Philadelphia 76ers own the third quarter to knock over the Boston Celtics 99-86 – NBA Recap
Elton Brand scored 20 points on a 10-of-15 shooting to lead the Philadelphia 76ers, who erupted in the third quarter to take out the Boston Celtics 99-86 on Friday night at the Wells Fargo Centre.
Lou Williams finished the game with 19 points, Jrue Holiday had 15 while Andre Iguodala scored 14 and also dished out 8 assists. Spenser Hawes scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Thaddeus Young came off the bench for 12
points and 9 rebounds.
Boston, who came into the game without ace shooter Ray Allen (sore right ankle), needed a win to cross the Sixers at the 5th spot in the Eastern Conference, but after a solid start which saw them leading by as many as
10, they lost Mickael Pietrus midway through the second quarter and could never recover after that.
Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett scored 20 points each to lead Boston. The duo also combined for 17 rebounds and 9 assists. Brandon Bass finished with 18 on 8-of-18 while Rajon Rondo handed 17 assists and 6 points.
With nearly 5:08 left in halftime, Pietrus in an attempted drive to the rim to the rim, collided with Williams and fell on his tail bone. He immediately clutched his head and had to be carried on a stretcher.
The injury dealt a big blow to the already short-handed C’s. Jeff Green and Chris Wilcox have had season ending heart surgeries, Jermaine O’ Neal is also done for the season and now the Pietrus incident has really left the franchise
in a predicament. Doc Rivers sounded depressed by the latest injury blow;
"Everything is going wrong right now. We have a resilient group, but we keep sustaining injuries."
Boston, who started the night on the back of a two game winning streak, were leading by 39-38 at that time and they made it 49-43 at halftime.
The Celtics were comfortably placed at halftime, but things changed completely after that. The Sixers came out all charged up and connected on 15 of their 23 field attempts to convert a 6 point deficit into a 14 points lead. They
outscored the C’s 37-17 in that period. Brand scored 14 of his 20 points in the third.
The Celtics tried to inject some quick points early in the fourth but were met with consistent resistance from the other end. Philadelphia stretched the lead to 16 points inside the first four minutes of the final frame and then
turned to Williams, who scored the last eleven points for them to cap a comfortable win.
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