Boston Celtics All-Star guard Jaylen Brown and Philadelphia 76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid had very similar outings in an intense Game 7 at Boston’s TD Garden on Saturday night.
Embiid finished with 34 points on 12 of 26 shooting from the floor, while Brown finished with 33 points on 12 of 27 shooting from the floor. The main difference was that Embiid’s 76ers won 109-100 to complete a 3-1 series comeback and eliminate Boston in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
But there was another major difference, if you ask Brown.
“It was tough,” Brown said during his postgame presser. “Embiid put a lot of pressure on us. We didn’t really have an answer for him. We tried a bunch of different things. He’s a big body. He also was flopping around. He got some extra calls and stuff like that, and they rewarded him for that. But that’s the league we’re in.”
Embiid went 9 of 11 from the line, only five more free throws than Brown attempted, for the record.
Brown previously criticized “foul baiting” after the Celtics lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 13. He didn’t mention reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander by name, like he just did with Embiid, but he didn’t have to.
Brown might hold a bigger grudge against Embiid for unexpectedly ending his season — and for jawing at him throughout — though he and Embiid embraced and smiled after the game ended.
Embiid had been 0-3 against the Celtics in playoff series in his career before now. Per ESPN, the Celtics were 32-0 with a 3-1 lead in a playoff series, an all-time NBA record, and the 76ers were historically 0-18 in that scenario, also an all-time NBA record. Not anymore.
Now, we get to watch Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns battle when the 76ers face the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Game 1 of the series is scheduled for Monday, May 4, at 8 p.m. ET in Madison Square Garden.
Read the full article here
