Embiid trolls Celtics after Caleb Martin’s scoring outburst for Sixers originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The ghost of Eastern Conference Finals past haunted the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day.
The Philadelphia 76ers handed the Celtics their second consecutive loss at TD Garden on Wednesday, thanks in part to a breakout performance from Caleb Martin, who made 7 of 9 3-pointers and finished with a season-high 23 points.
Martin isn’t historically a great three-point shooter — he entered Wednesday shooting just 30.5 percent from three-point range and hadn’t made more than three three-pointers in any of his previous 22 games — but Celtics fans need that You shouldn’t think to the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, when Martin torched the C’s by averaging 19.3 points on 48.9 percent 3-point shooting to help the Miami Heat win the series to win in seven games.
Sixers big man Joel Embiid is apparently well aware of Martin’s history against Boston and cheerfully referenced it after Wednesday’s game when asked about Martin’s hot shooting.
“He’s playing against Boston, so he hates them as much as I do,” Embiid told reporters, including Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire. “He was great.”
Embiid has a little more reason to hate the Celtics than Martin; the Sixers big man is 0-3 in the playoff series against his Eastern Conference rival, while Martin went 1-2 with Miami in the postseason series against Boston, but the 2023 ECF is a feather in his cap has.
Despite Martin’s record, however, the Celtics were content to let the veteran forward take open shots while focusing their defensive energy on Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George. Martin made them pay by going a perfect 4-of-4 on 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as part of an 18-4 run that sank the C’s.
“That was the game plan,” Celtics wing Jaylen Brown said of Martin’s big night. “So we just stick to the game plan. We trusted the game plan.
“Martin hit, what, six threes tonight? Seven threes? That’s difficult. He’s done that with us before in the past, but going into it we felt comfortable letting him make all those shots. He just knocked them down tonight.”
Martin’s sharp shooting wasn’t the only reason Boston lost this game. The Celtics also failed to contain Maxey (a game-high 33 points) and generally looked a step slow on defense while committing 13 turnovers on offense. But the former Heat forward essentially delivered the final blow with a performance that could change how the Celtics defend him when these teams meet again on Feb. 2 in Philadelphia.
Next up for Boston is a home game with the Indiana Pacers on Friday at 7:30 PM ET on NBC Sports Boston.
