The Celtics held off a 76ers comeback and survived a sloppy final minute to open NBA Cup play with their third straight victory.
Deja vu? Not this time.
For the second time in two meetings, the Celtics squandered a double-digit second-half lead against the 76ers on Friday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena. But unlike in Philadelphia’s season-opening road win at TD Garden, Boston was able to survive in a thriller.
The Sixers rallied from 24 points down to tie the game midway through the third quarter, then cut a 10-point deficit with three minutes remaining to one in the final seconds. Boston botched two inbounds plays with a chance to ice the game and missed three late free throws — including two by Josh Minott with 3.8 seconds to play — but Joel Embiid was unable to get a shot off on the final possession, allowing the Celtics to hang on for a 109-108 victory.
The victory was Boston’s third straight, pulling Joe Mazzulla’s squad back to .500 after an 0-3 start. It was the first loss of the season for the 76ers, who fell to 4-1. It also gave the Celtics a 1-0 record in NBA Cup group play, as this was the opening game of the in-season tournament for both teams.
“Just grit,” Jaylen Brown told Amazon Prime sideline reporter Cassidy Hubbarth after the game. “I think we just thugged it out. We made a bunch of mistakes, but we found a way to win in the end.”
Brown was responsible for some of those late miscues, with a missed foul shot and the last of his five turnovers giving Philadelphia life in the final moments. But he finished with a game-high 32 points on 13-of-19 shooting, six assists, three rebounds, one steal and one block to lead the Celtics.
Boston’s backcourt trio of Payton Pritchard, Derrick White and Anfernee Simons supplemented that scoring with a combined 49 points, even as Pritchard and White continued to struggle from 3-point range. Simons also was a plus-23 in his 29 minutes, headlining a strong all-around performance by the Celtics’ bench. All six C’s reserves who saw the floor finished as a minus-1 or better; all five of their starters were minus-3 or worse.
Philadelphia got 26 points, 14 rebounds and eight rebounds from Maxey, 17-5-5 from rookie standout VJ Edgecombe and 20-4-6 from former NBA MVP Joel Embiid, who was far more impactful than he was in the teams’ first meeting on Oct.
