Tatum didn't need to carry this one, and that tells you plenty about where Boston is. He had 21 points and 4 assists in a game the Celtics led wire to wire on the quarter scores. Payton Pritchard added 18 points and 5 assists off the bench. Boston showed up with a clean injury report and played like it, with 3 guys doing real damage and nobody forced to do it alone.
Philadelphia got its scoring from the guy the preview barely mentioned. Tyrese Maxey led the Sixers with 24. Joel Embiid, playing with nobody behind him at center while Adem Bona sat again, managed 16 points and 6 rebounds. That's a long way from the 26 and 15 he put on Detroit and the 18 and 10 in Chicago. LeBron James didn't show up among the leading scorers in the postgame coverage, so for the second time in a week the Sixers' big summer signing gave them a quiet night in a big game.
The line score shows how it went. Boston opened with 30 in the 1st, added 32 in the 2nd and led 62-51 at half. The 3rd was Philadelphia's only good stretch. The Sixers won it 31-29, the crowd woke up and the gap was 9 heading into the 4th. Then the Celtics put up 32 to Philly's 19. A rally that had a little life turned into a 22-point loss, and the Sixers' 19-point 4th was their worst quarter of the night by 4.
The preview's big question was style: Boston's defense against a Sixers team that wins by outscoring people. The Celtics won it both ways. They had allowed 97 in Milwaukee and 80 in Charlotte coming in, and they held Philadelphia to 101 at home. They also put up 123 with George torching the Sixers from deep. Philadelphia scored 125 or more twice in its 5 games before this one, but it never got near that pace against a defense that actually showed up.
The thin frontcourt was a worry going in, and it held up as one. With Bona, Dominick Barlow and Ariel Hukporti all out, everything Philly did inside ran through Embiid, and Embiid's 6 rebounds don't describe a guy who controlled the paint. Boston has now won 4 straight and moves to 9-2, ahead of the 9-3 Sixers at the top of the East. Brown's first night against his old team is in the books, and the Sixers would like a rematch with him out of foul trouble and the bench at full strength.
