In their first matchup of the season, the Celtics fell to the 76ers at home on Christmas Day. In the second, they staged a dramatic 26-point comeback to defeat a Philadelphia squad missing two key players.
The third meeting, however, provided a much clearer picture of the gap between these two Atlantic Division rivals.
Boston overpowered the struggling Sixers on Thursday night, securing a dominant 124-104 win at Wells Fargo Center in their first game back from an eight-day All-Star break.
It marked the Celtics’ fourth consecutive victory and their eighth in nine games. Entering Thursday, they trailed first-place Cleveland by 5 1/2 games in the Eastern Conference standings. Boston improved to 40-16 overall and a league-best 23-6 on the road, with an average margin of victory of 19.5 points during this winning streak.
Meanwhile, the 20-35 76ers, once expected to be a top contender in the East, have now lost six straight and are in danger of missing the playoffs.
Payton Pritchard led the Celtics with 28 points off the bench, sinking eight of his 15 three-point attempts. Jayson Tatum recorded a 15-point, 11-assist, 10-rebound triple-double, while Jaylen Brown contributed 20 points, six rebounds, and six assists in his return from a knee injury. Derrick White notched his second double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Kristaps Porzingis extended his streak of scoring at least 15 points to 18 games, finishing with 17 points, four rebounds, a steal, and a block.
“I think we just picked up where we left off,” Porzingis told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin. “We were playing good basketball heading into the break, and tonight we came out, threw the first punch, and really took over the game.”
Boston set the tone early with a lethal three-point barrage, hitting eight of their first 11 attempts from deep in the opening quarter. Seven different players contributed to the hot start—Tatum, Brown, White, Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, and Al Horford each drained one, while Pritchard knocked down two, including back-to-back threes late in the first to extend Boston’s lead to eight.
