PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Payton Pritchard hit six of Boston’s 24 3-pointers and scored 32 points and Jayson Tatum had 30 points and 11 assists to help the Boston Celtics spoil Joel Embiid’s return from an appendectomy and beat the Philadelphia 76ers 128-96 on Sunday night for a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in Boston.
Jaylen Brown scored 20 points for the Celtics, who thumped the Sixers by 20-plus points for the second time in the series.
Embiid scored 26 points in 34 minutes just 17 days after having an appendectomy. Embiid wasted little time scoring in his first game since April 6. The two-time NBA scoring champion sank two free throws for the Sixers’ first points of the game, added a monster two-handed jam and scored the team’s first eight points.
Embiid withered after the fast start and missed seven straight shots before he converted a three-point play in the third quarter. That cut the Sixers’ deficit to 23 points.
The Celtics hardly needed much production from Brown or Tatum — they combined for 50 points in a Game 3 win and only 13 in the first half of Game 4 — and used a whopping 14-rebound edge in the first half that sparked a 13-0 shutout in second-chance points to build a 21-point lead.
Tyrese Maxey scored 22 points for the Sixers.
Embiid had an appendectomy in Houston on April 9 after Philadelphia’s star big man was stricken with appendicitis overnight. He returned to the court Sunday wearing a protective brace around his midsection and was cleared to play about 40 minutes before the scheduled tipoff.
Whatever emotional lift he provided lasted only minutes into the first quarter.
Pritchard, who adjusted his game, first as a starter and then by returning to the bench role that earned him Sixth Man of the Year honors last season, buried a long 3 on one leg to end the first quarter and give Boston a 34-18 lead. Embiid made 3 of 5 shots in the first quarter while the rest of the Sixers missed 10 of 13 shots.
The Celtics won Game 1 by 32 points and the Sixers responded with a surprise 111-97 win in Boston in Game 2. Maxey scored 31 points and shot the Sixers into a fourth-quarter lead in Game 3 before Tatum and Brown took over down the stretch for the Celtics in a 108-100 victory.
There were some questions about how Tatum’s return in early Marc h from the ruptured Achilles tendon he suffered in the playoffs last May would affect the flow of a group that had learned to adjust and thrive without the six-time All-Star.
Instead, Tatum has reacclimated himself in short order and the Celtics are dominating like a team that feels as though the East will go through Boston.
Embiid’s gutsy return mattered little, and now the Celtics can clinch the series at home and wait for the winner of the Atlanta Hawks-New York Knicks series.
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