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Celtics 105, 76ers 87: Career night for Kelly Olynyk

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

The Boston Celtics have pleaded with Kelly Olynyk to be more aggressive this season. Monday's game hammered home why.

Olynyk scored a career-high 30 points on 12-of-17 shooting over just 31 minutes to help the visiting Celtics post a 105-87 triumph over the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center.

Olynyk became the first Boston reserve to score 30 points in a regular-season game since Ricky Davis on April 1, 2005. Olynyk lit his fuse with a trio of first-half 3-pointers, then spent the second half dabbling around the basket.

Olynyk added nine rebounds, three steals, two blocks, and an assist. He was plus-29 in plus/minus.

Avery Bradley added 15 points while returning to game action after he missed Friday's game due to illness. Jeff Green added 14 more for Boston. Nerlens Noel had a team-high 19 points for Philadelphia.

• Rondo Report: Another quiet night for Rondo, who posted five points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and four steals while playing just 24 minutes. He attempted only three shots (making two of them, including a little sweeping layup in the paint).

• Sully's slump: Jared Sullinger continues to struggle with his shot, connecting on only 2 of 10 attempts for five points. Sullinger did have 11 rebounds. The most memorable moment of his night wasn't exactly positive.

• Loose balls: Playing without Marcus Smart (foot), Marcus Thornton (calf), and James Young (shoulder), the Celtics dressed only 11 healthy bodies and played them all (rookie Dwight Powell getting some late run). ... The Celtics shot 44.2 percent from the field overall; Philly finished at 35.5 percent. ... The 76ers turned the ball over 23 times for 32 points; Boston coughed it up 22 times, but for only 18 points.

• What it means: The Celtics improve to 8-14 and snap a three-game losing streak. The 76ers fall to 2-22 and have now lost all 13 games at home this season. Boston gets a practice day Tuesday before hosting the Orlando Magic on Wednesday evening.

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KELLY OLYNYK, CELTICS KEEP SIXERS REELING IN PHILADELPHIA

WEEI

Kelly Olynyk netted a career-high 30 points to help lead the Celtics to a 105-87 win over the lowly Sixers, in Philadelphia. (For a complete box score, click here.)
Philadelphia (2-22) dropped to 0-13 at home this season, staying in contention for the NBA record more most home losses to begin a campaign. (The 1993-94 Mavericks started 0-19.)

The win snaps a three-game losing streak for the Celtics, who had beaten Philly in the teams’ only other meeting this season.

The C’s broke open a five-point lead in the first quarter with a 27-13 second quarter, thanks in large part to Olynyk’s 18 first-half points.

Avery Bradley only went 5-for-20 from the floor, but finished as the Celtics’ second-leading scorer with 15 points.

Two Celtics mainstays struggled in the win, with Jared Sullinger netting just five points on 2-of-10 shooting, and Rajon Rondo taking just three shots on the way to a five-point night.
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Career night for Olynyk leads Celtics to 105-87 win

CSNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

The Boston Celtics opened Monday's game against Philadelphia with nine straight missed shots.

Not exactly a blowout-in-the-making kind of start, but that's exactly what the game turned into as the Celtics regrouped, rediscovered their shooting touch and just ran over the the Sixers to the tune of a 105-87 win.

For Boston (8-14), the victory snapped a three-game losing skid while extending the Sixers (2-22) latest run of futility to four straight defeats.

Kelly Olynyk was the man of the night, scoring a career-high 30 points off the Celtics bench to go with nine rebounds.

As for the Sixers, Everett, Mass. native Nerlens Noel had a career-high 19 points and eight rebounds to go with four assists.

Here are some other keys to Boston's most decisive win of the season.

WHAT WORKED

The Celtics defense played one of its most complete games of the season. Boston limited the Sixers to just 35.5 percent shooting while forcing 23 turnovers which Boston turned into 32 points.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK

About the only thing that didn't go Boston's way on Monday was free throw shooting. Boston came in ranked 16th in the NBA in free throw percentage (76.4), but shot just 65.7 percent on Monday.

KEY PLAY/STRETCH:

With Boston ahead 27-25 late in the first quarter, Kelly Olynyk drained a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that capped off a 5-0 spurt to end the first. That late burst was part of a 14-2 Celtics run that the Sixers were never able to bounce back from.


WHAT'S NEXT: The Celtics return to the TD Garden on Wednesday to face the Orlando Magic.

Philly is so bad it boarders on being criminal............I mean perpetrating a NBA team is fraud!

Way to go Brad..........up 20 something and you don't put Powell in until the last 2:20 of the game.

Great way to evaluate your talent and see what the kid has under real time play! Stevens is a joke!

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It's more important to give guys like Sully and Bradley extra game minutes in an effort to help them shed their shooting slumps. It's no coincidence that those two guys played more minutes than any other starter. There's always a context that makes things less straightforward than they may seem. Good coaches observe a whole lot of criteria and priorities that we fans may sometimes overlook.

Sam

OK we beat a D-League team!

no need to bang any drums about that.

the question is will we lose both or only one of the games to Orlando this week?


oh yeah.....

and what do we get back for trading Rondo.....he's been playing like he's already moved on.

Sam,

This team is not a Doc Rivers go for a championship team.  This period in time is to begin to evaluate talent up and down you bench to make evaluations on all YOUNG TALENT. So I see no excuse on Brads part in not giving the kid the last 7 minutes of the game.  I am losing a lot of respect for Stevens as a coach...........he is still learning on the job, but Danny hired him so he could learn by doing..............and not sitting at the end of the bench!

Sully and Bradly had their time on the court, so an extra 4 minutes is not going to do any thing major in getting them out of any slump.

If Powell does not have it.........just cut the kid and be done.........but give the kid his due and give him a fair shot.

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speaking of "players who don't have it"

I noted in one of the articles above, they said which players were out for this game and one name was not even mentioned anymore.

I guess the indestructible one form Euro ball is now the un-named one we pay to do nothing

yes Danny needs to make a move and we all know the first one is sending Fav packing. I'd rather have a d-leaguer on the team.