BOSTON -- The Philadelphia 76ers did it. They went into TD Garden and eliminated the Boston Celtics with a 109-100 win in Game 7. The Sixers completed the rally from being down 3-1 in this series and came up with a win to eliminate their heated rival.

Joel Embiid found a way to overcome his past failures as he earned the Game 7 win of his career and was able to eliminate the Celtics who had given him trouble all throughout his career. The 51-point outing by Jayson Tatum in Game 7 of 2023? Forget about it. The sweep in 2020 in the bubble? Done and over with.

The big fella returned from an appendectomy and led the Sixers to a historic rally as it was the first time Philadelphia had ever rallied from 3-1 to win a series and its first playoff series win over the Celtics since 1982.

"I have until midnight to celebrate," Embiid said while at the podium past the midnight hour. "So, it’s past midnight. It’s over with. It felt good. Only the first one, one series down, got more to go. Now the focus is on New York, seeing what they do best. Really good freaking team, so we’ve just got to go out--especially in the Garden. The Garden is going to be fun. So that’s exciting."

With that being said, Embiid did have some words for Payton Pritchard who stated that the Celtics were not game planning for the 2023 MVP when asked about his potential return by Boston media. Obviously, winning Game 7 is huge for this group and defeating the Celtics overall is a big moment for Embiid, but he made a point to call out Pritchard for the comments made.

"It feels good," Embiid added. "Obviously, I was 0-3 in Game 7s, so I just wanted to bring the energy tonight, but it does also help when I saw No. 11 on their team before I came back, he said they didn't care if I was playing or not, and they hadn't even adjusted or had some sort of game plan for me. So, I think it also helps that when the other team doesn't worry about you and have some solid game plan being prepared for you, so it helps you have better games. So, I thank No. 11 for that, but it feels good to come out and get this win."

Embiid, obviously, made a huge difference in this series, but it also helps that the Sixers stopped over helping on Boston's drives in order to defend the 3-point shot at a better rate. Embiid made sure to point that out as well as giving credit to guys like Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr., VJ Edgecombe, and Quentin Grimes for their work on the perimeter.

"Professionals," Embiid added. "Understanding what's at stake. I think we found something with Boston. I don't know why we didn't find that earlier, but we did a lot of over helping the first four games in that series. I think we just locked in. Credit to VJ, Kelly, PG, Q, I mean, those guys locked in. You can't execute that game plan of helping your teammates, if whoever is on the ball doesn't do his job, and those guys really took on a challenge of guarding those guys, whether it's (Jayson) Tatum, Pritchard—No. 11, Jaylen Brown. So, it helps when you have that."

As the Sixers now move on to the New York Knicks, they will have to continue to guard their yard and make life tough on their ball-handlers, but this series with the Celtics is a big help for Philadelphia's perimeter defenders. That was the key in the 3-1 comeback.

"Obviously, knowing Boston, they kind of live and die by the 3," Embiid finished. "So, you take that away, and I told the guys like, if we want to go 2 for 2s against them, we're going with that battle because we have a lot of mismatches, starting with me. So, I think just locking in on that, understanding what we had to do, game plan-wise, and actually executing, but it starts with guarding the ball, and the guys did that."

This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Sixers' Joel Embiid reacts to Game 7 win, Celtics' words in the series