After a tough loss to start the season in the form of Gordon Hayward's season-ending injury, the Boston Celtics suffered two losses on their record. However, the team bounced back on Friday night, defeating the Philadelphia 76ers 102-92 to pick up their first victory of the season. Here's the latest Celtics vs. Sixers game recap, with top performances, statistics, a standings update, and what's next for these two teams.
BOS vs. PHI recap
Boston jumped out to an early lead tonight after a 24-21 first quarter. However, the Sixers stormed back in the second, outscoring the visiting team 29-22.
Boston would go on a 23-22 pace in the third quarter but finished even stronger in the fourth behind a 33-20 finale. The end result was a 102-92 victory in Philadelphia for the Celtics.
Kyrie Irving led the way for the Boston Celtics tonight with 21 points on 7-of-17 shooting. He also picked up six rebounds and dished out four assists in the effort. Al Horford contributed 17 points while grabbing three rebounds, while rookie Jayson Tatum had 15 points and eight rebounds. Terry Rozier came off the bench to score 14 points, while Shane Larkin added 10 as well.
On the losing side, the Philadelphia 76ers got big minutes again from Joel Embiid. The Sixers' big man ended up with a double-double of 11 points and 14 rebounds.
Rookie Ben Simmons also had a double-double, scoring 11 points and 11 rebounds. Leading the way in scoring was JJ Redick with 19 points, while Jerryd Bayless added 18 points.
For the game, the Celtics shot the ball at a rate of 41.7 percent from the floor and hit 34.5 percent of their three-pointers. The Sixers hit 38 percent of their shots overall and 31.3 percent from downtown.
Boston controlled the boards, winning that battle 55-47, but they had 19 turnovers compared to 17 for the Sixers. Also encouraging for the home team was the fact they scored 40 points in the paint, compared to 28 for the visitors.
What's up next?
This first win of the season puts the Boston Celtics' record at 1-2 overall. As it stands, the Celtics are third in their division with the Brooklyn Nets (1-1) and Toronto Raptors (1-0) above them right now.
Boston gets three days of rest before they host the New York Knicks on Tuesday, October 24th starting at 7:30 PM ET.
The Philadelphia 76ers are 0-2 overall and 0-1 at home. Philly currently sits at the bottom of the Atlantic Division. They'll try to capture their first win of the season on Saturday when they visit the Toronto Raptors starting at 7:30 PM ET.