Paul George scores 36 in his return to Philadelphia as Celtics beat 76ers 123-101
A 26-3 run spanning the third and fourth quarters broke open a game that had been tied at 79. Jaylen Brown finished with 13 points in his first meeting with Boston.
Paul George scored 36 points in his first game back in Philadelphia since the July trade that sent him to Boston, and the Celtics beat the 76ers 123-101 on Tuesday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena before a crowd of 21,497. George made 14 of 22 shots and 6 of 11 from 3-point range. Boston knocked down 22 3-pointers and attempted five free throws all night, taking over the best record in the Eastern Conference in the process.
Philadelphia led for one possession
The 76ers were ahead once. Tyrese Maxey's 26-footer with 10:01 left in the first quarter made it 5-4, and Derrick White answered with a 3 forty seconds later. Boston never trailed again and led for 95% of the game, according to ESPN's tracking.
George opened with a pair of step-back jumpers and Jayson Tatum added a dunk and a layup for an 11-7 lead. A Jordan Walsh 3, two Tatum free throws and a Tatum 3 pushed it to 21-12, and Mitchell Robinson's dunk made it 23-14 with 5:58 on the clock. Joel Embiid, who did not make a field goal until the third quarter, kept the 76ers within range from the line — his first nine points were all free throws — and VJ Edgecombe's basket cut it to 23-20. Sam Hauser's 3, a Baylor Scheierman layup and a Tatum tip-in closed the quarter at 30-23.
The second quarter belonged to Joe Mazzulla's bench. Payton Pritchard scored six points in the first five minutes, Luka Garza scored inside, Hauser hit two 3s and Hugo González added another to make it 54-38 with 3:31 to go. George's 3 with 1:14 left pushed the margin to 62-47 before Embiid's two free throws and Edgecombe's driving dunk sent Philadelphia into halftime down 62-51.
The 76ers tie it twice, then Boston rips off a 26-3 run
The third quarter was the only stretch in which Philadelphia went toe to toe. Trailing 69-56 after a Tatum 3 and baskets by Neemias Queta and George, the 76ers ran off an 11-2 spurt — a LeBron James 3, an Edgecombe layup, a Maxey jumper, two Embiid free throws and a James drive — to get within 71-67 with seven minutes left in the period. Tatum stopped it with a driving dunk on James for 73-67, but Dean Wade's 26-footer with 4:02 to play tied the game at 76 and Maxey's 3 with 3:19 left tied it again at 79.
From there Boston outscored Philadelphia 26-3. Pritchard opened with a 3, Hauser hit another from 27 feet and Tatum made it three straight for an 88-79 lead. Maxey's 3 with 1:13 on the clock accounted for every Philadelphia point in the run, and Scheierman closed the quarter with another 3 for 91-82.
The fourth opened with a 14-0 burst. Two more Pritchard 3s made it 97-82, and George then scored eight straight Boston points — a 3, two baskets near the rim and a free throw — for a 105-82 lead with 8:17 remaining. He finished the quarter with 14 points. Walsh's basket with 3:55 to go produced the night's largest margin at 118-89, and with the outcome settled Anfernee Simons scored 10 of his 17 points over the final four minutes.
49 3-point attempts, five free throws
Boston built this one from the perimeter and almost never visited the line. The Celtics took 49 3-pointers and made 22, 44.9%, against Philadelphia's 11 of 37 (29.7%). They attempted five free throws in 48 minutes and made all five; the 76ers went 24 of 28. The other gap was ball security: Philadelphia committed 13 turnovers to Boston's eight, and the Celtics turned those into 21 points to the 76ers' nine.
Rebounding was close to even — 49-48, with eight offensive boards apiece by the NBA's official count — and Philadelphia won the fast break 21-10. Boston made up for it with a 46-32 edge in the paint, 28 assists to 23 and a bench that outscored Philadelphia's 49-29. Pritchard had 18 points, six rebounds and five assists, Hauser 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from deep in under 18 minutes, and González 10 points with three steals.
Maxey was Philadelphia's steadiest scorer with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Embiid, who played 30:51 after not appearing on the game's first official injury report, went 2 of 9 from the field and finished with 16 points — 11 of them from the line — and six rebounds. James had 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting with five assists, and Edgecombe scored eight on 4-of-11 shooting. Wade led all rebounders with nine.
The matchup that framed the night — Brown against the franchise that drafted him, George against the one that traded him — tilted one way. Brown scored 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting with four turnovers and a minus-27, the worst mark in the game. George, on top of his 36 points, was plus-17.
Boston moves to the top of the East
The Celtics are 9-2; the 76ers are 9-3. Boston now sits half a game ahead at the top of the Atlantic Division and holds the best record in the conference. The season series opens 1-0 for Boston, with meetings left on Jan. 21, Feb. 7 and March 7.
Both teams face the same opponent this week: Boston visits Toronto on Wednesday and Philadelphia hosts the Raptors on Thursday, each at 7 p.m. ET.
