Winners and Losers of Sixers' Shocking Game 5 Win Over Celtics

The Sixers' season was supposed to be over Tuesday night. They were headed into the house of horrors that is Boston down 3-1 in their first-round playoff series.

The Sixers' Big Three had other ideas.

Fueled by a combined 74 points from Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George, the Sixers staved off the Celtics, 113-97, to send the series back to a Game 6 on Thursday night. The Celtics are still heavy favorites to close out the Sixers within the next two games, but extending the series with a road win as a double-digit underdog shows resolve that past years' Sixers teams might not have shown.

Before the Sixers try to stave off elimination again, check out the biggest winners and losers from their stunning Game 5 victory.

Winner: Joel Embiid

Sixers center Joel Embiid — Apr 28, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) exits the court after the game against the Boston Celtics in game five of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images | David Butler II-Imagn Images

Nineteen days removed from an appendectomy, Embiid finished with a game-high 33 points to go with eight assists, four rebounds and one block.

After Game 4, Embiid told reporters that he had "complications after the surgery," but he didn't want to get into further details. The details he did share were already personal enough. But he did say that he was surprised to play 34 minutes in his first game back.

Embiid played 39 minutes in Game 5. And he might had played even more had he not banged knees with someone in the third quarter and gotten temporarily shaken up.

After going into the fourth quarter with an 86-85 lead, the Sixers outscored the Celtics 28-11 in the final 12 minutes of the game. Embiid was on the court for the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter, and the Sixers outscored the Celtics by 14 points over that span.

He did all of that after getting off to a slow start to the game, too.

But perhaps more than anything else, this is what makes Joel Embiid a winner on Tuesday:

Joel Embiid:

"I've dealt with a lot of stuff over my career. I don't complain, I just want to give as much as I can...I know a lot of people might have takes of that I might be lazy or whatever, but every single time I'm on the floor I want to play as hard as possible. I just… pic.twitter.com/yIf65h1I7p
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) April 29, 2026

Loser: The Celtics' Frontcourt

Going against Andre Drummond and Adem Bona for 48 minutes is one thing. Going against Embiid for 35-40 minutes is another.

The Celtics' bigs have learned that the hard way over the past two games.

Neemias Queta finished Game 5 with eight points on 4-of-8 shooting and 14 rebounds in 26 minutes, while Nikola Vučević had eight points, eight assists and two rebounds in 15 minutes. The Celtics were outscored by 10 with each of them on the court.

The Celtics have dominated both the rebounding and three-point battles for most of this series. Those two paired together to unleash a furious salvo upon the Sixers in Game 4. But in Game 5, the Sixers held relatively even on the glass, which helped them outshoot the Celtics both in three-point makes and attempts.

Embiid finished with only four rebounds, the fewest of any Sixers starter, which speaks to what a teamwide focus that rebounding was on Tuesday. Maxey finished with a team-high 10 boards, while George hauled in nine and VJ Edgecombe had seven. Dominick Barlow also snagged three boards in his six minutes off the bench.

With Embiid back in the fold, the Celtics no longer have a clear talent advantage in the frontcourt. That could make it that much harder for them to close out the Sixers.

Winner: Tyrese Maxey

Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey drives against Celtics guard Derrick White. — Apr 21, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey (0) drives to the basket against Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) in the first half of a game two of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images | Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

If there's any question why Tyrese Maxey has so quickly captured the hearts of Philadelphians, refer them to this.

Tyrese Maxey on his 10 defensive rebounds tonight: "I'm just tired. I'm just tired of giving up rebounds, man. We played really good defense a lot of these times we're giving up rebounds...We gotta reward ourselves, and because we get a defensive rebound, now we can go play in… pic.twitter.com/sePVUAXZnI
— PHLY Sixers (@PHLY_Sixers) April 29, 2026

If that isn't enough, how about this?

Still not enough? Fine. How about the fact that Maxey went into Boston facing elimination and dropped 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting, 10 rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block in 43 minutes? That made him the first Sixer to drop 25-10-5 in a game in which they were facing elimination since Billy Cunningham in 1971.

Maxey took only three shots in the Sixers' blowout Game 4 loss, which he took full accountability for afterward. In Game 5, he had 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting at halftime, trailing only Embiid (15) and Jayson Tatum (14).

When healthy, Embiid still might be the best player on this team, but Maxey is now the team's heartbeat. Even if his pinky is affecting his shooting touch, particularly from deep, Maxey's willingness to attack the glass and mix it up inside shows that he's still able to make an All-NBA-esque impact on a game.

Loser: Derrick White

All series long, the Sixers must be living in fear of a Derrick White Game where he hits five or six threes. Five games into the series, it still hasn't come yet.

In the first four games, White shot 7-of-29 from deep while averaging only 8.8 points on 30.8% shooting. In Game 5, he crashed out and finished with a series-low six points on 2-of-8 shooting (including 0-of-4 from deep).

White came up with a critical rebound in Game 3 and has played his typical brand of pesky defense, so it's not as though he's been a complete negative for the Celtics. But his relative absence on offense is becoming more glaring with each passing game.

During the Celtics' run to the championship two years ago, White averaged 16.7 points per game in the playoffs while shooting 40.4% from deep on 8.5 attempts per game. Last year, he averaged 18.8 points and shot 38.5% on 9.5 attempts per game. The contrast between that and his performance thus far this year is stark.

If White can't have one throw-back-the-clock-to-2025 performance in this series, the Celtics might be in some actual trouble.

Winner: Quentin Grimes

Sixers forwards Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. block Celtics forward Jayson Tatum — Apr 28, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Quentin Grimes (5) and forward Paul George (8) defend against Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) in the second half during game five of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images | David Butler II-Imagn Images

For the first three games of this series, Quentin Grimes barely made a peep. He averaged 5.0 points per game while shooting 5-of-13 in total (including 3-of-6 from three-point range).

Grimes got going in the blowout Game 4 loss with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting and six assists in 24 minutes. He carried that momentum right over to Game 5, where he finished with 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting (including 4-of-7 from deep).

The Sixers have been desperate for scoring from anyone other than Embiid, Maxey, George or Edgecombe in this series. Kelly Oubre Jr. started the series with three double-digit outings, but he's been held to eight points total over the past two games after popping up on the injury report ahead of Game 4 with right adductor soreness.

Oubre was removed from the injury report ahead of Game 5, but his instant drop in production perhaps suggests that he isn't fully recovered from whatever's bothering him. If that's true, the Sixers may need another masterful performance from Grimes in Game 6 to stave off elimination again.

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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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