Celtics upset surging 76ers in Christmas Day dud at TD Garden

On By Littum

The Philadelphia 76ers still have a steep hill to climb after their injury-riddled, dysfunctional, downright disastrous start to the season.

But Philly on Wednesday looked like the team it hoped to be after its all-in offseason: a legitimate Eastern Conference challenger to the defending champion Celtics.

Boston, meanwhile, is now feeling the sting of its first two-game losing streak since April.

The Celtics lost to the Sixers 118-114 on Christmas Day at TD Garden after a late-game rally fell short. It was the second straight loss and fourth in seven games for Joe Mazzulla’s men, who fell to 22-8.

“Listen, we’re playing inconsistent basketball,” Mazulla said. “We have to be better on both ends of the floor. We have to be more consistent on both ends of the floor.”

Jayson Tatum led Boston with 32 points on 11-of-20 shooting and 15 rebounds after missing Monday’s loss in Orlando with an illness. Jaylen Brown overcame an ugly first half to finish with 23 points, and Derrick White (17 points) and Al Horford (21 points) went a combined 10-for-20 from 3-point range on an improved outside shooting night for the Celtics.

Kristaps Porzingis played 13 minutes before leaving the game with an injury — the third he’s suffered since returning from offseason leg surgery on Nov. 25. The Celtics called it “left ankle soreness” and Porzingis did not come out of the locker room after the break.

The 76ers got an excellent all-around performance from point guard Tyrese Maxey (33 points, 12 assists, three steals, one block) and excellent 3-point shooting from Joel Embiid (4-for-5) and Caleb Martin (7-for- 5) -9), both of which surpassed their season-long averages. After starting the season 3-14, the Sixers have won eight of their last 11 to get back into contention.

“Last game, I thought that was one of our big defensive efforts,” Mazzulla said of the Celtics’ 108-104 loss to the Magic two nights earlier. “Today it was inconsistency on our defense. … But we definitely have to be better, both ends of the floor.”

Horford, who stepped into the starting lineup in place of an injured Jrue Holiday (shoulder), hit two threes in the first two minutes, including one as the shot clock expired. Porzingis added two of his own, starting strong from beyond the arc after an 0-for-4 showing on Monday.

The two big men accounted for all of Boston’s scoring in the front half of the first quarter. No other Celtic got on the board until White sank a corner three more than seven minutes into the game, and Horford, Porzingis and backup center Luke Kornet combined to score 17 of the team’s 25 points in the first quarter.

It was a disjointed quarter for Boston that featured some of the same ball security issues that plagued them against the Magic. Tatum and Brown combined for nearly as many turnovers (four) as points (five) in the frame. The Celtics committed five as a team to Philly’s one and struggled to contain Maxey, who had 12 points in the first.

Philadelphia led 30-25 at the end of one, and more than tripled its lead during the second quarter, building a 16-point cushion that was the largest of any TD Garden visitor this season. Guerschon Yabusele — a 2016 Celtics draft pick who played his way back to the NBA by excelling for France at the 2024 Summer Olympics — scored eight straight points for the Sixers, who also got eight points in the second from Martin, a Celtics- nemesis during his time. time with the Miami Heat.

Yabusele’s game-high 12 points matched the output of Boston’s entire bench, with top reserves Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser combining to go 1-for-10 from the floor and 0-for-9 from three.

Martin set a career high with seven made threes against a Celtics defense that chose to prioritize Philly’s other shooters. Before Wednesday, he had made just 18 threes all season.

“He’s playing against Boston,” Embiid said, referencing Martin’s previous playoff success against the Celtics. “He hates them as much as I do.”

Tatum began to assert himself late in the second, making back-to-back 3-pointers as part of a 16-point first half. He also made a savvy play to throw the ball off a Sixers player while caught in a half-court trap and set up a Pritchard three later in the same possession. The Celtics cut their deficit from 16 points to six before halftime.

Embiid, who had a prelude to an injury scare when he tumbled off the court during warmups, was unusually effective as a perimeter shooter. The tough Sixers center averaged less than one made three per game, but he went 3-for-4 from deep in the first half. He and Maxey each scored 18 points in the first half for Philadelphia.

Brown was awful in the first two quarters (1-for-8, two points, four turnovers), but locked in after the break. He scored on two of Boston’s first three possessions of the third quarter, and a subsequent three by Tatum cut the Sixers’ lead to one, 66-65.

Four minutes later, Brown buried a three to tie the game at 74-74. Another by Tatum with 4:03 left in the third gave the Celtics their first lead since early in the first quarter. Brown scored 14 points in the frame, where he and Tatum accounted for all but one of Boston’s made field goals.

Tied at 82 entering the fourth, the Sixers again threatened to overwhelm the Celtics by ripping off a 21-6 run that featured Martin’s fourth, fifth and sixth made threes of the night. Philadelphia led by 15 with just over five minutes remaining.

But the Celtics weren’t done. After White and Martin traded 3-pointers, Boston scored 11 straight points. Tatum, White and Horford all scored during that surge, and the Celtics forced turnovers on three consecutive 76ers possessions — a pair of Brown steals and a backcourt foul on Maxey.

The two steals were the first Boston recorded in the game. The second led to a Horford dunk that cut the Sixers’ lead to 108-105 with 2:27 left. The Celtics outscored the 76ers by 22 points with Horford on the floor, the best mark by any player on either team.

However, Boston could not complete the comeback.

Back-to-back misses by Horford and Pritchard allowed Philly to rebuild a seven-point lead. The Celtics got it back to three with a steal and two buckets by Tatum, a Horford block and a Brown layup, then made it a two-point game after Brown followed up a pair of Paul George free throws with a 3 -pointer with 4.2 seconds left. Boston immediately went after Embiid, who looked visibly hobbled at times in the second half, and he did both to ice the game.

The Celtics will look to bounce back when they host the Indiana Pacers on Friday night.

“It’s still a long season. Nobody’s panicking,” Tatum said. “We’ve got to navigate the emotional roller coaster of the NBA season. It feels much worse than it actually is. We’re not panicking or anything. We just have to get up and look in the mirror and find out some things that we have to get better at.

“Everyone is fully fit and we have always done a really good job of responding and I have no doubt that we will. So I don’t panic. But we have to get better, and we want to.”

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