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Celtics Wrap: Kyrie Irving, Boston Fend Off 76ers In Overtime Thriller

NESN by Adam London on Tue, Dec 25, 2018 at 8:08PM

BOSTON — It was a Merry Christmas indeed for the Boston Celtics.

Behind an incredible 40-point performance from Kyrie Irving, the Celtics hung on for a wild 121-114 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Garden.

The C’s took control of the contest through the first two quarters, only to have the 76ers punch back throughout the second half. But in the end, Boston flexed its muscles to boost its head-to-head record over Philadelphia on the season to 2-0.

In addition to Irving, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Morris both shined with 23 points apiece, while Joel Embiid shined for the 76ers with a team-high 34 points with 16 rebounds.

With the win, the Celtics improve to 20-13, while the 76ers drop to 22-13.

Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Marcus Morris
C: Al Horford

KYRIE GOES CRAZY
Irving didn’t waste any time putting his stamp on this one. The star point guard erupted for 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting to help the Celtics grab a 32-25 after one quarter of play. Irving also conveyed his high energy on the glass, grabbing five first-quarter rebounds.

Irving’s outburst came of great benefit to the Celtics, who collectively weren’t overly strong in the opening frame. Boston, outside of Irving, shot 40 percent from the field and went 0-for-7 from beyond the arc. The 76ers, too, were powered by their premier player, as Embiid led the way with 11 points while JJ Redick notched 10.

THREE’S COMPANY
While it was a virtual solo effort in the first quarter, Irving received some assistance in the second. Morris led all scorers with nine second-quarter points while Tatum pitched in six as Boston took a 57-51 lead into the break. Irving, Morris and Tatum were the only ones who really had it going for the Celtics early on, as the trio combined to score 84 percent of Boston’s first-half points.

But while the C’s featured very little secondary scoring, the 76ers quite literally received none as the visitors’ bench was held scoreless through two quarters. Embiid and Redick combined for 34 first-half points, while the three other Philly starters only managed to score a combined 17.

SIXERS SURGE
The 76ers answered the bell right out of the gate in the third quarter, going on a quick 8-2 run, forcing the Celtics to take a timeout. Boston responded well, stretching its lead to 10 in the ensuing minutes after the timeout behind five points from Morris and three apiece from Smart and Tatum during that span. The rest of the quarter largely was all Sixers, however, as they outscored the C’s 26-13 in the final seven minutes of the frame to take an 89-86 lead into the fourth.

Butler finally got himself into a groove with 13 third-quarter points, while Embiid continued his strong game with 11. Irving, on the other hand, came back down to Earth with just three points in the third.

FOUR QUARTERS, NOT ENOUGH
Philadelphia built on its strong third quarter and grabbed its largest lead of the game at 98-91 just under four minutes into the fourth. The advantage wouldn’t last very long, though, as the Celtics chipped away and eventually knotted things up with a Tatum 3-pointer with 5:26 to play and retook the lead courtesy of a Tatum free throw 33 seconds later.

Both sides struggled to find offense following Tatum’s go-ahead basket from the charity stripe, as only two combined field goals were made in the ensuing four-plus minutes. Winston Chandler curbed the trend with a go-ahead 3-pointer with 37 seconds left to put the Sixers up 108-106, but Irving answered 17 seconds later with a game-tying fadeaway jumper.

The 76ers had a chance to steal a road win in regulation, but Redick’s last-second attempt rimmed out to send the game to overtime.

FIGHT TO THE FINISH
The Sixers were the early aggressors in overtime, opening the sudden-death period with a quick 5-0 run. But it didn’t take the Celtics long to flip the script, as Tatum and Hayward both provided buckets before Irving drilled 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give the Celtics a 118-114 lead with 1:29 to go. Boston kept Philadelphia off the scoreboard the rest of the way and knocked down three free throws to preserve the win.

UP NEXT
The Celtics kick off a three-game Western Conference road trip Thursday night with a matchup against the Houston Rockets. Tip off from Toyota Center is set for 8 p.m. ET.

112288

Damn, what a win! Played like a playoff game, with both coaches only going 9 deep.

Baynes was the primary defender on Embiid, did a pretty good job on him in the last playoffs, and he's out. Horford was the primary defender on Simmons, and did a good job on him in the last playoffs. Due to Baynes' injury Horford had to switch over onto Embiid, which took our best defender off of Simmons. Plus the addition of Butler? Tough matchups.

Hayward was a ghost. I understand him not shooting much (ok, not really, but I'm trying to cut him some slack) but I don't see where he did much else of anything else. Shoot, or pass to the shooters. He did neither.

Morris is money.

Tatum struggled from outside, he was 1-7 from 3 and 3-13 from outside the paint, but he ran the floor very well and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Horford was only supposed to play 25 minutes but played 30 with OT. I hope he doesn't feel it tomorrow. He's so important I'm not sure this win would be worth him being out for another couple of games if he suffers a relapse. He played pretty good defense against Embiid but Embiid was smoking from everywhere. In a way, given he is just coming back from Patellar Tendonitis, it might have been better if he didn't have to stay in front of Simmons. He was an awful 2-10 and 0-5 from 3 but he had 5 assists and made his presence felt. A glue guy and we are much better with him. There are glue guys that are worth the money, and Horford is one of them, and there are glue guys who aren't worth their money, and Gordon Hayward isn't one of them. Maybe next game. Maybe next month. Maybe...

Rozier and Brown a combined 5-13. Looking for something good to say, they only

And, oh yeah, Kyrie Irving is inhuman.

We are now tied with Philly in the loss column. We are 1 game behind them because they have played 2 more games than us and won both but they are going on the road now. Maybe one of their opponents can help us out. As it is we're not in awful shape considering our injuries.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401070235


bob


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With the way we have played this year we are only 3 games back in the loss column to any team. Need to get on one of those winning streaks of 8 games again to close the gap.

No question in tonight’s game, Hayward getting 28 unproductive minutes was stunting/limiting Jaylen’s game. There’s always a moment you look for when Jaylen does a steal leading to a dunk that usually comes and gets him going or something like that. If GH was rolling that would be one thing, I thought Jaylen was playing good defense on Redick and Butler when he was in. After a big play he can get going and score in bunches, hope Stevens can figure something out....

bobheckler wrote:Damn, what a win!  Played like a playoff game, with both coaches only going 9 deep.

Baynes was the primary defender on Embiid, did a pretty good job on him in the last playoffs, and he's out.  Horford was the primary defender on Simmons, and did a good job on him in the last playoffs.  Due to Baynes' injury Horford had to switch over onto Embiid, which took our best defender off of Simmons.  Plus the addition of Butler?  Tough matchups.

Hayward was a ghost.  I understand him not shooting much (ok, not really, but I'm trying to cut him some slack) but I don't see where he did much else of anything else.  Shoot, or pass to the shooters.  He did neither.

Morris is money.

Tatum struggled from outside, he was 1-7 from 3 and 3-13 from outside the paint, but he ran the floor very well and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Horford was only supposed to play 25 minutes but played 30 with OT.  I hope he doesn't feel it tomorrow.  He's so important I'm not sure this win would be worth him being out for another couple of games if he suffers a relapse.  He played pretty good defense against Embiid but Embiid was smoking from everywhere.  In a way, given he is just coming back from Patellar Tendonitis, it might have been better if he didn't have to stay in front of Simmons.  He was an awful 2-10 and 0-5 from 3 but he had 5 assists and made his presence felt.  A glue guy and we are much better with him.  There are glue guys that are worth the money, and Horford is one of them, and there are glue guys who aren't worth their money, and Gordon Hayward isn't one of them.  Maybe next game.  Maybe next month.  Maybe...

Rozier and Brown a combined 5-13.  Looking for something good to say, they only

And, oh yeah, Kyrie Irving is inhuman.

We are now tied with Philly in the loss column.  We are 1 game behind them because they have played 2 more games than us and won both but they are going on the road now.  Maybe one of their opponents can help us out.  As it is we're not in awful shape considering our injuries.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401070235


bob


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Bob he is inhuman, how about Kyrie going after offensive boards and finishing with 10 boards? Who does all that, hitting 2 back to back 3’s in OT was as dramatic a moment as there has been so far this season. Garden was going nuts!!!

First game I've seen in a while, personal stuff, traveling etc. etc. Down 113-108, I was trying to wrap my head around " heckuva game" yada yada. We beat them 13 to 1 from there. I don't care how badly Horford shot the ball, we don't win without him. I  actually thought Rozier had a few good moments, and Theis hung tough. Marcus Morris is having a career year. He scored 22 tonight and it has become so routine I hardly noticed . Of course , when Kyrie is that dominant everyone else becomes background music. As for Hayward and Brown , GH had an injury that it takes a while to come back from and Jaylen needs to rediscover his stroke. Think of how good these guys might be if and when they come around.Also, by the time the playoffs come around , Baynes will be back and maybe Williams will be part of the anti- Embied rotation. I still don't think Simmons is worth much in the half court , but I suppose I am in the minority there. Salutations guys , and Rosalie.

Al, Jayson, both Marcus's, Kyrie - all glue guys. Jaylen and Gordon, both unglued now but worth sticking around for....I see improvements in their games, I really do. Let's revisit those two in February. Terry didn't shoot great played he played well otherwise. Theis is a keeper. Love that guy for less than $1M/year.

So in our last 13 games we are 10-3, and several of the three we lost were without Al, .,orris and Aron.... Add a productive Brown and Hayward to the mix and we'll be soaring,

worcester wrote:Al, Jayson, both Marcus's, Kyrie - all glue guys. Jaylen and Gordon, both unglued now but worth sticking around for....I see improvements in their games, I really do. Let's revisit those two in February. Terry didn't shoot great played he played well otherwise. Theis is a keeper. Love that guy for less than $1M/year.

So in our last 13 games we are 10-3, and several of the three we lost were without Al, .,orris and Aron.... Add a productive Brown and Hayward to the mix and we'll be soaring,

+1

Sure is convenient when your smallish guard can go one-on-one against the tall/beefy/quick Butler, reverse directions a couple of times in the paint at the end of a long game, and score to tie in the last seconds with extra arc on the ball.

TheHat wrote:Sure is convenient when your smallish guard can go one-on-one against the tall/beefy/quick Butler, reverse directions a couple of times in the paint at the end of a long game, and score to tie in the last seconds with extra arc on the ball.

Hat,

It sure is, and that tall/beefy/quick Butler is also 4x NBA All-Defense 2nd team, including last year. Not just "a good defender", but one of the league's top defenders.

Nice to see you.


bob


.

I’m sure Kyrie goes one on one with 2 J’s, he’s got good sparing partners.

Here is the game flow:

gyso wrote:Here is the game flow:

With the exception of parts of the 2nd and 3rd it looks like a punch out in a phone booth.

To be honest, when we went down 5 in OT, not scoring for the first 1:27, I thought we might have been cooked since our offense with the exception of Kyrie had been pretty cold most of the night.  Then Tatum got a dunk, Hayward got an alley-oop, Kyrie hit his 2 big 3s, Tatum with 2 icy-cold hearted fritos and then Hayward with a frito to seal it.  13 points in OT:  6 by Kyrie, 4 by Tatum and 3 by Hayward.  Hayward had a shitty game but the difference between a 7 point game and a 4 point game is very big.  One is a 3 possession game and the other is a very doable 2 possession game.


bob


.

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.#Celtics wing Jayson Tatum gets props for the 23-point, 10-rebound double-double vs the #Sixers. But arguably more significant was the defense he played on Jimmy Butler. In 53 possessions guarding Butler, Tatum limited him to 13 points on 4-for-14 shooting (28.6%)




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Jayson is developing into an all star on both sides of the ball. Jaylen did a good job defensively too.

bobheckler wrote:Damn, what a win!  Played like a playoff game, with both coaches only going 9 deep.

Baynes was the primary defender on Embiid, did a pretty good job on him in the last playoffs, and he's out.  Horford was the primary defender on Simmons, and did a good job on him in the last playoffs.  Due to Baynes' injury Horford had to switch over onto Embiid, which took our best defender off of Simmons.  Plus the addition of Butler?  Tough matchups.

Hayward was a ghost.  I understand him not shooting much (ok, not really, but I'm trying to cut him some slack) but I don't see where he did much else of anything else.  Shoot, or pass to the shooters.  He did neither.

Morris is money.

Tatum struggled from outside, he was 1-7 from 3 and 3-13 from outside the paint, but he ran the floor very well and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Horford was only supposed to play 25 minutes but played 30 with OT.  I hope he doesn't feel it tomorrow.  He's so important I'm not sure this win would be worth him being out for another couple of games if he suffers a relapse.  He played pretty good defense against Embiid but Embiid was smoking from everywhere.  In a way, given he is just coming back from Patellar Tendonitis, it might have been better if he didn't have to stay in front of Simmons.  He was an awful 2-10 and 0-5 from 3 but he had 5 assists and made his presence felt.  A glue guy and we are much better with him.  There are glue guys that are worth the money, and Horford is one of them, and there are glue guys who aren't worth their money, and Gordon Hayward isn't one of them.  Maybe next game.  Maybe next month.  Maybe...

Rozier and Brown a combined 5-13.  Looking for something good to say, they only

And, oh yeah, Kyrie Irving is inhuman.

We are now tied with Philly in the loss column.  We are 1 game behind them because they have played 2 more games than us and won both but they are going on the road now.  Maybe one of their opponents can help us out.  As it is we're not in awful shape considering our injuries.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401070235


bob


.

Bob, why do you say that you can understand Gordon not shooting? Isn’t that the one thing that he does very good? Do you feel that the injury should be effecting his shooting at this point?

Ktronic1 wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Damn, what a win!  Played like a playoff game, with both coaches only going 9 deep.

Baynes was the primary defender on Embiid, did a pretty good job on him in the last playoffs, and he's out.  Horford was the primary defender on Simmons, and did a good job on him in the last playoffs.  Due to Baynes' injury Horford had to switch over onto Embiid, which took our best defender off of Simmons.  Plus the addition of Butler?  Tough matchups.

Hayward was a ghost.  I understand him not shooting much (ok, not really, but I'm trying to cut him some slack) but I don't see where he did much else of anything else.  Shoot, or pass to the shooters.  He did neither.

Morris is money.

Tatum struggled from outside, he was 1-7 from 3 and 3-13 from outside the paint, but he ran the floor very well and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Horford was only supposed to play 25 minutes but played 30 with OT.  I hope he doesn't feel it tomorrow.  He's so important I'm not sure this win would be worth him being out for another couple of games if he suffers a relapse.  He played pretty good defense against Embiid but Embiid was smoking from everywhere.  In a way, given he is just coming back from Patellar Tendonitis, it might have been better if he didn't have to stay in front of Simmons.  He was an awful 2-10 and 0-5 from 3 but he had 5 assists and made his presence felt.  A glue guy and we are much better with him.  There are glue guys that are worth the money, and Horford is one of them, and there are glue guys who aren't worth their money, and Gordon Hayward isn't one of them.  Maybe next game.  Maybe next month.  Maybe...

Rozier and Brown a combined 5-13.  Looking for something good to say, they only

And, oh yeah, Kyrie Irving is inhuman.

We are now tied with Philly in the loss column.  We are 1 game behind them because they have played 2 more games than us and won both but they are going on the road now.  Maybe one of their opponents can help us out.  As it is we're not in awful shape considering our injuries.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401070235


bob


.

Bob, why do you say that you can understand Gordon not shooting? Isn’t that the one thing that he does very good? Do you feel that the injury should be effecting his shooting at this point?

ktronic,

We've seen games where Gordon does other things well, like pass and even rebound (although not quite as much). He plays "point forward" for Brad. If he had done those things I would have been more approving of his game last night. As it is he didn't do any of those things.

Sure I think he should have shot more, I think he should shoot more in general, but he can get away with less shooting if he does other helpful things. He didn't last night.


bob


.

Well if his shot isn’t falling I’d rather he didn’t shoot us out of the game, so he did a good job of not hurting us. For stretches I thought he had favorable match ups, but he knows what he has and what he can do in each game better than us.

Wait until February before sending Gordon to Markelle Fultz's psychiatrist.

For what it's worth, running backs in the NFL who have suffered knee injuries often do not return to form until the second season after surgery.
Paul George suffered his gruesome injury August 1, 2014 and is now having perhaps his best season ever. It takes time.