Final: Celtics 102, Sixers 92

PHILADELPHIA — Brad Stevens had to search deep into his bench to find a way to pull out the Celtics' first win of the year, but an unlikely combination of Shane Larkin, Terry Rozier and Jabari Bird help pushed the visitors to a 102-92 win over the Sixers. Kyrie Irving led all scorers with 21 points but it was the play of Larkin (10 points, 4 assists) and Rozier (14 points, 7 rebounds) that pulled Boston out of a second half offensive funk and led a 33-20 fourth quarter turnaround for the 10-point win. Bird played 12 strong defensive minutes in the frame as well, helping to put the lid on the Sixers' 3-point shooters that gave the Celtics' trouble in the first 2.5 quarters. Al Horford remained solid as well in the second half, shaking off a slow shooting start to score 17 points and add 9 rebounds.

The Celtics improve to 1-2 with the win and now have three straight days off before hosting the Knicks on Tuesday night.



THIRD QUARTER OBSERVATIONS

• An early foul on Aron Baynes sends him to the bench with four just four minutes into third quarter. Bad sign on night team needs him desperately due to a shallow bench


• Jaylen Brown has been very aggressive with his shot early but he's got back down to earth with his shooting percentages. He's missed seven of his last eight overall going back to the first half.


• Sixers shooting better from 3-point range (42 percent) than the field (37 percent) midway through the third quarter.


• Jabari Bird with his first action of the season for the Celtics midway through the third quarter as Stevens desperately searches for some defensive help on the bench.


• Aron Baynes with five fouls in 11 minutes. These refs are calling everything tonight and that doesn't bode well for Baynes' physicality.


• Has felt like the Celtis have just been holding on for life all period here. Just a rock fight between two teams shooting sub 40 percent for the better part of three quarters.

• More big minutes for the bench unit + Jaylen Brown to start the frame and they held their own quite well against the Sixers starters.


• Jaylen Brown paid tribute to Larry Bird with an incredible high arcing make from the baseline that may have gone over the backboard.


• Celtics doing a great job of keeping Embiid at bay in this game. He's not feeling his jumper right now and the bigs aren't letting him get good position inside.


• Boston not doing a good job contesting the 3-point line early. J.J. Redick has started 3-of-3 from deep and Jerryd Bayless has added a couple of treys as well. Rest of defense has been very solid but Boston guards can't lose those guys.


• Refs really ruined the flow of this game in the second quarter. Lots of ticky tack stuff on both sides, but really went against the C's in the final few minutes of the half, which helped Sixers make a run to take lead at end of half. Terry Rozier also cost C's a couple points by taking an early shot in the final 20 seconds instead of holding for one.

• Aron Baynes making Brad Stevens look very smart for starting him at the center spot. He hit glass well early with a pair of offensive rebounds and added four points before hitting the bench after four minutes.


• Celtics really targeted attacking Ben Simmons in the post early with Al Horford. Horford got some nice position down low on the rookie but missed some easy bunnies.


• Celtics shooting solid as a whole early (6-of-11 from the field)


• Kyrie Irving very active early (5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists) but got burned a couple times with lazy defense on Jerryd Bayless.


• Daniel Theis was the first big off the bench tonight against a big Sixers frontcourt. Joel Embiid has been doing C's a favor though by taking a lot of perimeter shots instead of punishing the visitors down low.


• Abdel Nader and Shane Larkin with some early bench minutes at the end of the first quarter, leaving Semi Ojeleye as the odd man out on the bench so far. No sign of Guerschon Yabusele early.


• Baynes picks up three early fouls in just six minutes of action in the first quarter, but Stevens sticks with him despite a shallow bench.


• Yabusele also made his season debut at the end of the first quarter. Stevens diving way into the bench with extended minutes for Larkin-Rozier-Brown-Nader-Yabusele due to foul trouble for Baynes.

• Brad Stevens said Gordon Hayward left the hospital earlier this afternoon and is now resting comfortably at home.


• Stevens on the decision to start Baynes: "It really wasn’t that as much as just making sure we can rotate the way we want to and focus on us. I think ultimately there’s gonna be some things we need to do a lot better as we progress and move forward. Some of our offensive emphases have to change, and so we’re gonna look to do a few different things. I think Baynes playing with Al can be a good thing for our team. Sometimes that’s hard to find in the course of a game if he’s coming off the bench. So I want to try them together starting."


• Injury update on Marcus Smart