At the end of the day, a win’s a win.
The Boston Celtics hosted the 9-24 76ers Friday night in a game that should have been over before it started. The Sixers came into this game with the second worst record in the NBA, with only Brooklyn doing worse so far. The Celtics on the other hand are one of the hottest teams in basketball right now, winning eight of their last ten games and looking to walk away with another home win at the Garden.
It was a cold first half for Boston as the Sixers dominated the scoring and took a 62-51 lead heading into the locker room. Boston was only able to make 7 of 22 field goal attempts during the second quarter. After being down by as much as 14 points during the first half, the seconds opened the third quarter on a 5-0 run to kickstart their 110-106 comeback win. The Celtics were able to fight back throughout the third quarter and a few more leas changes went on into the fourth until it was all tied 104-104 with less than a minute to play. After a pair of Philadelphia free throws put the Sixers up by two, Al Horford made a clutch shot deep from corner to put the Celtics ahead and essentially seal the victory.
Al Horford splashes home the go-ahead 3 with 17.2 left in the fourth! RT to make him an All-Star #NBAVote https://t.co/6upiRuIEqd
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 7, 2017
The Celtics seem to have worked out some of the issues with their 3-point shooting as they attempted a franchise record, 40 shots from beyond the arc. The scoring frenzy was driven by Avery Bradley who went 6-11 from 3-point range and 10-24 on midrange shots. Bradley finished with the most points scored by any player on either team with 26 points as well as picking up 9 rebounds and 2 assists.
Other top performers were Al Horford who came up clutch late in the fourth quarter grabbing key baskets from deep, going 4-7 on 3-pointers. Horford finished with 19 points and helped Celtics keep possession throughout with 12 rebounds and 4 assists. None of this can come soon enough from Horford, having struggled as of late on both ends of the court. Things have taken a turn though with Horford scoring 20.3 points per game over his last three games. During that span his 3-point accuracy and field goal percentage have each improved, averaging 52.6% and 55.8%, respectively.
Isaiah Thomas had a slow start to the night but was able to produce enough to score at least 20 points for his 20th consecutive game. Thomas finished the night with 24 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Thomas has been red hot in terms of hitting free throws this season, making 90.5% so far this season and went 10-11 from the line Friday night.
It wasn’t the way most would have expected the C’s to matchup with a nine win team, but key players were able to keep Boston in the win column. Now having won 9 of their lat eleven games, the Celtics look to stay hot and will host New Orleans tomorrow night.
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