BOSTON -- It was the fourth quarter on the road in the TD Garden on Tuesday for the Philadelphia 76ers. It was do or die. Win or go home. Whatever cliché one wants to use, the Sixers had to find a way to knock off the Boston Celtics and keep the season alive.
They found it on the defensive end as they completely shut down the league's No. 2 offense from the regular season. Philadelphia held the Celtics to just 11 points in the fourth on 3-for-22 shooting, and no field goals for the final 7:03 for the game as they missed their final 16 shots of the game. It was a far cry from the poor defensive performance in Game 4 as the Sixers swarmed Boston in Game 5.
"We just felt like we were just over helping a little too much last game," Quentin Grimes said. "They had a lot of wide open 3s. That’s what they like to do. I feel like today, we stuck to the game plan, stay solid, guard our man, and just made them take tough 2s."
The Sixers held Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to a combined 0-for-8 shooting in the fourth quarter. A lot of credit has to go to Grimes, VJ Edgecombe, and Kelly Oubre Jr. for their work out on the perimeter for Philadelphia defensively. Then, Joel Embiid cleaned up any mistakes those players made. Either way, it was an impressive showing for the Sixers in a number of ways.
"We guarded individually, and then we rebounded," added Tyrese Maxey. "That's the biggest thing. On the defensive end. We rebounded, and Joel communicated everything from the back line of the defense. So that was really good. VJ did a really good job guarding Tatum. Paul was on Brown, I think Q got on (Payton) Pritchard when he got in, and the rest of us kind of try to rebound and defend and guard our yard. So that was a really good job."
The Sixers even won the rebounding battle 16-14 in the fourth. They got the stops they needed before then turning to Embiid and allowing him to do what he does. It was a formula that allowed the Sixers to keep their season alive for at least another day.
"Then offensively, like I said, Joel was dominant," added Maxey. "He went to the post and he scored and scored and scored. He kicked something out, and we made some shots, and then we would play a little pick-and-roll down the stretch of the game, and got a couple of buckets, and we closed it out."
Game 6 is back in Philadelphia on Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Sixers discuss their swarming defense in Game 5 win over Celtics