Jaylen Brown matched a career high with 42 points Friday night, but it wasn’t enough as Joel Embiid scored 38 as the Philadelphia 76ers swept the two games at Wells Fargo Center with the Boston Celtics with a 122-110 win.
In the rematch of an eight point win by Philadelphia on Wednesday night, Boston (8-6) fell behind by six early but went on a 23-7 run to take a 10 point lead and an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the first half. The Sixers got within one late in the second quarter, but the Celtics still held the lead 52-49 at halftime. Philadelphia turned the tide though in the third scoring 42 points. With Boston leading 69-63, the hosts outscored the Celtics 28-11 over the last 7:19 to take an 11 point lead to the fourth quarter. The lead was 14 early in the last quarter, but the green would make a run. A 10-2 spurt would cut it to 103-100 when Brown knocked in a three-pointer with 4:44 to play. Philly would put it away with a 10-0 run of their own over the next 1:29 as they built the largest lead of the game at 15.
Brown added nine rebounds and three assists on 16-28 shooting (5-8 three pointers) in the Celtics third straight loss. Marcus Smart added 20 points and seven assists, while Kemba Walker had 19 and five assists. Embiid was 11-14 from the field and 14-15 from the foul line and also added 11 rebounds, as Philadelphia (11-5) kept the top spot in the Eastern Conference. He had 80 points, shot 23-33 from the field, 31-36 from the line, and had 21 rebounds in the two home wins. Tobias Harris had 23 points, while Seth Curry and Ben Simmons each added 15. Boston, who played again without Jayson Tatum for a fourth straight game, and lost rookie Payton Pritchard to a knee injury in the first quarter is back at home to host Cleveland Sunday night.
