The Philadelphia 76ers continue to dominate at home.
The Philadelphia 76ers continued their home-court dominance in a win over the Boston Celtics.
Philadelphia returned Joel Embiid and Furkan Korkmaz as Boston was missing Jayson Tatum.
The first quarter began as Boston jumped out to a 12-4 run on a Kemba Walker 3-pointer. From there, Tobias Harris scored seven straight points followed by an Embiid lay-in to give Philadelphia the lead 13-12.
The teams traded baskets throughout the quarter ending with a Dwight Howard tip-in 32-25.
Philadelphia and Boston started even in the quarter until a 29-37, Boston embarked on a 19-6 run.
As the quartered progressed, Philadelphia chipped away at the lead with another final second shot falling this time for Harris to close Boston’s lead to 61-58.
Embiid helped keep the game close for Philadelphia in the third quarter as he poured in 14 points in the quarter alone. Despite the effort and a strong back-and-forth quarter, Boston separated by four in the final minute to push their lead to 92-86.
Philadelphia came out aggressive in the fourth quarter and overtook the lead with 8:02 remaining on a Harris and-one lay-in. The converted free-throw gave Philadelphia the lead 100-99.
From there, the quarter was again the teams mostly trading score for score and stop for stop. Two Shake Milton free throws extended Philadelphia’s lead to 113-109. A quick Jaylen Brown missed three-pointer was gathered by Daniel Theis and then immediately plucked by Ben Simmons.
Harris ultimately was sent to the line essentially icing the game with two free throws. Philadelphia would end the game 117-109.
A story as the game closed became the number of free throws that Embiid attempted, out-attempting Boston, himself. Referees aren’t perfect, but watching the game there weren’t too many disputes.
The two teams will run it back Friday in Philadelphia, where the Sixers are 8-1 on the season as Boston’s Tatum is apparently “50/50”. Seth Curry is expected to return to for Philadelphia as well helping further deepen the new-found guard rotation Philadelphia has built.
Philadelphia will be aiming to continue their home dominance as they aim to push their record to 40-5 at the Wells Fargo center over the past two seasons.