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Payton Pritchard’s huge night propels Celtics over 76ers in Game 4 blowout: 8 takeaways
“The amount of fans we have, how well they travel, it’s just something I’ve been fortunate enough to experience my entire career,” Jayson Tatum said. “We understand it’s not like that everywhere, so it’s great to be a part of.”
Payton Pritchard led the way offensively for the Celtics in a 128-96 beatdown over the 76ers in Game 4, and the Celtics will take a 3-1 series lead home to TD Garden on Tuesday.
Here are the takeaways:
Payton Pritchard was a back-breaker
Pritchard hurt the Sixers in a lot of ways schematically on Sunday — he fractured their pick-and-roll defense both when they dropped and when they briefly and unsuccessfully tried to trap him, he kept moving off the ball when the Sixers trapped his star teammates, he jumpstarted a Celtics offense that could only get buckets out of its big men early, and he turned the ball over zero times against a Sixers defense that desperately wanted the ball out of his hands.
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But from a narrative perspective, very little could measure up to Pritchard’s final 3-pointer of the first quarter.
BUZZER BEATER KING 👑 pic.twitter.com/sgQjj26GEB
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 26, 2026
With 6.5 seconds remaining in the period and the Celtics up 13, Pritchard took an inbounds pass from the baseline and raced it up the floor.
With four seconds left, he was still trapped at halfcourt, surrounded by two Sixers.
With 2.4 seconds left, he was at the “E” in 76ers at the halfcourt line, fully defended by Joel Embiid.
With 1.4 seconds remaining, he was free of Embiid.
With 1.1 seconds remaining, he was leaping awkwardly from his right foot and preparing to fire up a 3-pointer, as Mike Tirico bellowed, “Is he going to do it again? Is he going to do it again?”
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And as the buzzer rang, the ball buried itself in the net, and Pritchard stalked away smirking at the Sixers crowd, as Tatum glared at him with an expression clearly meant to imply that Pritchard is, in fact, an absolutely nasty shotmaker.
“It’s more of a flow state, I like to say,” Pritchard said. “It’s like, when you get in that flow state, it’s the rhythm of how you’re dribbling, the moves you can get to in the and the shot-making, obviously, but it’s a good feeling.”
Pritchard added that he likes to try to make sure he hits his flow state in his daily workouts to make sure that it feels natural in games as well. Both Tatum and Jaylen Brown—who are obsessive gym rats themselves—made special note of how hard Pritchard works, and Tatum called his work ethic “relentless.”
That work ethic gives Pritchard the room to yap a little, and for whatever reason, Pritchard’s target on Sunday was a delighted Reggie Miller, who seemed highly amused every time Pritchard turned and barked something at him.
Pritchard clarified that he loves Miller.
“I black out in those moments, so I don’t really know what I say at times,” he added. “But it helps.”
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Pritchard finished with 32 points on 12-for-21 shooting, short of the Celtics’ record for points off the bench in a playoff game by two.
Joel Embiid’s return wasn’t a problem
Embiid’s return from an appendectomy seemed to inject some energy into the Philly crowd at the outset, and Embiid quickly got Neemias Queta into foul trouble before dominating his matchup against Nikola Vucevic on several possessions.
The Celtics, however, dutifully weathered the storm, and by the end of the first half, the air was largely out of the building. Embiid’s return might create more problems for the Sixers than it solves.
For one thing, Embiid finished with a usage percentage of 37.8, while Tyrese Maxey’s usage dipped from 34 percent in Game 3 to 19.3 in Game 4.
That’s a trade-off the Celtics should be more than happy to take. Embiid led the Sixers with 26 points, but he needed 9-for-21 shooting to do it, and he was 1-for-6 from deep. Every 2-pointer Embiid puts up is a shot Maxey doesn’t get to take, which is pressure the Sixers fail to put on the Celtics’ perimeter defense. Maxey is incredibly dynamic—a fast-twitch guard with a silky 3-point jumper and an instant fast break when the Sixers aren’t taking the ball out of the net. With Embiid, the Sixers cede a massive amount of their transition potential. Maxey is the danger offensively in this series for the Celtics, not Embiid.
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Meanwhile, on the defensive end, Embiid’s presence makes everything so much simpler for the Celtics because he gives them a target to attack. Gone are the days when Embiid was flying in to punch shots at the rim. When the Celtics put him in pick-and-roll, they can create a lot of good options.
“[Embiid] is so effective to the point where you’ve just got to know what you’re willing to live with, what you’re willing to take away, and you’ve got to be ready to do that,” Mazzulla said.
That’s true, but the problem for the Sixers is that what the Celtics appear willing to live with is Embiid trying to beat them instead of Maxey, and Embiid appears ready to play 30-plus minutes.
Jayson Tatum put it away
The Celtics were in great shape after Pritchard’s first-half explosion, but there was one problem: Both Brown and Tatum were struggling offensively, and the Celtics were going to need one or both of them to pick things up in the second half to finish off the win.
What the Celtics got was “both,” but Tatum in particular looked once again very much like his former self — 30 points, 8-for-16 shooting, seven rebounds and 11 assists.
He converted a 3-point play on the Celtics’ first possession of the second half (countering a 3-pointer by Kelly Oubre), and he hit a back-breaking 3-pointer at the start of the fourth, pushing a 21-point lead to 24. His 25 second-half points were several bridges too far for the Sixers to cross.
Jordan Walsh played some high-energy minutes
The Celtics bench scored 32 of the Celtics’ 56 points in the first half. Pritchard, clearly, was the catalyst with 18, but Luka Garza, Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh all hit 3-pointers as the lead ballooned above 20.
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Walsh also played some hellacious defense on Maxey, hounding the Sixers star around the pick-and-roll on one play in particular where it was clear Maxey was intent on taking his first shot of the game.
Roughly a minute later, the Celtics grabbed five offensive boards on possession, including this impressive hustle play by Walsh, after which Hugo González barked his appreciation from the bench.
Walsh might have been the most visibly high-energy player, but the Celtics looked by far the more high-energy team — they out-rebounded the Sixers 51-30, including a massive 14-6 difference on the offensive glass.
“We want to be the more desperate team,” Tatum said. “Nine years in the playoffs, it never goes how you think it’s going to go. However long it takes, four, six, five, seven games, just be prepared to do whatever it takes for however long it takes, and that’s just the kind of mindset that we try to have.”
Derrick White made a couple of 3-pointers
White has been mired in a nasty shooting slump — just 5-for-25 from 3-point range in the first three games — but he shot 2-for-4 from behind the arc and didn’t appear to shy away from open looks. The Celtics would welcome a return to form from deep as they try to close out the series.
White also smacked away two blocks in transition, including this ridiculous flying swat on Embiid.
He also chased down the previously un-chase-down-able Maxey in the second half, and replays showed Maxey trying to keep an eye on White as he drove to the rim.
The Celtics set a playoff record
With 24 made 3-pointers on 53 attempts, the Celtics set a new franchise record for triples in one game.
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The math problem the Celtics create when they make shots is essentially unsolvable, which — of course — is one of the biggest reasons they consistently try to pose it. For the Sixers in particular, the sheer volume is very difficult to match, especially when Embiid is on the floor. The Celtics don’t need to make 24 again, but if they can shoot a reasonable percentage with good volume in Game 5, there’s a good chance the series will be over.
The looks should certainly be there.
Celtics fans showed up
As the game wound down and Wells Fargo Arena cleared out, chants of “We want Boston!” could be heard from numerous Celtics fans in the building — a call back to Philly fans, who chanted it during the play-in game.
“The amount of fans we have, how well they travel, it’s just something I’ve been fortunate enough to experience my entire career,” Tatum said. “We understand it’s not like that everywhere, so it’s great to be a part of.”
What’s next
The Celtics will try to close out the series on Tuesday at TD Garden. If they do, they might get a bit of a break — the two teams they could face in the second round, the Knicks and the Hawks, are currently locked in a 2-2 dogfight.
“There are no guarantees in the playoffs,” Brown said. “Things happen — X,Y, Z. Just come out with the mindset to maximize your potential and win the margins from there.
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“We’ve got three chances to win one game now, and the goal is just to get it done as soon as possible. Never to panic, never to be rushed, take our time, and do what we do.”
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