, the Celtics roared back and found themselves ahead by two 107-105, with 51.1 ticks remaining.
With the game and perhaps the season on the line, Harden drained a 12-foot floater with 16.1 seconds left to force OT.
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