Joel Embiid and the Sixers finally have their signature playoff moment. What a story.

BOSTON — Joel Embiid shook his coach’s hand and pumped his fist and then half-walked, half-limped toward midcourt and wrapped his arms around Jaylen Brown. He pulled the Celtics superstar in close and whispered something into his ear. Soon, his son was in his arms, and the cameras were all around him and he was smiling and shrugging and trying to make sense of the most improbable and glorious moment of his career.

Barely a week removed from entering the postseason cold off a 17-day layoff, roughly four weeks after an emergency appendectomy seemed likely to end his season, less than a week after the Celtics took a series lead they’d never before squandered, Embiid and the Sixers somehow were still standing. The concrete credit goes to a 109-100 victory in a bruising Game 7 at TD Garden. On a more abstract level, it goes to a level of resilience we’ve rarely seen from these Sixers, one that should force some reexamination of who we believe Embiid is.

“It feels good,” Embiid said. “I just wanted to bring the energy.”

Whatever happens from here, Embiid and the Sixers have accomplished something significant, something defining. This was a signature individual performance and a signature team victory unlike any that Embiid has delivered in his decade-plus in town. The Celtics had never lost a series where they’d led three games to one. Embiid had never before won a Game 7 in three previous tries. He entered this postseason having lost seven of the 11 elimination games he’d faced.

“He really wanted this,” Sixers forward Paul George said. “He almost willed it, possession by possession. He wanted the ball, he wanted those match-ups, he wanted the moment, and he showed it.”

The moment belonged to Embiid. The victory belonged to all of them.

That’s not something you have often been able to say about the Sixers in their biggest games of the Embiid era. Look back through all the postseasons, at all of the different incarnations of the roster, the micro-eras of disappointment — you’ll struggle to find a playoff win in which the Sixers looked this cohesive. They made the right pass at the right time. They made the extra one when required. Four Sixers finished with at least four assists, which hadn’t happened since Game 2 of the 2019 Eastern Conference semifinals.

Although Embiid led the way with 34 points on 12-of-26 shooting, he by no means shouldered a singular load. The Sixers had gone 10 straight playoff victories without three players finishing with 20-plus points. In Game 7, Tyrese Maxey had 30. VJ Edgecombe had 23. The young duo combined to hit 19 of 35 shots, including 7 of 15 from three-point range.

“Obviously over the years, no shade toward anybody who has played in this organization, I’ve always taken the blame for everything that’s happened,” Embiid said. “Sometimes I’ve been in those positions where I’ve come up short, and that’s fine.

“But to be in a position where you know you can relax for one or two possessions, trust guys ... it means a lot. I always say, you can’t win alone. You need a team. The way we’re playing right now, we’re so in sync offensively and defensively. Guys understand what they need to do. That’s beautiful to see. That’s what I’ve always wanted. Play winning basketball.”

Defensively, the Sixers stifled the Celtics in the first quarter and then weathered a number of storms, including 18-4 runs that eliminated Sixers leads of 13 and 18. They had their defining moment in the biggest spot, holding Boston to three points in the last five minutes of the game.

Slice up the credit and distribute it in even shares.

To George, who knocked down a trio of three-pointers, including a step-back shot over tight coverage with just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter to give the Sixers a 79-66 lead.

To Edgecombe, who hit five threes on 11 attempts after making just 4 of 23 in his previous four games.

To Maxey, who continued to show himself to be the superstar you want to get going when the going gets tough.

» READ MORE: How did the Sixers force Game 7 against the Celtics?

Most of all, to Embiid. He set the tone early, opening the game with five assists in a first quarter in which he also scored 10 points. At one point, he or Maxey had assisted on 10 of the Sixers’ 12 makes. He spent the rest of the night helping steady the Sixers through adversity, some of it self-inflicted. A turnover late in the fourth quarter in a one-possession game. A dead-ball technical that spotted the Celtics a free point. Each time, he responded.

Midway through the third quarter, Embiid backed down Brown, turned as if to shoot, then, at the last second, kicked a pass out to Edgecombe, who swung a pass to Maxey for an open three-pointer that gave the Sixers a 68-58 lead. The next time down the court, Embiid answered a Brown three-pointer by backing him down and hitting a one-hander.

It was a sequence that encapsulated Embiid’s performance over the last several games.

“It was amazing,” Maxey said. “He was determined. ... He was having fun with it. He was having a blast. And that’s what really matters.”

Don’t focus on the mitigating factors. It was only the first round, yes. The Sixers still have to beat the New York Knicks in four of seven games starting Monday in order to get somewhere they haven’t been before. All of them realize that. The first sentence out of Edgecombe’s mouth in his post-game interview was that a championship is the goal. It’s also true that the Sixers beat a team that was missing one of its two superstars, with Jayson Tatum scratched due to knee soreness. None of it diminishes what the Sixers accomplished.

» READ MORE: Vintage Joel Embiid, Maxey madness, and more from an improbable Game 7 victory

Fact is, they showed us something that we needed to see, something intangible, a spirit that has been present in practically all of the Philly teams across all sports that have achieved something meaningful. Resilience, will, clutchness, call it what you want. It manifests in a product that is enjoyable to watch and that instills a certain pride of ownership in the local viewer. A lot of that comes from Maxey, who once again was a second-half X-factor with his lightning-quick bursts to the basket and physics-defying ability to finish. The biggest difference in this year’s Sixers team is that they have more than one player who can will the ball into the basket.

That said, the biggest difference in the series was Embiid.

“What changed in this series was that Joel Embiid came back,” said a salty Joe Mazzulla after Game 7.

“We didn’t really have an answer for him,” Brown said.

Embiid has more than earned the right to bask in those words. Between 1985 and 2025, the Sixers won three playoff games in Boston. In 2026, they won three in four games, two after Embiid returned and with their season on the line. To achieve that after getting blown out in Game 4 to go down 3-1 is the kind of thing that can counterbalance a lot of the history already in the books.