2023 NBA Playoffs: Embiid, Maxey LEAD 76ers to 3-2 Series Lead Over Celtics

East semifinals game 5. They shipped up the Boston and the Sixers. They went to the Hub City and got a dub. How about the Sixers winning 115-103. Led for pretty much the last 44 minutes. Took the lead with about seven or eight minutes left in the first quarter and never looked back. Led as many as 21. Joel Embiid looking like the MVP. Bad will and all bad knees. Still put up 33. Tyrese Maxey, the former Kentucky Wildcat, the young player, they want him to become part of this big three and he comes through with 30 points. Hits six threes. James Harden the beard. Not a big game, but you see the assist there. That's always a good number for the assist leader in the NBA this year. Embiid, Maxey and Harden combining for 80. Tatum and Brown going for 60, but it was not enough. The C's get beat on the parquet. 115-103. Philly now leading the best of seven series now. Three games to two. Game six in Philly, Thursday night. Let's go ahead and bring in our James Hurwitz, CBS Sports NBA writer and James. How about the Sixers? They came out, shot the ball phenomenally and Joel Embiid looked really good today. Shot the ball very well. Hit his three-pointers and how about Tyrese Maxey? Here's a guy. They want him to be part of this big three. They want him to sort of step in, you know, James Harden getting up there in age and he produces for these guys. 30 points, hit six threes. How good did Philly look for you tonight? And what did it say about the Sixers going into Boston winning a game that no one thought that they could win? Yeah, I mean Philly was incredible in this game. That was the best they've looked all postseason. Probably one of their best all-around wins of the year. Probably one of the biggest games of Joel Embiid's career considering the context of this whole thing, considering how, you know, honestly in game four, his fourth quarter was kind of ugly and he kind of needed James Harden to step in and sort of save the day in that game. Otherwise, we might have been talking about how, you know, he got blocked three times by Al Horford in the fourth quarter. He was excellent from the opening tip that you could sort of maybe get a hint. It wasn't the Celtics night when Embiid took a three on one of the game's first possessions and hit front rim and then just kind of got a good bounce and went in but this was an all-around team effort. Maxi was awesome. It's kind of unbelievable when you look back at what the scouting report said about him as a shooter when he came into the NBA. He's just fully a knockdown guy at this point. Tobias Harris did his thing in this game as well. And this was the danger for Boston when you let Philadelphia come in and take game one without Embiid in the lineup. This was a danger for Boston when it couldn't close out that game in game four. Now the Celtics are in a really difficult position and the Sixers are playing, you know, they have to be extremely confident based off the way they they sort of approach this one. Yeah, I know people talk about Boston like playing with fire. We saw this in the first round against Atlanta blowing other game five. They ended up of course winning in game six. You look at Jason Taylor have 36 but wasn't really efficient. I didn't shoot the ball very well. The C's of the team shot under 40% and from three-point range James 12 of 38 just 31% Al Horford over 7 and at least six of those James were wide open looks. Yeah, how difficult was it for the C's out there shooting on their own parquet? It was not their night. Al Horford missed every open look he got and they were virtually all completely unguarded out there on the perimeter. It's wild. Actually made me think back to a really unpleasant experience for James Harden and Daryl Maury and PJ Tucker from a few years ago when they missed all those three pointers against the Warriors in in game 7 and they were just creating good looks and then bricking them the Celtics kind of play a similar way, right? Like it's a lot of just drive and kick drive and kick drive and kick and I think when they watch the tape, they will be happy with a lot of those offensive possessions and the type of threes they generated. But the shots just were not going down. And I think that ends up kind of sapping your energy that ends up affecting the way that you play defense and like this was not just a case of Oh Boston just had some shots not go in like they were all around outplayed but the shooting was off the shooting was in particular off from Al Horford who earlier this week referred to himself as an elite shooter and sounded really confident talking to reporters about the shot coming around. But this this was certainly not how you back up that kind of tough. Yeah, the old nickname for Al Horford, of course, was average Allah below average on a Tuesday night in game 5 for the C's. Let's spend this thing for James. All right, the Celtics were in this position last year lost early on and against Milwaukee won a game 6 in Milwaukee on the road. Jason Tatum, of course, the historic performance there at the 46 came back one a game 7 at home. Also game 7 at Eastern Conference Finals one down on South Beach. Can the C's get her done on Thursday? In game 6, who do you like and who do you favor in that game 6 with Philly leading the series 3 to they can get it done. I'll pick Boston based on the talent on the roster. They're sort of track record over the course of this season and the fact that we saw them do, you know, this exact thing last year, but it won't be easy and I'm thinking back even to that game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks last year. That was very different. The Celtics were in control for most of that game. And then there was a fourth quarter run by Milwaukee. It became a possession game and they couldn't quite pull it out. This was a basically wire-to-wire win for the Sixers like the Celtics were just flat-out dominated on their own home court. They have to kind of look themselves in the mirror. They have to really think about how they want to approach this matchup where they want their shots to come from what their plan is on the defensive end, particularly against that Harden Embiid pick and roll that has been really difficult to stop. I think the Sixers, you know, the Celtics basically gave them life early on in this series. And now, you know, they're dealing with a really, really confident opponent. They're dealing with a healthier and better version of Joel Embiid. I think compared to what he was a week ago and they're going into an extremely hostile environment in Philadelphia. So yeah, I think the Celtics can do it. They have the talent to do it. They've shown they can they can put up a lot of points against this team, but it is going to be the hardest thing that group has done this season. Can they do it? Yes. Will they do it? Well, I'll find out Tuesday, Thursday night in Philly. Seas. Whoo. How about James and Joel Embiid 1830 point playoff game of his career. That's time for the second most in the Sixers history time with Dr. J. He is CBS Sports NBA writer James Herbert James. Enjoy the rest of the series. Enjoy your night. Really appreciate you kind, sir. Sixers largest playoff win in Boston and they went in by 12. Like I said, they were up 21 garbage time points there with the Seas backups. Got it down to 12 and 55 in the divisional finals game for the one by 16 and 82 and the Sixers went on to win that series. They won the conference finals game 7 there by 14. So big win for the Sixers have a 3-2 series lead. They'll go back to South Philly game 6 on Thursday night.