Sixers unable to solve Boston, even with a 32-point outburst from Tyrese Maxey
The Celtics used 16 consecutive points to emphatically squash the Sixers’ rally attempt, propelling them to a 117-99 victory Tuesday night at TD Garden.
BOSTON — Tobias Harris finally splashed a critical three-pointer, unexpectedly slicing the Celtics’ advantage to two points during Tyrese Maxey’s customary rest period to begin the fourth quarter.
Then Boston’s scoring surge began. The Sixers, meanwhile, simply stopped scoring.
The Celtics used 16 unanswered points to emphatically squash the Sixers’ rally attempt, propelling them to a 117-99 victory Tuesday night at TD Garden.
“They really started putting their head down and getting to the basket or drawing fouls, just kind of consistently,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said of the Celtics. “And we had a couple of empty offensive possessions. … I thought we had some chances. We dumped a couple [passes] off inside and didn’t finish them. Had a couple open threes that didn’t go, either.
“And then it was just playing defense in transition, and they were really physical going to the basket and scoring or going to the line.”
It was the ninth win in a row for the 46-12 Celtics, who looked primed to cruise to the Eastern Conference’s top playoff seed. The Sixers (33-25) dropped to 4-12 since Jan. 22, which essentially aligns with the knee injury to reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid that required surgery earlier this month. They received more bad health news on Tuesday when reserve guard De’Anthony Melton left the game with back spasms, less than a week after returning from a spine issue that kept him out for more than a month.
“We’re certainly concerned that it’s the same thing,” Nurse said after the game, “because we’ve taken a lot of time off to try to get it to a position [where it is] in a better place. But I haven’t really gotten a report on that yet.”
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Maxey finished with 32 points on 12-for-24 shooting and five assists. But the Sixers’ fourth-quarter charge, surprisingly, came with the All-Star point guard on the bench.
Undrafted rookie Ricky Council IV began the frame with an old-fashioned three-point play, before reserve guard Cameron Payne scored eight consecutive points. Then came Harris’s deep shot, getting the Sixers within 91-89 with less than nine minutes remaining.
But Boston’s Jrue Holiday answered with a jumper, sparking the run that eventually extended the Celtics’ lead to 20 points in the waning minutes.
The Sixers’ brief push in the final period arrived after they shot 37.3% through three quarters, which allowed the Celtics to use an 11-0 spurt to start the third to build their initial double-digit cushion. And though this offensive clunker for the Sixers came against a Celtics defense that entered the night ranked third in the league in efficiency, it was part of their broader downturn on that end of the floor without Embiid.
During their previous 14 games entering Tuesday, they were 24th in the league in efficiency (111.6 points per 100 possessions), 26th in scoring (109.6 points per game) and 24th in field-goal percentage (45.8%). And Tuesday was their third time in four games since the All-Star break that they failed to reach 100 points. One of the primary individual culprits remains Harris, who missed 11 of his first 14 shots before finishing with 13 points on 5-for-19 from the field.
Yet Maxey’s 17 first-half points kept the Sixers close, trailing 53-51 at the break despite shooting 38.5% as a team, getting outrebounded, 29-17, and surrendering 10 fast-break points. But the Sixers parlayed nine Celtics turnovers into 10 points, and held Boston to 2-for-11 from three-point range.
The Sixers also totaled 45 bench points, as Nurse continues to experiment with a variety of lineups. Eleven of the 12 active players got legitimate rotation action, including Nico Batum (three points, three rebounds) playing some backup small-ball center and two-way rookie Council (16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, four rebounds) logging 19 minutes.
Boston MVP contender Jayson Tatum flirted with a triple-double, with 29 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists, while All-Star Jaylen Brown totaled 31 points on 11-for-14 shooting and six rebounds, and Porzingis added 23 points and 12 rebounds.
The Sixers return home to face the Charlotte Hornets on Friday, before a two-game road trip at the Dallas Mavericks Sunday and the Brooklyn Nets next Tuesday.