PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers couldn’tget the job done on Thursday when they dropped Game 6 to the Boston Celtics, 95-86. They had a chance to eliminate their hated rivals, but they struggled on the offensive end.
Now, the Sixers have two days off before a winner-take-all Game 7 for the right to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
When considering Joel Embiid is still playing through an LCL sprain in his right knee, the Sixers are hoping the extra day off will do him some good before Game 7 on Sunday.
“The extra day will help everybody,” coach Doc Rivers said. “It’ll help them, too. Clearly, it’ll help big fella so that’ll be a benefit to us.”
Embiid and the Sixers have won twice on the road in this series. While winning a third time at TD Garden is a tall task, nobody thought the Atlanta Hawks would win three road games against the Sixers in 2021 either.
“We know what we have to do,” Embiid said. “We’ve gone on the road and we’ve won. It’s not going to be easy. The same thing. We’ve got to start better than we did tonight (Game 6). Everybody has to step up, starting with me. I’ve got to be more aggressive as far as shooting and getting my teammates open looks.”
Sunday will be judgment day for the Sixers. All season, they talked about how much tougher they were, how much they trusted each other, and how they were better prepared to contend for a title. Now, they have to respond on Sunday and advance.
“Everybody else has to do their job and everybody has to show up, but, it’s going to be fun,” Embiid added. “Game 7. That’s what we play, for these types of games. Tonight was pretty tough, but we know how much we could’ve been better. We missed a lot of good opportunities, especially going into the fourth up two. They made a lot of tough shots. That’s the name of the game. We’ve got to respond and we’ve got to go win.”
Game 7 from TD Garden is set for Sunday.
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