7 Winners and Losers From Sixers' Breakthrough Game 7 Win Over Celtics

Heading into Saturday's Game 7, the Sixers hadn't beat the Boston Celtics in a playoff series since 1982. The Celtics were 32-0 all-time after going up 3-1 in a playoff series, while the Sixers were 0-18 all-time after going down 3-1.

The Celtics were up 3-1 against the Sixers in the first round of the playoffs this year after their second 32-point blowout in Game 4. They were headed back to Boston for Game 5 and figured to take care of business there and then. The Sixers were plus-2200 underdogs to win the series going into that game, per Patrick Everson of Vegas Insider.

Instead, the Sixers defied 40-plus years of history.

After beating the Celtics by double digits in both Games 5 and 6, the Sixers got off to a double-digit lead in the first quarter of Game 7. The Celtics battled back in the second quarter and cut the Sixers' lead to five at halftime, although the Sixers jumped back out to an 18-point lead late in the third quarter.

The Celtics proceeded to junk the game up with zone defense and pare the Sixers' lead back down to only one point with less than four minutes left. With the TD Garden faithful going wild, Tyrese Maxey then began a personal seek-and-destroy mission to ice the game and send the Sixers into the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Before we turn our attention to the New York Knicks, let's dance on the Celtics' graves one more time by naming the biggest winners and losers from Game 7.

Winner: Joel Embiid

Heading into Saturday, Joel Embiid was 0-3 against the Celtics in the playoffs and 0-3 in Game 7s. It was clear from early on that he was intent on changing that.

In the first quarter alone, Embiid had 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting, five assists, four rebounds and zero turnovers. The Sixers outscored the Celtics by 13 with him on the floor.

Much like the rest of his career, the Sixers got spanked in their minutes without Embiid. The good news is that he managed to power through a pair of knee scares to finish with a game-high 34 points on 12-of-26 shooting, 12 rebounds, six assists, one block and only one turnover in 39 minutes.

This was a legacy-shaping performance from Embiid. Had he lost to the Jayson Tatum-less Celtics in Game 7, he'd get ethered even harder than Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets have been lately.

Even though the Sixers were massive underdogs heading into the series and clear underdogs even with Tatum sidelined in Game 7, this was an opportunity they couldn't afford to blow, particularly after jumping out to such a big early lead. Although Embiid gassed out late and needed Maxey to help take the Sixers over the finish line, he set the tone early with 19 points, five rebounds and five assists in the first half.

Embiid shed one 80-pound monkey off his back. He'll now have a chance to ditch the even bigger one—the fact he's never made it past the second round of the playoffs.

Loser: Joe Mazzulla

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla was on tilt late in Game 6, and it appears to have carried over two days later.

After benching his starters less than two minutes into the fourth quarter of Game 6, Mazzulla drastically shook up his starting lineup in Tatum's absence. Out went Tatum (due to injury) along with Sam Hauser and Neemias Queta; in came Baylor Scheierman, Ron Harper Jr. (??) and Luka Garza (?!?).

Mazzulla chose… poorly.

The Celtics are the 1st team in NBA history with three scoreless starters in a playoff game.

With Garza, Scheierman and Harper Jr on the floor together to start, the Celtics were outscored 11-3.

Those three combined to shoot 0-7.

Just an unnecessary Game 7 gamble by Mazzulla. pic.twitter.com/QfjIkQcWfn
— Micah Adams (@MAdamsStatGuy) May 3, 2026

Those changes proved to be relatively short-lived, but spotting the Sixers an early lead in a hostile environment perhaps gave them some additional confidence in their ability to weather the storm and defy history.

Winner: Daryl Morey

This series is why Sixers president Daryl Morey signed Paul George to a four-year, $211.6 million max contract during 2024 free agency.

George, who got downgraded to probable for Game 7 because of an illness, had a relatively quiet 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting, three rebounds, three made triples and one assist in 42 minutes on Saturday. But across the series, he averaged 17.4 points per game while shooting a scorching 55.0% from deep. Tobias Harris could never.

In Game 7, Morey's handpicked backcourt of Maxey and VJ Edgecombe combined for 53 points on 19-of-35 shooting (including 7-of-15 from deep), 17 rebounds and 11 assists. The former was Morey's first draft pick with the Sixers; the latter is a rookie who has no business being as composed as he was in a hostile Game 7 road environment.

Thanks to Edgecombe, the Sixers no longer only have a Big Three; they have a Big Four in the making. Edgecombe is also on a cost-controlled rookie-scale contract for the next three years, which gives the Sixers an incredible asset to help them build around Maxey, Embiid and George while navigating the dreaded aprons.

There's no guarantee that the Sixers will get another even-semi-healthy playoff run out of this core, and if they lose to the Knicks in the second round, their vibes will be decidedly less high two weeks from now. This series at least demonstrated the upside of Morey's Big Three vision, though.

Loser: Brad Stevens

Celtics president Brad Stevens was named the NBA's Executive of the Year on Tuesday. Four days later, his prized trade-deadline acquisition never got off the bench in Game 7.

Before Tatum tore his Achilles in last year's playoffs, the Celtics were on pace to have the NBA's first $500 million roster ever between payroll and luxury-tax penalties. After Tatum tore his Achilles, the Celtics effectively decided to treat this season as a gap year—albeit one in which they wound up vastly exceeding expectations by winning 56 games.

Last offseason, the Celtics traded two-time NBA champion Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers for Anfernee Simons in a purely financially motivated move. At the trade deadline, they sent Simons to the Chicago Bulls for Nikola Vučević, who earned roughly $11 million less than Holiday this past season. They also effectively salary-dumped Kristaps Porziņģis last summer.

The Celtics did manage to get below the luxury-tax line entirely, so they could reset the clock on the repeater tax if they duck the tax next year as well. But in a series with razor-thin margins, it's fair to wonder whether Holiday and/or Porziņģis could have been the difference between the Celtics winning or losing against the Sixers.

Winner: Tyrese Maxey

Here's the full list of players in Sixers history to have at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a Game 7:

Dolph Schayes in 1959 (back when the Sixers were the Syracuse Nationals)
Joel Embiid in 2026
Tyrese Maxey in 2026

That's it. That's the list.

Across the series, Maxey averaged 26.9 points, 6.6 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 3.3 made threes in 40.9 minutes per game while shooting 46.4% overall, 41.8% from deep and 96.2% from the charity stripe. He had 46 assists to only nine turnovers in total, too.

Maxey had at least 20 points and five assists in all seven games this series, but he arguably saved his best for last. In Game 7 Maxey scored 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting (including 2-of-4 from deep), 11 rebounds, seven assists and only one turnover in 45 minutes.

Maxey is almost certain to be named to an All-NBA team in the coming weeks. For those who didn't pay much attention to him or the Sixers this season, this series was his coming-out party on a national stage.

Loser: Jaylen Brown

After a two-way stinkbomb in Game 6, Jaylen Brown acquitted himself well in Game 7. He had a team-high 33 points on 12-of-27 shooting, nine rebounds, four assists and three triples in 40 minutes.

With Jayson Tatum unexpectedly sidelined by knee soreness, the Celtics needed Brown to step up, and he answered the bell. What he shouldn't have answered was in his postgame press conference.

Jaylen Brown on Joel Embiid:

“We didn't really have the answers for him. We tried a bunch of different things. He's a big body. He also was flopping around. He got some extra calls ... they rewarded him for that, but that's the league we’re in.”pic.twitter.com/bQosQyHZk8
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) May 3, 2026

Brown was likely just upset because the officials started calling the off-arm push-offs that he does on most drives to the basket. With that context in mind, Brown's complaints about favorable officiating came off as especially hollow.

Winner: VJ Edgecombe

VJ Edgecombe made history in Game 2. He did it again in Game 7.

Edgecombe finished with 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting, six rebounds, five made threes and four assists in 44 minutes. Prior to Saturday, only five players in Sixers history had at least 23 points, six rebounds and four assists in a Game 7: Schayes, Allen Iverson, Billy Cunningham, Tobias Harris (!) and Julius "Dr. J" Erving.

No rookie in NBA history had ever put up those numbers in a Game 7… until now.

Edgecombe finished a distant third behind Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel in the Rookie of the Year race, but he made his impact felt on both ends of the floor throughout the series, particularly in Game 7.

Nick Nurse on VJ Edgecombe:

"(VJ) kind of came out of the halftime and said 'I got (Derrick) White and I'm gonna do better on him,' because White was cooking."

White shot 3-13 (1-9 from 3) in the second half.pic.twitter.com/Y0gEtY3tPy
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) May 3, 2026

Whenever the Celtics sent extra help at Embiid, they typically felt comfortable leaving Edgecombe open along the perimeter. His ability to make them pay for that approach in Game 7 might have been the difference between the Sixers winning and losing the series.

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Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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