Before Game 5 of the Philadelphia 76ers\u2019 first-round series<\/a> against the Boston Celtics, it was fair to wonder if the Sixers were better off if Joel Embiid didn\u2019t play. Embiid returned to the Sixers\u2019 lineup in Game 4 and, while he finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, he wasn\u2019t very efficient. Plus, the Celtics took advantage of him on the other end of the floor.<\/p>\n But Embiid played in Game 5 and played much better, leading the Sixers to a comeback win<\/a> with 33 points and eight assists. He bullied the Celtics in the post and wasn\u2019t much of a liability on defense.<\/p>\n As important as Embiid\u2019s return has been, this remains a make-or-miss series from 3-point range, especially for the Celtics. They\u2019ve shot 47.7% from beyond the arc<\/a> over their three wins and just 27% over their two losses.<\/p>\n Game 5 came with the Celtics\u2019 lowest 3-point rate of the series. After taking an amazing 58% of their shots from beyond the arc in Games 2-4, they took just 39 (44%) of their 89 shots from deep on Tuesday. And as they lost the fourth quarter by 17 points, they struggled more from 2-point range (1-for-14) than they did from 3-point range (2-for-8).<\/p>\n Here are three things to watch in Game 6 on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, Peacock<\/a>) \u2026<\/p>\n 1. Screen navigation<\/p>\n Credit the Sixers for some of the Celtics\u2019 struggles. Paul George has been terrific defensively in this series, not only in one-on-one situations against the Celtics\u2019 two All-Star forwards, but also navigating screens<\/a> to keep them from getting off comfortable shots.<\/p>\n With both teams playing mostly \u201cdrop\u201d coverage (where the screener\u2019s defender drops back to protect the rim), screen navigation is extra important on both ends of the floor in this series. George has been one of the league\u2019s best defenders at screen navigation throughout his career.<\/p>\n Early in the fourth quarter, the Sixers got a key stop when George stayed with Jaylen Brown around a Neemias Queta screen, cut off his drive to the basket, and forced him into a tough shot \u2026<\/p>\n Quentin Grimes also had a terrific trail contest on a Derrick White jumper<\/a> early in the fourth quarter on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The Celtics weren\u2019t as good at navigating screens in Game 5, and the Sixers were able to step into some critical jumpers as they outscored the Celtics, 40-16, over the final 14 1\/2 minutes.<\/p>\n Sam Hauser also put Grimes on the line for three free throws midway through the fourth quarter when he came around a screen<\/a> a little too hot.<\/p>\n If both teams continue to play mostly drop coverage, screen navigation will continue to be a big factor.<\/p>\n 2. An engaged Embiid<\/p>\n Embiid is one of those bigs who has mostly played drop coverage, sometimes effective and sometimes not.<\/p>\n On the Celtics\u2019 second possession of the game, White drove at Embiid, and the Sixers\u2019 big man didn\u2019t threaten White\u2019s floater one bit, instead keeping his hands at his sides \u2026<\/p>\n But later on, Embiid was more engaged defensively, making it tougher for the Celtics to find shots when they drove at him \u2026<\/p>\n (Also, another good example of the Sixers navigating screens and staying attached to the ball-handler.)<\/p>\n In the fourth quarter, Jayson Tatum stopped attacking Embiid, giving up the ball<\/a> before he had gained any kind of advantage on one key possession.<\/p>\n Embiid\u2019s bigger impact has been on offense this season, but he can obviously be a huge factor defensively \u2026 as long as he\u2019s engaged.<\/p>\n 3. Vu\u010devi\u0107 and the offense-defense question<\/p>\n With the Sixers in drop coverage, Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 should be the better offensive option for the Celtics at center. It\u2019s much easier for the screen-setter to find space on the perimeter than rolling to the rim, and Neemias Queta has made five shots from outside the paint all season.<\/p>\n Vu\u010devi\u0107 is only 7-for-22<\/a> (32%) from 3-point range in this series, but he should continue to get some wide-open looks when he\u2019s on the floor. If he knocks a few more down, he could open the lane up more for the Celtics\u2019 stars.<\/p>\n The issue is that he was absolutely destroyed by Embiid in the low post in Game 5. Embiid backed him down multiple times, and Vu\u010devi\u0107 provided very little resistance \u2026<\/p>\n According to tracking data, Embiid had 17 post-ups or isolations in Game 5, up from just eight in Game 4. And the Sixers scored 1.44 points per possession when one of those post-ups or isolations led directly to a shot, turnover or trip to the line.<\/p>\n With his defensive issues on Tuesday, Vu\u010devi\u0107 didn\u2019t play at all in the fourth quarter. But the Celtics\u2019 defense wasn\u2019t much better without him, and they scored just 10 points on 17 possessions of the fourth before subbing out their starters with 2:16 left.<\/p>\n Boston may continue to have an offense-defense dilemma on Thursday, especially if Embiid continues to play big.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him\u00a0here<\/a>, find his\u00a0archive here\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0follow him on Bluesky.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guided by Joel Embiid’s 33, the 76ers go into Boston and come away with a gutsy Game 5…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,238482,459,82],"class_list":["post-638608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celtics-76ers-3-things-to-watch-game-6","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260428_pg-def-4.gif\")
<\/p>\n![\"Tyrese](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260428_maxey-pullup3.gif\")
<\/p>\n![\"Derrick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260428_white-floater.gif\")
<\/p>\n![\"Joel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260428_embiid-engaged.gif\")
<\/p>\n![\"Joel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260428_embiid-vuc.gif\")
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