Sixers Outlast Celtics in Needed Victory for Season Starting to Turn Around

Expectations were high coming into the season, and this month has offered evidence Philadelphia can still meet them with Big Three seeing consistent minutes together.

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid passes the ball against Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown. / Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Philadelphia 76ers 118, Boston Celtics 114. 

Phew. 

Good win for Philadelphia. Tyrese Maxey scored 33 points with 12 assists. Joel Embiid added 27. Caleb Martin knocked down seven three-pointers en route to 23 points. As a team, the Sixers connected on 46.6% of their shots and 42.5% from three. 

Almost a catastrophic loss for Philadelphia. For three-and-a-half quarters the Sixers were largely in control of this one. They led by five after the first quarter. It was eight at the half. A Martin three with six minutes to play pushed the lead to 15. The Celtics, down Jrue Holiday, could do little to contain Maxey. The frontcourt, which played the second half without Kristaps Porzingis (who went down with an ankle injury), had problems with Embiid and Guerschon Yabusele, who chipped in 12 points. 

But in the final six minutes, Boston rallied. Jayson Tatum made shots. Derrick White made threes. An Al Horford dunk with 2:27 on the clock cut the lead to the three—and sent a sold-out TD Garden into a frenzy. 

Down the stretch, though, the Sixers closed. A pair of Embiid free throws pushed the lead back to five. A Maxey layup made it seven. The Celtics had one last push, with a Jaylen Brown 25-footer cutting it to two with 4.2 seconds left. But another two free throws from Embiid sealed the win. 

Again—phew. The Sixers needed that one. A snakebitten season has started to turn around in December. They were 6–3 this month entering this Christmas Day matchup. Maxey’s shooting has picked up the last few games. Embiid, bothered by injuries since training camp, has been (mostly) on the floor. The drama that has dogged this team since October seemed ready to dissipate in the new year. 

“Probably nothing I’ve experienced like that before,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said before the game. “Not a lot of fun, that’s for sure … we’re certainly playing a lot better.”

Martin shoots over Celtics guard Derrick White on his way to seven three-pointers. / Eric Canha-Imagn Images

They needed a win against this team, too. The Celtics have owned the Sixers in the Embiid era. They are 15–13 against Philadelphia since the 2017–18 season. They are 12–4 in the playoffs. Looking for a reason the 76ers have not advanced past the second round? Look no further than Boston, which has knocked Philly out three times in the last seven years.

The Celtics will likely be standing in the Sixers’ way for the foreseeable future. Boston is a juggernaut. It goes eight deep with three-point shooters. It can switch one through five. The team that went 16–3 in the postseason last season looks poised to make a similar run in this one. 

Philadelphia went on a spending spree this summer to compete with Boston, signing Martin and Paul George to new deals, luring Olympic standout (and ex-Celtic) Yabusele back across the pond. But there has not been any consistency. The Sixers’ new Big Three—Embiid, Maxey and George—had played just 71 minutes together entering Wednesday’s game. Chemistry is a key to all title-winning teams. Right now, Philly has little. 

Said Maxey, “We have to fight our tails off to get into the position we want to be in.” 

Still, there’s time. The first third of the season has been disappointing—the win over Boston improved Philadelphia to 11–17—but there is another two-thirds to go. Embiid can still be dominant. Before the game, Embiid tripped over a safety rope the Garden had up separating the floor from the courtside seats, tweaking his right ankle. But he played 31 minutes, finishing a tidy 8-of-15 from the floor and a ruthlessly efficient 4-of-5 from three. Maxey, who scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, can be great. George is still figuring out the Sixers’ system—he missed all seven of his three-point attempts on Wednesday, finishing 4-of-15 from the floor—but he’s just months removed from an All-Star season in Los Angeles. 

Expectations were high coming into the season. This month has offered evidence the Sixers can still meet them. Their top trio is as talented as any in basketball, and the bench gets better by the week. The Celtics will be formidable come playoff time. But on Christmas, Philadelphia learned something about what it will take to beat them. 

“I think we got a high ceiling,” Embiid said. “It’s all about us pulling it together. I don’t think that was our best basketball, but we got a pretty good chance so it’s all about waiting for some luck and staying healthy.”