LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The Celtics are on track, while the 76ers are on an uncertain future.
Kemba Walker scored 32 points and Boston pulled away in the fourth quarter to complete a first-round pick over Philadelphia 110-106 on Sunday.
Jayson Tatum added 28 points and had a play-off career-high 15 rebounds for Boston, advancing to the semifinals of the Eastern Conference and a meeting with the winner of the first-round matchup between Toronto and Brooklyn.
The Boston win marks the first sweep in 15 meetings for playoff series between the teams. It is also the third straight season that Philadelphia failed to advance in the second round.
Walker went into the playoffs twice in his eight seasons at Charlotte, but never made it out of the first round. He said this is a small piece of what he was looking for when signing with Boston in free agency last summer.
“This is the reason I came to Boston,” he said. “That’s why I’m here. To play basketball every night. We did that.”
Joel Embiid led the 76ers with 30 points and 10 rebounds. Tobias Harris added 20 points and five rebounds despite falling short after a horrific fall that left his left eye bleeding.
Embiid could not put a finger on one thing the team put up this postseason.
“There are a lot of regrets,” he said. “I feel like the focus wasn’t always there. We just need to look at ourselves in the mirror and do better.”
Harris tried to counter a shot from Tatum at the 2:40 mark of the third quarter and accidentally had his legs taken by Tatum under him. Harris fell to the left of his face and lay for several minutes on the court when medical staff attended to him.
He suffered from left eye and was cleared of a possible concussion. He returned to the game with 5:12 left in the fourth with a bandage over his left eye.
“I felt OK enough to go back and try to do something to win us over,” Harris said. “I’d rather go down with my boys than sit in the back.”
But Harris out, Boston scored the final nine points of the third quarter as part of a 12-0 run. The Celtics’ lead grew to 96-79 in the opening minutes of the fourth.
“It just feels like we’re the Sixers, we always have some kind of bad luck,” Embiid said.
Intensity was high throughout the game, with Philadelphia’s Harris, Josh Richardson and coach Brett Brown all drawing technical errors. Marcus Smart also got one for Boston.
The 76ers entered the playoffs without All-Star guard Ben Simmons, who underwent end-of-season surgery on his left knee following an injury during the boiling part of the bubble scheme.
Philadelphia did their best to adapt without him, hanging defensively against a Boston team that ended the regular season with one of the league’s most efficient fouls. But the 76ers had trouble scoring points in close games.
That included Embiid, who despite post-to-back 30-point games in games 2 and 3, occasionally struggled to keep the score in the second half of games. He also made two critical mistakes in Game 3.
The loss was the final shortfall for a 76ers team that entered the season with much higher aspirations after adding Al Horford in free agency to play in the preliminary rounds alongside Embiid and Harris.
But asked if he thinks he could show his best coaching effort despite the injuries in the stretch, Brown was immediately in his assessment.
“No,” he said.
TIP-INS
Celtics: Sixers ’19 free throw attempts in the first quarter were the most Boston’s allowed in the opening period all season.
76ers: Led 32-27 at the end of the first quarter thanks in part to an 11-0 run late in the period.
HONORING BRYANT
Tatum wore a T-shirt in the first name and the image of Kobe Bryant on the front. He also wore a purple arm during the game in honor of the Lakers legend to honor his mentor on what would be his 42nd birthday.
“I just wanted to recognize him,” Tatum said. “Everyone knows how much he means to me, and still means to me. … I know he will always see and I just try to be proud.”
HAYWARD REHAB
Celtics coach Brad Stevens said forward Gordon Hayward, who has a grade 3 straight ankle injury in Game 1 against the 76ers on August 17, has returned to Boston to begin his rehab. The team gave an initial estimate of four weeks before Hayward’s return to action.
“The plan of attacking everything I’ve been told is if he closes in to be ready to play, he’ll be back,” Stevens said.
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