PHILADELPHIA — They should be the best two words in sports. Usually, they are.
But not now, not with these Celtics, not in this series, not against this team.
Game 7. Celtics-76ers. Saturday. TD Garden.
Ugh.
From 3-1 up in this first-round playoff series, this once-charmed season suddenly faces extinction — the result of a second straight no-show, this time a 106-93 Game 6 blowout loss at raucous Xfinity Mobile Arena.
You might call it inexplicable, but only if you didn’t watch it. The team that won Game 4 so easily just this past Sunday? Disappeared by Tuesday, and nowhere to be found again Thursday.
“They outplayed us tonight,” Payton Pritchard said.
Understatement of the season.
Through a jangled, anxious first half, across a hideous, bricklaying third quarter, and finally into a full-on bench lineup for their final fourth-quarter gasp, the Celtics were awful — choking on a second consecutive chance to close out this series.
They looked gassed. They’re down to the last few drops in their tank. With all other second chances gone, they’re limping back to TD Garden for a winner-take-all game that demands they forget all that’s gone wrong, requires that they turn the mental and physical page as quickly as humanly possible. That’s what Game 7s are about.
“Am I bummed it’s going to a Game 7? No,” Jayson Tatum said. “You can’t wish for it to be over any sooner than it’s going to be over. I was out for 50 weeks. I get another chance to play the game I love.
“Obviously, you want to win every game you play, but it doesn’t always go like that. More so, I think we have another opportunity. We have another chance to make it right.”
Once upon a time — like, last week — the trip to familiar confines would have brought hope and confidence, with the backing of a home crowd and the comfort of home court. But now it comes with a heaping serving of dread instead.
Between the listless Game 6 effort — Boston trailed by as many as 23, went 12 of 41 from beyond the arc, and 9 of 16 from the free throw line — and the looming presence of the Knicks, who were busy hanging a historic blowout on the Hawks in their own Game 6 clincher earlier Thursday, potential disaster awaits. The end of the road, once seemingly far off in the distance, hovers perilously close.
“Game 7 is a game amongst itself, in the sense that the rest of the series doesn’t matter,” Jaylen Brown said. “It’s who’s going to show up on that day and be the better performing team.
“We just got to be better. All things considered, we’re in a great spot going home for a Game 7. Expecting a great atmosphere, expecting a great fight from our group. The last two games weren’t the best, but you move on. I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited for Game 7.”
Maybe the Celtics will recharge and rediscover the joyous fluidity and seamless teamwork that defined an expectation-defying regular season. Maybe they’ll find their collective shooting touch and leave the hero ball behind.
But to what end? And at what price?
With Tatum still only recently removed from his Achilles tendon rehab, and who left Thursday’s game briefly after dealing with soreness in his non-surgically repaired leg; with Brown’s ongoing foul trouble, particularly at the offensive end; and a rotation that coach Joe Mazzulla shuffles constantly, does surviving this series mean going straight into a basketball buzzsaw anyway?
Seriously, after seeing what a resurgent Joel Embiid has been able to do against the likes of Neemias Queta, Nikola Vucevic, and Luka Garza, who would even guard Karl-Anthony Towns? In the midst of his team’s stunning 51-point win, Towns joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only 7-footers in NBA history with multiple postseason triple-doubles.
Meanwhile, the 76ers’ resident 7-footer, Embiid, had 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists, complementing Tyrese Maxey’s 30 points and Paul George’s 23. That no starting Celtic earned individual mention for a good night endorses Mazzulla’s decision to bench them all by the end. Makes you wonder why he didn’t do it earlier.
Here were the 76ers fans instead, breaking into a mocking chorus of “We Want Boston” midway through the fourth quarter, dancing in the stands as they pounded their thunder sticks and rained insults on the Green and White — giddy at the memory of the two wins their Sixers took from Boston in Games 2 and 5. The Celtics had no comeback, no answer, and nowhere to turn but to hope that the inherent magic of what Game 7 represents will wake up their echoes.
“Greatest thing in sports,” Pritchard said. “[What happened before] means nothing. It’s 3-3; it’s one game. It’s like the NCAA Tournament. You got to win one. Win or go home — that’s the only thing on our mind.”
Game 7. Best two words in sports, until they’re the most dreaded two words in sports. Saturday in Boston, for the Celtics, they’re both.
Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at tara.sullivan@globe.com. Follow her @Globe_Tara.