The Philadelphia 76ers (48-40 straight up, 45-40-3 against the spread) aren’t going on vacation yet.
In only his second game back since missing nearly three weeks after undergoing an appendectomy procedure, Philadelphia perennial All-Star center Joel Embiid produced 33 points, eight assists, four rebounds and one blocked shot to lead his team to a 113-97 win at Boston in Tuesday’s Game 5 of this best-of-seven series.
The 76ers staved off elimination and won outright as 10.5-point road underdogs, hooking up money-line supporters with a payout in the +385 neighborhood. The 210 combined points dropped ‘under’ the 214.5-point total.
Embiid, who had 26 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in his Game 4 return, made 12-of-23 field-goal attempts and 9-of-10 free throws.
“He was dominant, especially the second half. He was extremely dominant,” Philadelphia guard Tyrese Maxey said. “He did a really good job of just inserting himself. I was proud of him tonight, man. That’s the dominance that you go into a playoff game with: He did that.”
Embiid started the game by hitting only 1-of-6 shots, but he turned it on with 18 points in the second half. The 76ers went on a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter to turn a tight game into a laugher.
Maxey did his thing as well, scoring 25 points, snagging 10 rebounds and dishing out five assists. He also had two steals and one blocked shot, while Paul George contributed 16 points, nine boards, seven assists and a pair of steals.
Quentin Grimes buried 4-of-7 launches from downtown in an 18-point effort, and rookie guard VJ Edgecombe was also in double figures with 10 points, seven rebounds, three assists and one steal.
“I feel like he had too many easy baskets,” Boston’s Jaylen Brown said of Embiid. “We’ve got to make him work. … Tonight he got a bunch of easy baskets, and I feel like that propelled him.”
Brown finished with 22 points, five rebounds and five assists, while Jayson Tatum had 24 points, 16 boards, four assists and three steals in the losing effort. Payton Pritchard had 12 points and six assists without a turnover.
Boston’s Derrick White continued to struggle. After averaging 16.5 points per in 77 regular-season games, he was limited to six points on 2-of-8 FGAs. He’s been held to single digits in three of the games in this series, scoring in double figures with merely 10 and 11 points in Games 1 and 3, respectively.
As of Wednesday morning, most books had Boston (59-28 SU, 51-35-1 ATS) installed as a 5.5-point road favorite for Thursday’s Game 6 at Philadelphia. The total was 212.5 points, while the 76ers were in the +175 to +200 (Circa) on the money line.
FanDuel’s updated series price has the Celtics as -2200 favorites, leaving Philadelphia at +1100 (or 11/1 odds) on the comeback. The betting shop has Boston with the second-shortest odds (5/1) to win the NBA Finals behind the OKC Thunder, who are the -130 ‘chalk.’
The 76ers are 350/1 longshots.