Everything you need to know about the Sixers' 109-98 win over the Celtics with BSJ insight and analysis
Box Score
HEADLINES
Second-half letdown: The Celtics took care of their slow-starting ways on Thursday night but they couldn’t sustain it against Joel Embiid-less Sixers squad. Boston blew a 10-point first-half lead on their way to being outscored 61-43 in the second half in a 109-98 loss against the Sixers. Kemba Walker shook off a sprained thumb to finish with a team-high 26 points while Marcus Smart added a season-high 24 points but the visitors got little else from their top wings. Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward and Jayson Tatum combined to shoot just 10-of-36 from the field, scoring just 29 points in the midst of Boston’s fifth game in seven nights.
Josh Richardson had a game-high 29 points for the hosts while Al Horford was big down the stretch with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Boston now is in the midst of its first three-game losing streak of the year and they will look to snap it at home on Saturday night against the Pelicans back at the TD Garden.
Season series lost: The Celtics still have one more head-to-head matchup looming with the Sixers last month but they’ve already lost the season tiebreaker after dropping the first three games of the year to their Atlantic rivals. Boston still holds a 1.5 game lead in the standings for the time being but any tie at the end of the year will go to Philly after tonight’s win. The Sixers may have a tough time keeping pace in the standings with Joel Embiid expected to be sidelined for the next few weeks following hand surgery but Boston’s latest slide has dropped them 1.5 games out of the No. 2 seed behind the Heat.
TURNING POINT
The Sixers took command of the game at the start of the fourth quarter with a 9-2 run to erase a three-point Celtics lead against Boston’s reserves plus Brown and Hayward while Walker rested, setting the tone for a quarter in which Philly outscored Boston 32-18 to clinch the win.
TWO UP
Marcus Smart: The reserve snapped out of his shooting funk to lead the Celtics with 13 points off the bench in the first half on his way to a season-high 24. He was 9-of-14 from the field and 5-of-7 from downtown, taking advantage of a Sixers defense that lacked a true rim protector with Joel Embiid sidelined.
Enes Kanter: The big man continues to feast on the glass and held up well defensively early on against the Sixers. He piled up 6 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists in the first half alone and was a team-high +13 in that stretch. He saw limited time in the second half to finish with 8 points and 11 rebounds.
TWO DOWN
Jaylen Brown: The swingman remained in his shooting rut all night, going an ugly 2-of-9 from the field including 0-of-8 from 2-point range. He is just 14-of-48 from the field over his last three games with many of his drives lacking the control and patience that put him in All-Star contention earlier this year.
Gordon Hayward: Very quiet in all aspects of his game with 8 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists despite playing 36 minutes. He all misfired on all of his 3-point attempts.
TOP PLAY
The dime ➡️ the dunk pic.twitter.com/liWMtB0SNE
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 9, 2020
TWO TAKES B-ROBB WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
The Celtics still don’t know their best closing five: There is still plenty of time to figure it out but the ‘Best five’ got a chance on Thursday night and it didn’t go well against a Sixers team that was without their MVP. Philly feasted on the offensive glass down the stretch as the C’s failed to stay disciplined on the glass and the offense reverted into one-on-one play that went nowhere against a tough defensive team in Philly. Some of the woes can be blamed on a brutal schedule stretch (five games in seven nights) but the defense hasn’t been gone in crunch time all year long for this group. They’ve lacked consistency on that end in big moments and their margin for error goes down when they downsize. The Sixers took advantage of that on Thursday and Brad Stevens still hasn’t found a lineup he loves against this Sixers squad.
Al Horford is going to shine with Embiid sidelined: There has been a lot of talk about the lack of a fit for the big man in Philly but he was a monster in his 32 minutes on Thursday night, posting a 17-8-6 line with a team-high plus-19. The Sixers have enough shooting around him to give him good space to operate now with Embiid sidelined and he is going to get a lot more touches as the hub of the offense. This won’t take care of the fit problem for Philly when both bigs are healthy but look for a big uptick in Horford’s numbers for now. He looked like the best two-way player on the floor at times Thursday night and the Sixers are going to give him plenty of chances now that Embiid’s 20 shots a night are up for grabs.
