Philadelphia 76ers hand a 103-71 thrashing to Boston Celtics; Put the 5 game winning streak to bed - NBA Recap
Wednesday night saw one of the most ignominious defeats for Boston Celtics in the season as they were completely devastated by Philadelphia 76ers, 103-71. The game at the Wells Fargo Center was completely a one sided affair, as Sixers dominated in all 4 frames and didn’t allow a single tie or lead change in 2 hours and 4 minutes of play.
They had 6 players in double figures, led by a career best performance from Evan Turner who netted a game high 26 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Turner had been struggling to prove himself worthy of being number 2 overall pick in 2010 and moved into the starting line up just 2 nights ago.
But Doug Collins had faith in him and Turner did prove him that.
"Evan is a great leader," Collins said later. "He worked his tail off to be a better basketball player in the offseason and he was when he came back. When he didn't start, I know a part of him said `I should be.' But he didn't say anything. Evan has extreme confidence. He thinks he's the best player on this team."
Elton Brand tallied 18 and Louis Williams collected 15 coming off the bench. Reserve Nikola Vucevic had 14 points and 12 boards while Jrue Holiday recorded 10 in this jubilant 23rd victory of Philadelphia.
Celtics were worn out after playing an overtime fixture against Houston and they had to pay a high cost of their sluggishness. Deep through the opening frame, the C’s were hardly following up at 20-15 but they were left startled after a conclusive 13-2 run from Philadelphia. They capped off the segment with a huge 33-17 advantage.
Sixers never looked back after that and raced off to another huge 18-4 spurt to augment their advantage to 51-23 with 3:12 in hand. Boston resisted with a 10-4 run and trimmed the lead to 55-33 by the end of 2nd stanza.
Late in the 3rd period, the hosts had placed them self in the comfort zone with a mammoth 78-49 advantage. Celtics who were completely helpless in front of the Sixers offense watched them stretch their lead to 80-53 as the game entered into its last quarter.
The advantage ballooned to 91-63 midway through the 4th stanza and the Sixers gave Boston a final 12-4 jerk to claim an unquestionable 103-67 lead. As the time expired Boston came up with 4 points to reduce their margin of defeat to 103-71.
Only 3 players could hit double figure index for Boston, with Paul Pierce on top with16. Brandon Bass had 12 points while JaJuan Johnson netted 10 coming off the bench.
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