Joel Embiid singles out PJ Tucker as reason for Sixers beating Celtics

PHILADELPHIA–When one looks at the box score of Tuesday’s 103-101 win for the Philadelphia 76ers over the Boston Celtics, the biggest thing that will pop out will be Joel Embiid dominating on the floor to the tune of 52 points on 20-for-25 shooting. The big fella was just phenomenal.

However, PJ Tucker made the three biggest shots of the game when the Sixers needed it the most.

Philadelphia couldn’t get anything going other than Embiid. They needed somebody to step up and help out the MVP candidate on Tuesday. With the game tied at 89, Tucker stepped up and made the biggest shots of the night.

He made a corner triple to give the Sixers a 92-89 lead with 2:53 left off a pass from Embiid before Embiid found Tucker in the corner again for another triple at the 2:03 mark to put the Sixers up 95-89. When the Celtics doubled Embiid again, he found Tucker yet again for another triple to put the Sixers up 101-95 with 53.3 seconds left.

“I’m just happy,” said Embiid. “We wouldn’t have won that game without him. Three big shots and we really got that win because of him.”

Before those three triples, Tucker only had two points and he looked a bit hesitant on the offensive end which has been something of a theme with him all season. However, he was tough on the defensive end and he was able to give the Sixers an edge out on the floor despite not scoring much.

“PJ has been great the whole season,” Embiid added. “Obviously, he’s not gonna score a lot of points, if any, but just his presence on the floor. The little stuff that he does. Offensive rebounding, guarding the other team’s best player, just his activity, his communication, you can’t judge players off of scoring.”

In a league that’s so predicated on scoring, what Tucker does can go unnoticed a lot of times. Embiid wants everybody to know what he brings to the table.

“In this league, people don’t care about defense anymore,” Embiid finished. “It’s all about offense. How many points you scored, but offense is not all that matters. There’s both ends. There’s two ends on a basketball floor and I think he’s been huge. Even offensively, doing the little things, like I said, offensive rebounding, setting screens, giving himself up for the team. So I think he’s been great.”

Nonetheless, this was just another example of what Tucker brings to the Sixers in big games. He is going to be so important to what Philadelphia wants to do in the playoffs.

“Yeah, he’s been in big moments,” added coach Doc Rivers. “He’s gonna shoot it. They were going to help off of him, we said that in the time out, and he stepped up and made them.”

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Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire