PHILADELPHIA — Al Horford had no use for the premature celebration that showered confetti all over the 76ers’ home court at the end of regulation, delaying overtime and prompting an impromptu cleanup job.

Turns out, Horford and the Boston Celtics are just a game away from a series sweep.

Horford scored the go-ahead basket late in overtime Saturday in a wild Game 3 where the Philadelphia 76ers were sloppy with the basketball and the confetti, leading to a 101-98 victory and a 3-0 series lead.

“These are the kind of moments you want to be in as a basketball player,” Horford said.

He saw some wild plays down the stretch.

Marco Belinelli hit a buzzer-beater to end the fourth quarter that sent the Sixers into a wild celebration as confetti shot out of a cannon and rained over chunks of the arena.

Hold up.

Game 3 was only headed into OT.

“I wanted to play right away,” Horford said. “I didn’t care about the confetti.”

The Celtics, who rallied from a 22-point deficit for a 108-103 win in Game 2, can advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight season on Monday.

The ending to regulation was about as wild as it gets. With the game tied, Philadelphia’s J.J. Redick threw away the basketball on an errant pass to no one that was scooped by Terry Rozier, who passed to Jaylen Brown for the basket and an 89-87 Celtics lead.

Seconds later, Belinelli stunned everyone with a falling 22-footer in front of the 76ers bench as time expired. Some in the arena thought the shot was a game-winning 3-pointer instead of a 2-pointer, and confetti mistakenly blasted from the cannon. There was about a seven-minute delay while team employees scrambled to clean up the mess on the court. Some players even scooped up confetti as everyone waited for the start of overtime.

The guy responsible for shooting the confetti, wearing a “Breaking News: I Don’t Care” T-shirt, declined to give his name but went over to press row and said the Sixers “better win or I’m done.”

They didn’t.

Belinelli opened OT with a 23-footer and Redick followed with a 3 that appeared to take him off the hook for his earlier mistake.

But the Celtics wouldn’t let them pull away, and Horford escaped for a layup off an inbounds play with 5.5 seconds left that gave Boston a 99-98 lead. Ben Simmons then threw the ball away after a timeout, and Horford sealed the win with two free throws.

Sixers Coach Brett Brown said he thought Belinelli had won the game with a 3-pointer.

“Walk off 3. I thought it was. I actually left the court,” he said. “You come back on and there’s confetti. You move on. It slows the game down a lot but you move on.”

Jayson Tatum scored 24 points for the Celtics and Rozier had 18.

Joel Embiid had 22 points and 19 rebounds for the Sixers, Redick scored 18 and Simmons finished with 16.

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