Joel Embiid scored 33 points, Tyrese Maxey had 25 points and 10 rebounds, and the Philadelphia 76ers avoided elimination, beating the Boston Celtics, 113-97, in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series Tuesday night.
Paul George had 16 points and nine rebounds for the seventh-seeded Sixers, who lost Games 3 and 4 at home to fall behind 3-1 in the Eastern Conference series before returning to Boston to keep their season alive.
Game 6 is Thursday night back in Philadelphia, where the Sixers will try to force the series to a decisive seventh game Saturday in Boston.
In his second game back from an emergency appendectomy, Embiid helped rally Philly from a 13-point, third-quarter deficit. After scoring 13 points in the second quarter, he added 10 in the third and eight more in the fourth, when the Sixers went on a 12-0 run to turn a three-point lead into a 15-point runaway.
Jayson Tatum had 24 points and 16 rebounds for Boston, and Jaylen Brown scored 22.
Earlier Tuesday, Celtics president Brad Stevens was named NBA Executive of the Year for the second time in three seasons after disassembling the team that won it all two years ago and getting Boston back to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Celtics did it despite missing Tatum for all but 16 regular-season games as he recovered from a torn Achilles tendon.
The Sixers missed the playoffs last year after seven straight postseason appearances but earned the No. 7 seed this year with a victory over Orlando in a play-in game. They coasted to a win at Boston in Game 2 but then lost both at home to move to the brink of elimination.
The Celtics led by 11 in the second quarter and held a 13-point edge early in the third. Both times Philadelphia rallied within a basket, using a 15-3 run to make it 66-65 Boston midway through the third.
It was still a one-point Celtics lead heading into the fourth, when George hit a 3-pointer to give Philly its first lead since the first quarter. After a pair of Sam Hauser 3-pointers kept Boston close, Hauser fouled Quentin Grimes while he was shooting a 3; the three free throws started the Sixers on a game-ending 19-5 run.
Boston scored just 10 points in the fourth quarter on 3-of-22 shooting after making almost half its shots in the first 36 minutes.
Knicks 126, Hawks 97 — Jalen Brunson scored 39 points, nearly extending his own franchise record for 40-point playoff games, and New York routed Atlanta, 126-97, for a 3-2 lead in the first-round playoff series.
With their second straight lopsided victory, the Knicks positioned themselves to win the series Thursday night in Atlanta. They would have another chance at home in Game 7 if they need it — and it’s getting harder to picture why they should.
The Hawks took a 2-1 lead in the series with one-point victories in Games 2 and 3, but a pretty sizable gap between the teams has appeared since. The Knicks led by 24 on their way to a 114-98 win in Game 4 in Atlanta and by 32 on Tuesday, when the lead was never below double digits in the second half.
Brunson had eight 40-point games in his first three postseasons with the Knicks. He hadn’t even cracked 30 in this series until pouring in 17 points in the fourth quarter to prevent any chance of Atlanta making it a game.
OG Anunoby added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks, and Karl-Anthony Towns had 16 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. The Knicks need one more victory to reach the second round for the fourth straight season, which would continue their longest streak since advancing nine straight times from 1991-92 through 1999-2000.
Jalen Johnson had 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Hawks. Dyson Daniels scored 17, but CJ McCollum, the catalyst of both Atlanta victories, had just six.
The Knicks made eight of their first 12 shots then broke free with a 9-0 run late in the first quarter and were ahead 35-22 at the end of the period. Brunson had the last two baskets of an 8-0 surge in the second that pushed it to 59-37, and the Knicks led 64-48 at the break after making 58.5% their shots.
Leading by 18 after three, they put it away when Brunson had a three-point play and 3-pointer to ignite a 12-0 spurt that made it 110-82.