Celtics fall to 76ers; home win streak snapped

Twenty-four games into the season, there’s little doubt that, at least in this time zone, what team stands firmly in the way of the Celtics.

Philadelphia beat the Celtics for the second time last night, 115-109, dropping the C’s once-perfect home start to 10-1.

Joel Embiid, very much the Celtics’ Goliath, not only over-powered them with 38 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. He hit all six of his free throw attempts in the last 25.7 seconds to seal the result.

On a night when Jayson Tatum (5-for-18, 15 points) and Jaylen Brown (3-for-9, eight points) had trouble finding the cylinder, and Kemba Walker faded after a 21-point first half to finish with 29, the Celtics faded in the second half.

Enes Kanter, in his most effective night as a Celtic at both ends of the floor, finished with 20 point and nine rebounds.

Tatum, 4-for-17 to this point, buried his third 3-pointer of the night with 26.5 second left from the top of the circle, cutting the Philadelphia lead to 110-109.

The Celtics forward then fouled Embiid, who answered the dare with two free throws in front of a roaring crowd. Tatum compounded the issue by throwing a subsequent pass out of bounds, forcing another foul, this time with Theis hacking Embiid with 22.3 seconds left. Embiid missed the second of two, but blocked Theis at the rim down the other end.

Embiid, fouled again with 10.1 seconds left, hit his sixth straight free throw in a 15.7-second span to seal the game.

The Sixers took a 98-92 lead on an Embiid 3-pointer from the top of the circle with 4:05 left. Tatum came back with a left corner 3-pointer that cut the margin to three points, and Hayward’s drive, after a pair of Embiid free throws, trimmed it to three (100-97) again.

But Embiid hit a step-back jumper, Brown missed a 15-footer, and Josh Richardson hit from downtown for a 106-97 lead.

Walker, fouled attempting a three with 2:14 left, hit three times from the line, cutting the Philly lead to 106-100.

Kanter then tipped in a Walker missed drive and rebounded a Matisse Thybulle miss down the other end. Hayward’s 15-footer off the dribble cut the Philadelphia lead to 106-104, triggering a Sixers timeout with 1:01 left.

Kanter collided with Josh Richardson on the ensuing possession, with the latter hitting twice from the line for a four-point lead with 52.7 seconds left. But the center slipped backdoor with 41.3 seconds left, cutting the margin again to two points.

Simmons hit twice from the line with 34.6 seconds left.

Philadelphia took a thin 81-80 lead at the end of the third quarter on two Embiid free throws. Save for Walker, the Celtics were struggling to hit shots, with Tatum 3-for-15 and Brown 3-for-7 at this juncture.

Kanter, on the other hand, was proving a strong foil to Embiid, and also gave the Celtics the offensive spark they needed with their first three buckets of the fourth quarter, including a put-back that cut the Sixers lead to 88-86.

Brown, fouled off a breakaway, tied the game from the line. But Tobias Harris scored twice, including a turnaround over Semi Ojeleye for a 92-88 lead with 6:55 left.

Theis kept the flow alive with two baskets in 32 seconds, the second a jumper after Harris posted Tatum for a 94-90 Philly lead.

Simmons, with a chance to push that lead back out to four points, only hit the second of two free throws with 5:35 left. But Tatum put up his 13th miss from the lane, starting a — scoreless stretch on both sides until, with 4:05 left, Embiid hit from downtown for a 98-92 Sixers lead.

A night after scoring 24 points in the first half in Indiana, Walker scored 21 over the same stretch against this Sixers, this time with four 3-pointers. No other Celtic had reached double figures, but Walker’s shooting was just enough for a 59-56 halftime lead.

It was Hayward’s turn as the third began with a pair of 3-pointers in the first two minutes, though only for a thin 65-61 edge as the Sixers continued to match the Celtics’ pace. Mike Scott’s fifth 3-pointer of the night was good for a brief 70-68 edge, until Walker tied the score from the line.

The lead changed hands six times over the first eight minutes of the quarter, including an up-top 3-pointer from Theis for a 75-74 Celtics edge.

Walker took the lead back again  a minute later with a 3-pointer, with Kanter following up with an improbable, lumbering drive off a mid-court steal.

But Philly ran off the last five points of the quarter, including a pair of go-ahead free throws from Embiid for an 81-80 Sixers lead.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/34fp3o2