Joe Mazzulla Drops Quote on Joel Embiid After Star's Performance in 76ers' Series Win vs. Celtics

Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla credited Joel Embiid with driving the Philadelphia 76ers' historic recovery from a 3-1 series deficit against the Celtics.

The Celtics, the No. 2 seed in the East, were eliminated by the No. 7 Sixers in a Saturday night Game 7 loss.

When asked what changed for the Celtics between the regular season and the playoffs, Mazzulla answered: "Nothing, really. What changed in the series was Joel Embiid came back, and they're a completely different team."

Embiid led with 34 points as the Sixers completed the series comeback with a 109-100 win in Boston.

The Sixers star sat out the first three games of his team's postseason, during which the Celtics took a 2-1 series lead, as he recovered from undergoing an emergency appendectomy at the end of the regular season.

He posted 26 points in his return to the lineup in Game 4, although the Sixers were still blown out by 32 points.

Embiid then led the Sixers with 33 points in a must-win Game 5 before coming close to a Game 6 triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists to force Saturday night's winner-takes-all contest.

He finished out the series with 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists to go alongside a stellar defensive effort in what was both the first 3-1 comeback and playoff series win over the Celtics in franchise history.

The Celtics were missing Jayson Tatum, who made his return from last spring's Achilles injury toward the end of the regular season but was sidelined Saturday with left knee soreness.

Mazzulla attempted to respond to Tatum's absence by putting together a starting lineup of Derrick White, Ron Harper Jr., Baylor Scheierman, Jaylen Brown and Luka Garza.

That group of five players had not played a single minute together this season prior to Game 7, per NBC Sports' Dick Lipe.

Garza, Harper and Scheierman finished the game with a total of zero points, making the Celtics the first team in NBA playoff history to see three starters go scoreless, per Yahoo Sports.

"I think there was a couple of things we saw tactically that we wanted to test out, give the series a little bit of a different feel and take advantage of the roster that we had," Mazzulla said about his reasoning behind the new starting five.

Jaylen Brown led the Celtics on a late comeback push that gave both him and Payton Pritchard chances to regain the lead in the final four minutes of Game 7, but Mazzulla's team was unable to find the late bucket they needed to secure the victory.

The Sixers will now advance to take on the New York Knicks in a second round series that could be impacted in large part by Embiid's health. He could be seen limping late in Saturday's win after Tyrese Maxey fell into his knee.