The Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Boston Celtics for an important game three of their first round NBA playoff series in Philadelphia. Philly won game two in Boston 111-97 which tied the series.
VJ Edgecombe skied in the air to get the scoring started for the 76ers. Adem Bona and Neemias Queta would trade dunks early in the first quarter. Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown would trade threes as it was 12-12 with 5:40 left. Both teams’ offenses would pick up towards the end of the quarter. The Celtics led 29-24 after one.
In the second quarter, Baylor Scheierman hit a no–dip three and then got a key offensive rebound that set up a Derrick White triple. An insane sequence started for Philly when Bona blocked Luka Garza then Quentin Grimes was able to get the rebound and fire a bounce pass to Edgecombe in transition for an authoritative dunk that forced a Boston time out. Brown a few possessions later would have a chasedown block against Paul George. Boston led 54-47 heading into halftime.
George started to cook early in the third quarter scoring the first seven points for the Sixers. On one possession he used a nice barrage of handles into a sidestep three over White. Maxey would hit a rainbow three over Jayson Tatum that gave Philly the lead. Andre Drummond hit a corner three to put the Philly crowd in a frenzy. Payton Pritchard hit a deep three over George with 35.8 seconds left in the third. The Celtics led 79-74 after the third.
Maxey hit a deep top of the key three of the screen to force a Celtic time out and gave a stone cold face as the Philly crowd went crazy. Drummond made another corner three and then Kelly Oubre Jr. had a tough finish against Nikola Vucevic to cut the lead to two. Brown then silenced the crowd with a foul line jumper over Maxey. Drummond made back-to-back dunks to only trail the Celtics by one 97-96. Tatum made a big time three to make it a two possession game. George then hit a tough off-balance layup off the glass against Brown to make it back to a two point game. Pritchard then hit a stepback three over Oubre Jr. with the shot clock winding down. Tatum hit the dagger pull-up three over Bona as the 76ers called time out. Boston would win game three 108-100.
Tatum and Brown both had 25 points for the Celtics. Pritchard had 15 points off the bench. Maxey led the way with 31 points but not on the efficiency. George had 18 points and Edgecombe had a double-double of 10 points along with 10 rebounds but not the best efficiency.
The Celtics lead the series 2-1. Game Three will be this Sunday Night, April 25 at 7 p.m. in Philadelphia.
