PHILADELPHIA — When one looks at the box score of Tuesday’s 103-101 win for the Philadelphia 76ers over the Boston Celtics, the biggest thing that will pop out is Joel Embiid dominating to the tune of 52 points on 20-for-25 shooting. The big fella was phenomenal.
However, PJ Tucker made the three biggest shots of the game when the Sixers needed them the most.
Philadelphia couldn’t get anything going other than Embiid. It needed somebody to help the MVP candidate on Tuesday. With the game tied at 89, Tucker stepped up and made the biggest shots of the night.
He made a corner 3 off a pass from Embiid to give the Sixers a 92-89 lead with 2:53 left. Embiid found Tucker in the corner again for another triple at the 2:03 mark to put the Sixers up 95-89. When the Celtics doubled Embiid again, he found Tucker yet again for another 3 to put the Sixers up, 101-95, with 53.3 seconds left.
“I’m just happy,” said Embiid. “We wouldn’t have won that game without him. Three big shots and we really got that win because of him.”
Before those three triples, Tucker had two points and he looked a bit hesitant on the offensive end, which has been a theme all season. However, he was tough on the defensive end, and he gave the Sixers an edge on the floor despite not scoring much.
“PJ has been great the whole season,” Embiid added. “Obviously, he’s not gonna score a lot of points, if any, but just his presence on the floor. The little stuff that he does. Offensive rebounding, guarding the other team’s best player, just his activity, his communication, you can’t judge players off of scoring.”
In a league so predicated on scoring, what Tucker does can go unnoticed a lot of times. Embiid wants everybody to know what he brings to the table.
“In this league, people don’t care about defense anymore,” Embiid finished. “It’s all about offense. How many points you scored, but offense is not all that matters. There’s both ends. There’s two ends on a basketball floor and I think he’s been huge. Even offensively, doing the little things, like I said, offensive rebounding, setting screens, giving himself up for the team. So I think he’s been great.”
Nonetheless, this was just another example of what Tucker brings to the Sixers in big games. He is going to be so important to what Philadelphia wants to do in the playoffs.
“Yeah, he’s been in big moments,” added coach Doc Rivers. “He’s gonna shoot it. They were going to help off of him, we said that in the time out, and he stepped up and made them.”
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