Celtics reach East f inals
Boston eliminates Philadelphia in five games to return to East finals.
Jayson Tatum scores 25 points, including go-ahead layup with 23 seconds left.
BOSTON — Jayson Tatum made a big play under the basket. Joel Embiid couldn’t match it.
Tatum caught a pass, shook off a hit and went up for the go-ahead layup with 23 seconds left and the Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers 114-112 on Wednesday night to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
Tatum scored 25 points, Jaylen Brown had 24 and Terry Rozier 17, sinking a pair of free throws after forcing Embiid’s turnover in the final seconds. Al Horford added 15 points and eight rebounds for Boston, which will play LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second straight year for a spot in the NBA finals.
Game 1 is Sunday in Boston.
“We just have a neversay-die mentality no matter how much we’re down,” Tatum said. “No matter what the circumstances are, who’s playing, who’s out, we always believe in ourselves.”
Embiid had 27 points and 12 rebounds for the 76ers, who roared back into the playoffs for the first time since 2012, winning 20 out of 21 games before Boston beat them three straight times to open the conference semifinals. Dario Saric had 27 points and 10 rebounds, and Ben Simmons added 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
“They’re tough,” Embiid said of the Celtics. “I’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They made us work for everything. Coming here from Miami was completely different. I thought Miami was more physical, but the talent wasn’t there like Boston has.”
Embiid had a chance to tie it after Tatum made it 111109 with 18.8 seconds left. But he missed a heavily contested layup, failed to tip it back in and then grabbed that rebound too. Rozier knocked the ball out of his hands, off his leg and out of bounds with 10.8 seconds left.
Rozier made a pair of free throws to make it 113-109 — eight straight points for Boston. JJ Redick’s three-pointer cut the deficit to one.
Marcus Smart missed his first free-throw attempt and appeared to try to miss the second, too — to force the 76ers to bring the ball up the court with the clock running — but the ball went in. Philadelphia’s full-court inbounds pass was intercepted by Smart, and he threw the ball in the air to run out the clock.
The Celtics and Cavaliers have undergone near-complete overhauls since the Cavaliers eliminated Boston in five games last year. Only four players on each side remain from that series.