Final: Celtics 108, Sixers 97

GAME: Game No. 23 of 82
WHO: Celtics (18-4) vs. Sixers (12-8)
WHEN:  7:30 EST
WHERE:  TD Garden
RADIO: 98.5 the Sports Hub
TV: NBC SPORTS BOSTON
BOX SCORE: NBA.COM

Celtics
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Al Horford
C: Aron Baynes

Sixers
PG: Ben Simmons
SG: J.J. Redick
F: Dario Saric
F: Robert Covington
C: Amir Johnson

THIRD QUARTER NOTES

• Rough start to the quarter by the C's offense. After pushing their lead to 12, they allowed the Sixers to go on a 22-9 run by the midway point of the frame, largely behind some outside shooting. C's did a nice job of corralling J.J. Redick in the first half but he ran wild in the third with nine points


• Jaylen Brown had an awful quarter on both ends, missing open shots, dribbling into turnovers and letting up on defense a little bit.


• C's came back to life towards end of quarter with some timely offense from Marcus Morris, who scored six points in the frame on 3-of-4 shooting. Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier also added some timely offense and playmaking when out there with Al Horford.


• Speaking of Smart, he left the game in the closing seconds of the quarter with what appeared to be a sprained ankle, hopping off the floor under his own power. He headed straight to the locker room with trainer Art Horne.

• Brad Stevens went with the all-bench unit to start the second quarter and it was up to it’s old tricks. Tenacious defense and ugly offense. Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier fired up a host of jumpers early in the shot clock and I think the group scored four points total in the five minutes they were out there.


• Turnovers issues continue for the Celtics in the second quarter. They haven’t been able to extend their lead beyond 7 or 8 due to 11 turnovers in the first 21 minutes of the game.


• Nice side benefit of starting Aron Baynes at center is separating him from Daniel Theis on the bench unit (which creates more minutes for both). Theis had another strong defensive stint against the Sixers bigs on Thursday, with a couple of first half blocks and strong contests.


• Dario Saric has been a problem so far for the Celtics, particularly on the offensive glass. He’s got three offensive rebounds in 13 minutes.


• Celtics went back to small ball pretty quickly towards end of quarter with Smart getting Baynes after just a couple minutes of action with the starters.


• Celtics close out the half on a 12-4 thanks to some hot shooting from Irving (20 first half points) who has been carrying the offense.

• Two early uncharacteristic turnovers for Horford on handoffs


• Ben Simmons got cooking early but was a non-factor for much of the rest of the quarter with Horford defending him.


• Classic offensive rebound with a fading putback for Amir Johnson.


• Early Richaun Holmes for Amir Johnson sub


• Kyrie Irving starting out hot with 11 points in the first 10 minutes. Robert Covington hasn’t taken advantage of him early.


• Marcus Smart wisely drew an offensive foul off a timely fault against Richaun Holmes.


• Amir Johnson stuffing the stat sheet early in his homecoming to Boston, even after being taken out for an early sub. He’s got three points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal in the frame.


• Celtics have come out of the gate shooting very well, but unforced miscues have been an issue. They’ve got five turnovers already in the opening nine minutes, including a couple of simple handoffs and Jaylen Brown dribbling off his foot in transition.


• Nice job by the C’s defense early to key in on J.J. Redick. He killed them early in the first matchup but Jaylen Brown has stuck with him well on off-ball screens and cuts.


• A positive side benefit by the C’s going back to Baynes in the starting five is separating him with Daniel Theis. Both of those bigs have played well enough to get regular minutes and keeping them with different units allows Stevens to spread out the center minutes more between two of them for 24-30 minutes per game.

• The Celtics will dodge a bullet on Thursday night as the Sixers will rest Joel Embiid on the second half of a back-to-back. Backup point guard T.J. McConnell will also be sidelined due to a shoulder injury that he suffered in Wednesday's win over the Wizards. Look for additional minutes for former Celtics like Amir Johnson and Jerryd Bayless in their absence.


• The Celtics recalled Guerschon Yabusele from the Maine Red Claws on Thursday afternoon so the team will have 13 players available for the matchup.


•  The Sixers shot just 38 percent from the field in team's first matchup in Philadelphia back in October. That's the second-lowest shooting percentage the Sixers have posted in a game this year.


• Brad Stevens had some high praise for the Sixers at Wednesday's practice, the first official one for the C"s in more than a month. "I think Philly's got a really good team," Brad Stevens told reporters on Wednesday. "I think they've been really well coached, for a long time. They have good young talent. They, obviously, have endured misfortune when you think about Simmons missing all the year last year, Fultz some of the year this year thus far, and then Embiid has missed a bunch of his first three years. If those guys are all healthy they probably had won a lot more games before this year."