Payton Pritchard’s savage mic drop on Joel Embiid’s return after 32-point shellacking

The Boston Celtics extended their series lead to 3-1 after a 128-96 Game 4 win against the Philadelphia 76ers. Similar to their Game 1 win, the Celtics dominated from start to finish, even though the 76ers had some extra help in this one. Joel Embiid returned to the floor after recovering from his appendectomy, and he finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

Embiid was activated shortly before tip-off, but apparently, that didn’t affect the Celtics’ game plan as much, according to Payton Pritchard.

“We just changed maybe a small adjustment before the game, but we didn’t talk about it at all,” Pritchard said via Zack Cox of the Boston Herald.

Embiid would seem to be the type of player where you’d have to make a lot of changes to what you do on both sides of the ball, but the Celtics already knew that to do. At the same time, the Celtics respect what Embiid can do on the floor, and Joe Mazzulla gave him his flowers after the game.

“Embiid missed some shots he’ll make. You’re not going to be able to stop him. You just have to contain him,” Mazzulla said.

The fact that the Celtics were still able to win comfortably is big on their part, and they got a big performance from Pritchard, who finished with 32 points off the bench. He became only the third player in team history to score at least 30 points off the bench in the playoffs, which includes Kevin McHale and Eddie House.

The Celtics now know they’ll have to worry about Embiid for the remainder of the series, but they have a chance to close it out in Game 5 as they return home.  It would be best for them to end the series instead of extending it, which gives the 76ers an opportunity to find some momentum.

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