Celtics fall to Sixers in season-opener, 107-93

PHILADELPHIA — At one early stage, with their foul count rivaling their point total, the Celtics already had a good idea of how different this matchup against a bigger and even more athletic Philadelphia is destined to be this season.

The Celtics stumbled out of the gate with a season-opening 107-93 loss to the Sixers – a night marked by repeated whistle stoppages and a grueling, sloppy pace on both sides.

Kemba Walker had a rough Celtics debut, shooting 4-for-18 for his 12 points, though he wasn’t alone, considering a rough but prolific night by Jayson Tatum, who went for volume in his 21-point, 8-for-22 performance. Overall the team reflected these numbers from the line, where the Celtics shot an underwhelming 20-for-34.

Gordon Hayward overcame a slow start for a 25-point, 8-for-15 night. Enes Kanter started because of the Joel Embiid challenge (15 points, 13 rebounds) and held his own against the Sixers big man, finishing with 12 points and six rebounds.

The Celtics, unable to fully recover from a 19-2 Philadelphia run that covered the last 1:19 of the second quarter and the first 3:48 of the third, trailed by nine points (77-68) at the start of the fourth. But thanks to the work of Hayward and Tatum in the offensive end, and the usual floor-scraping work by Marcus Smart down the other end, cut the Philly lead to 77-73 with 9:31 left on a Hayward drive.

But the Sixers 3-for-24 from downtown to this point, jumped back out to an 83-73 lead thanks to back-to-back bombs from Furkan Korkmaz and Tobias Harris, the latter with 8:56 left. Those shots triggered a 13-1 run, this time for a 90-74 lead on, of all things, a Kyle O’Quinn 3-pointer.

The night was over.

Philadelphia’s 49-48 halftime lead was carved out by a 6-0 Sixers run over the last 1:19 of the second quarter, including five straight points from Simmons. The Celtics missed their last four shots – three of them by Walker – with a foul-dampened Brown on the bench with four. Overall the Celtics had 16 fouls, including another three by Walker. Hayward picked up his third 15 seconds into the third.

Brown picked up No. 5 within the first 53 seconds of the quarter, and the Sixers in the process of running off the first seven points of the third for a 56-48 lead. Though Hayward leaned inside to halt the run at 7-0 – 13-0 counting their close to the second quarter – the Sixers weren’t finished. The last 1:19 of the second quarter included, they had just put together a 19-2 run for a 62-50 lead.

The Celtics finally recovered behind a 3-pointer and three-point play from Tatum, and a Hayward jumper that briefly cut the Philadelphia lead to 68-65, only for the Sixers to prop their edge back up to 78-68 by the end of the quarter.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2WgwR6A