Joel Embiid had a double double with a game high 42 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday night, leading the Philadelphia 76ers to a 117-109 win over the Boston Celtics at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Boston (8-5) had an early 12-4 lead before Philadelphia used a 17-2 spurt to push ahead by seven, until Jeff Teague regained the Celtics lead with a basket 4:30 into the second. The visitors led 61-58 at the break. The green would push their lead to their biggest of the night at 88-79 in the third on a layup from Daniel Theis, who had a great night off the bench and would lead 92-86 headed for the fourth quarter. Embiid though was too much down the stretch, as was the 76ers free throw shooting and Danny Green would hit a three-pointer with 3:53 left to put the hosts up for good.
Philadelphia (10-5), was 36-45 in the game from the foul line including 15-17 in the fourth quarter. Boston only attempted 20 foul shots in the loss. Embiid alone was 17-21 from the charity stripe and 12-19 from the field in the win. It is the first time the Celtics have allowed a player from the Sixers to score 40 or more in a game since Allen Iverson did so in 2005. Tobias Harris added 22 points and Shake Milton also had 16 for the 76ers. Jaylen Brown had 26 points, Marcus Smart 25, Theis 23, and Kemba Walker 19 in the Boston loss. Theis also added 10 rebounds for a double double. The two teams meet in Philadelphia again on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
