Nick Nurse downplays Game 6 Celtics drubbing with honest admission

The Philadelphia 76ers thwarted elimination by walloping the Boston Celtics 106-93 Thursday. Head coach Nick Nurse and the Sixers felt the energy from inside the Xfinity Mobile Arena. Yet Nurse downplayed the dominance on display during this NBA Playoffs game.

He instead dropped an honest admission postgame. Especially when he got asked if this was the most complete game Philly played.

“It doesn’t matter that much, though,” Nurse said. “…We’re going to have to really dig in and focus and prepare.”

Joel Embiid set the tone early on this drive to the hoop that forced the and-1:

Joel Embiid drives for the TOUGH and-1 bucket pic.twitter.com/dKYtWZKyep

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Tyrese Maxey then nailed from long range to build the early large lead.

Tyrese Maxey buries the TOUGH triple pic.twitter.com/aKrY1YupJJ

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Embiid then came back to put Philly back ahead after being down 25-23 momentarily.

Joel Embiid drains the three ball pic.twitter.com/pIlUpkPZ7R

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Maxey exploded late into the first half in dropping 21 points on the visitors. Including nailing a 3-pointer to hand Philly the 12-point lead. Maxey banked all three of his behind the arc attempts too.

Tyrese Maxey was ON FIRE in the 1st half of Sixers-Celtics Game 6

21 points
2 steals
8-of-15 shooting
3-of-3 3PT
21 minutes played

Philadelphia leads Boston 58-49 as they try to force a Game 7 pic.twitter.com/ayu7YNwFgf

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Paul George then joined Philly in threading the needle into Boston by hitting a three to make it 80-61 in the third. George dropped 23 points on the evening to stave off elimination.

Maxey spearheaded the scoring by delivering 30 points through 40 minutes on the floor. The center Embiid delivered the double-double of 19 points with 10 rebounds. Kelly Oubre Jr. added 14 points and collected nine rebounds. VJ Edgecombe produced 14 as well while grabbing down eight rebounds.

Philly started the postseason as a play-in tournament qualifier. Now they have one of the Eastern Conference favorites against the ropes. But Nurse knows the focus shifts to drowning out the TD Garden crowd Saturday.

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