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Archives for May 2, 2026

76ers, Embiid End Celtics’ Season

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Philadelphia’s oft-injured center Joel Embiid had 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists and Sixers’ all-star Tyrese Maxey added 30 points and 11 rebounds to lead the 76ers to a 109-100 victory over the host Boston Celtics in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series Saturday night. The 76ers won the  final three games in the series. It was the first time in franchise history that Philadelphia has overcome a 3-1 series deficit and only the 14th time in league history for any team.

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“We handled playing (in a hostile environment) just enough, but I think it was really good for us to experience it,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said.

Philadelphia, seeded seventh, visits the third-seeded New York Knicks on Monday in Game 1 of their second-round series.

“What changed in the series is Joel Embiid came back, and they’re a completely different team,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.

Embiid took the court for the last three games after not playing since April 6, as he required an emergency appendectomy during a team trip through Texas.

Second-seeded Boston trailed 99-98 following two Neemias Queta free throws, but Maxey scored the next eight points to put Philadelphia up 107-98 with 15 seconds left.

Philadelphia received 23 points from rookie VJ Edgecombe. Paul George added 13. The 76ers’ bench totaled three points (all by Quentin Grimes).

Boston’s Jayson Tatum was ruled out of the  game because of stiffness in his left knee. He left Game 6 with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter with a left leg injury.

Tatum averaged 23.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per contest in six playoff games this season. The six-time All-Star forward averaged 21.8 points and 10.0 boards in 16 regular-season games after returning March 6 from a devastating ruptured right Achilles tendon last May in the playoffs.

Jaylen Brown led Boston with 33 points and added nine rebounds. Derrick White finished with 26 points and Queta had 17 points and a team-high 12 rebounds off the bench. Celtics starters Baylor Scheierman, Luka Garza and Ron Harper Jr. failed to score. Reserves Payton Pritchard added 13 points and Sam Hauser 11.

The Celtics shot 26.5% (13 of 49) from 3-point range and 39.8% (37 of 93) from the field.

“We’re always going to play to the strength of our team,” Mazzulla said.

The Sixers made 11 of 28 (39.3%) from long range and 47.6% (39 of 82) from the field.

“In the last two games and portions of this one, we guarded the ball very well,” Nurse said. “We weren’t giving them great looks. That probably for the whole series was the big key.”

Philadelphia scored the game’s first nine points and led 30-15 following an Embiid jumper with 1:55 left in the opening quarter. The 76ers were up 32-19 after 12 minutes.

Boston scored 18 of the first 22 points in the second quarter and had its first (and what turned out to be only) lead, 37-36, after a Pritchard 3-pointer with 6:52 left in the first half. Philadelphia rallied to take a 55-50 halftime advantage.

An 8-0 run gave Philadelphia a 63-52 lead, and the 76ers were up 84-66 after an Edgecombe 3-pointer with 2:24 remaining in the third. It was 88-75 after three quarters.

Boston began the fourth quarter with a 16-4 run to cut its deficit to one point, 92-91, with 7:59 to play. The 76ers led 95-94 with 5:52 left.

“(The Celtics) just played in transition for about 12 straight minutes, and then we finally got them stopped to get in their sets,” Nurse said. “Defensively, that was the difference for us in the last three minutes. We had them in halfcourt until maybe the final 90 seconds when they were just coming up and firing.”

Mazzulla said: “Loved the looks that we got, loved the process that we had, but hate the result.”

–Field Level Media

 

Two Words: “Game Seven”

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Boston Celtics will try to avoid a series collapse Saturday night when they face the visiting Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. Second-seeded Boston held a 3-1 lead in the series, but lost Game 5 at home and then dropped Game 6, 106-93, in Philadelphia on Thursday night. If the seventh-seeded 76ers can find a way to win Game 7 on the road, Boston would become the 14th team in NBA history to lose a series after holding a 3-1 advantage.

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“I’ve been playing these guys for so long,” said Philadelphia center Joel Embiid. “I’m tired of losing to them. So we have a chance to accomplish something special. They’re a great team. You look at everything they have. That’s a super team. We just gotta go in with the mindset that we’ve had for the last two games. One play at a time. Tough environment, but we’ve been there. We won two games over there.”

Boston was 12 of 41 from 3-point territory in Thursday’s loss, after being held to 11-of-39 shooting from behind the 3-point arc in its 113-97 setback in Game 5.

“Very good game by us,” Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse said following Thursday’s victory. “I think we played really well. Probably most impressed with our defensive effort, and shot creation was good. I don’t think the shot-making was great, but the shot creation was very good.”

Boston received a scare Thursday when Jayson Tatum exited the court with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter and did not return. Tatum said he felt tightness in his left leg, but is slated to play Saturday.

“Y’all probably saw when I went to the back,” Tatum said. “So I was on the bike. My leg was just a little stiff when I came out in the third quarter. But just kind of assessing the moment, like the game was a little out of reach. We took the starters out.

“Our intentions aren’t good,” Tatum continued. “We want to go out there and play the right way and win. It’s just we just got to be a little bit more together, a little bit tougher, play with more pace, play faster. How they have played majority of the season. Then since I’ve been back (from an Achilles injury), just kind of getting back to who we are.”

Two of Boston’s three wins in the series came by more than 30 points. The Celtics won Game 1 123-91, then prevailed 128-96 in Game 4.

“We definitely made some adjustments,” Mazzulla said after Game 6. “Some of them worked, some of them didn’t. Like I said, I thought tonight the Sixers played well, and we didn’t.”

Tyrese Maxey led all scorers with 30 points in Game 6. Jaylen Brown led Boston with 18 points.

“Sometimes it’s not about the Xs and Os, it’s about the Jims and the Joes,” Maxey said. “Who you have on your team, our Jims and Joes got to be better than theirs. It’s going to be a dogfight. It’s going to be extremely difficult. Every single second will be a roller coaster ride. Us as a group, we have to stay connected. Stay with one goal in mind – that’s you’re trying to win the game.”

–Field Level Media

Renegade is 4-to-1 Fave at Derby

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LOUISVILLE – The post-position draw for the Kentucky Derby is one of the few times in thoroughbred racing when getting first is not something to celebrate. Last Saturday, during the draw for this Saturday’s 152nd running of the race at Churchill Downs, that distinction went to Renegade.

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Despite the ominous spot for Renegade, Churchill Downs’ morning-line oddsmaker Nick Tammaro still set the 3-year-old colt as his early 4-1 favorite for the 1-1/4-mile race that serves as the start of racing’s Triple Crown.

Drawing the inside post means Renegade will be the horse closest to the rail. While he would have the shortest path to the finish line, he will also have to avoid getting pinched along the rail as up to 19 competitors try to move in at the start.

The last horse to win from the No. 1 post position was Ferdinand in 1986, the last Derby win for legendary jockey Bill Shoemaker.

As for Renegade, the horse trained by Todd Pletcher has never finished out of the money in five starts. After placing twice and showing once in his 2-year-old campaign, Renegade has won both starts this year, including the Arkansas Derby a month ago.

Another horse seeking to buck a trend is Emerging Market. Trainer Chad Brown’s horse, who has morning-line odds of 15-1, won the Louisiana Derby in just his second start. However, the last horse to win the Kentucky Derby in just a third start was Leonatus in 1883.

Brown, though, thinks his colt can end that 143-year streak.

“He has such a wonderful mind and is so calm and collected,” said Brown, whose entry got the 15th gate.

Based on Tammaro’s projected odds, Renegade is considered one of four horses that stand out in the field. The co-second choices are Further Ado and Commandment at 6-1. Both are trained by Brad Cox, a Louisville native. Commandment has won four straight, including the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 28, while Further Ado impressed many with his 11-length win in the Blue Grass Stakes a week later at Keeneland.

Commandment drew the sixth post, and Further Ado will break from the 17th. Further Ado moved into that spot after Silent Tactic was scratched on Wednesday.

Fulleffort, trained by Cox, was scratched on Thursday due to a chip in his left hind ankle. Ocelli has entered the race in his place.

The fourth choice at 8-1 is Chief Wallabee, who will break from the 12th gate. He finished second to Commandment in the Fountain of Youth Stakes in February and third in the Florida Derby. Trained by Bill Mott, who won the Kentucky Derby last year with Sovereignty, is adding blinkers to the colt in hopes it will improve his performance.

“He seemed to be maybe just a little more straight and maybe a little more true,” Mott said after the draw.

Another horse drawing interest is The Puma, who won the Tampa Bay Derby on March 7 and followed that up by finishing second in the Florida Derby three weeks later. Trained by Gustavo Delgado, the colt will break ninth and has odds of 10-1.

Trainer Bob Baffert has a pair of longshots in the field as he seeks a record seventh Derby win. Litmus Test is 30-1 coming off a seventh-place finish in the Arkansas Derby, while Potente, at 20-1, finished second in the Santa Anita Derby to So Happy (15-1). Litmus Test is starting fourth, Potente 14th.

There are currently 20 horses entered, with two of the four also-eligibles now in the race. Great White joined the field Wednesday after Silent Tactic was scratched. An also-eligible can enter the race, based on the points they acquired in prep races, if another starter is scratched.

NHL Stanley Cup: Bye-Bye Bruins

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The visiting Buffalo Sabres scored two first-period goals and never trailed en route to a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Friday night, clinching their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series in six games for the upstart Sabres and sending the Bruins packing.

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Alex Tuch and Mattias Samuelsson built a 2-0 lead in the opening frame before Zach Benson and Josh Norris added insurance tallies in the third as Buffalo advanced to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2007.

Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin each dished out two assists while Alex Lyon made 25 saves for the Sabres, who won all three games played in Boston in the series.

“To (win the series) on the road — against a team that played so well at home, one of the better home records in the league — I thought our guys dug in and gave us a heck of a game tonight,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said.

David Pastrnak scored the lone goal and Jeremy Swayman stopped 22 shots in Boston’s losing effort.

“We felt the pressure being at home,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. “We feel the pressure because we care. We wanted to prove people wrong.”

Buffalo finished 0-for-4 on the power play, while Boston never had a man advantage.

The Sabres needed just 3:25 to score on their first shot and take a 1-0 lead for the third consecutive game. Tuch was open at the top of the crease to net Dahlin’s centering pass from the left circle past a trailing Swayman.

After the game’s first power play ended, Lyon kept the momentum on Buffalo’s side with huge saves in the middle stages of the first period. Among them, Casey Mittelstadt had a break-in attempt and a follow-up after a Morgan Geekie feed sent him ahead of the defense.

“Can’t get much better than that,” Tuch said about Lyon. “He was lights-out. He was in the zone. Attacked every opportunity they threw at him. Steady Eddy. Gives the bench a lot of confidence when you got a guy like that playing the way he was.”

Samuelsson made it 2-0 at 12:26 of the first, sending in a long shot from above the left circle through traffic. The puck sailed past Swayman’s blocker side.

Pastrnak got the second period off to an emphatic start for Boston at 1:54, helping to force a neutral-ice turnover before beating Lyon with a one-time shot off Pavel Zacha’s cross-ice pass on a 2-on-1 rush.

Neither side tallied for the rest of the period, including a stretch of nine-plus uninterrupted minutes. Swayman kept Boston’s deficit at 2-1 by denying close-range shots by Thompson and Bowen Byram during the extended sequence without a whistle.

Lyon made big saves against Geekie and Pastrnak to thwart Boston’s heavy pressure early in the third, helping to set the stage for Benson’s goal at 5:58.

Off a draw in Boston’s offensive zone, Josh Doan beat both Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy to a puck to start the goal-scoring play. While bracing for a hit in the left corner, Doan fired a pass to an open Benson in the slot, where Benson fired home a one-time goal.

Norris punctuated the series victory, hitting the empty net with 3:20 remaining.

“We’re hoping that it’s a long road ahead of us. … We’re going to have to be ready,” Tuch said.

–Field Level Media