Joel Embiid Feels Accomplished After Sixers Sweep Celtics

Sixers center Joel Embiid feels good about sweeping the Boston Celtics.

Outside of last year, the Philadelphia 76ers haven't had too much success against the Boston Celtics during the Joel Embiid era. A couple of years back, Embiid went as far as saying that the Celtics-Sixers rivalry isn't an actual rivalry because Boston always seems to have Philly's number.

Last season that changed a bit as the Sixers won three out of four regular-season matchups against the Celtics. However, when the two met in the first round of the playoffs during the Summer of 2020, the Celtics picked up four easy victories when it mattered the most and sent the Sixers home from the NBA bubble early.

Joel Embiid isn't a forgetful person. Every season the big man remembers losses and snubs and adds everything to his mental bulletin board for future motivation. That helped this season as the Sixers defeated Boston three out of three times in the regular season. And, of course, Embiid was a big reason for that.

“Against Boston, that’s our rival,” Embiid said after Tuesday night's win on the road. “They’ve got a great team. They got a lot of great talent, great coaching. Those are the games you really want to win. Especially for me because I’ve been here for so long, and that’s a rivalry that’s very important for me, and also for the city of Philadelphia.”

In their first outing back in January, Embiid put up 42 points in 32 minutes to help lead the Sixers to a 117-109 win over Boston. The second time around, Embiid checked in for 30 minutes and collected 38 points in the 122-110 victory over the Cs. 

Then, on Tuesday night at the TD Garden, Embiid took advantage of the Celtics' lack of talent and depth at the center position and had a nice bounce-back game after a self-proclaimed rough performance on Saturday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. In 32 minutes, Embiid put up 35 points on the Celtics, helping the Sixers seal the deal with a 106-96 win.

No one can deny what @JoelEmbiid is doing this season.

35 PTS | 6 REB | 1 BLK

📹 presented by @IBX pic.twitter.com/sAC6A8cCX1

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) April 7, 2021

While many seem to believe that last year's playoff results might've motivated Embiid and the 76ers to want to take down the Celtics even more this year, the four-time All-Star plays it down and simply makes it clear that having success against Boston is always the goal as they are known rivals to the Sixers.

“It’s not just about what happened to playoffs. Every single year, you want to win this matchup,” Embiid explained. “You want to play well against them, and you want to win all these games. This year hasn’t been different. Obviously, you say we won those three games, that’s the mindset we got to have against every team.”

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_ & Instagram: @JGrassoNBA.