BOSTON — The Celtics didn’t record a steal for nearly 45 minutes on Christmas.
That last happened in 1990. Jaylen Brown saved them from an unseemly milestone. Then, he forced another turnover on Tyrese Maxey at half court trailing by five points, trying to prevent a second straight Boston loss — Al Horford breaking loose for a dunk the other way — too little, too late.
The Celtics revived their chance to stun a Sixers team on the verge of an upset with a last-second comeback. They couldn’t make any more mistakes. Instead, Joel Embiid, ailing from a pregame accident that hurt his ankle, beat Horford for a pair of free throws. Maxey, with less than two seconds left on the shot clock, torched the Celtics’ entire defense to the basket for a layup that put the game out of reach.
Philadelphia won 69 seconds later, 118-114.
“What I was thinking was, they’re not gonna get off Joel’s body,” Maxey said. “So if he set a good screen and I could curl it, I had a chance to make a layup.”
Maxey scored 33 points on 12-of-23 shooting while Caleb Martin rained down seven threes on nine tries in a successful Philadelphia debut against the Celtics he’s long killed. Boston trailed by 15 points in the fourth quarter through inconsistent shooting, ball control and defense, but Jayson Tatum sparked a rally that Derrick White and Brown continued deep into the fourth.
Timely, rather than persistent, defensive lapses undercut those efforts on a solid offensive performance. And though their defensive numbers entered Wednesday on par with last year, their consistency doesn’t look on par with the relentless effort from 2024 as the calendar flips. Boston’s defensive rating stands in line with its efficiency from one year ago. That is now tied for eighth in the league, rather than second.
“We’ve been inconsistent in that,” Mazzulla said. “Inconsistent in our effort. In small samples, we need to play harder, but if you look at the 30-game sample size, it’s about where we’re at. There are definitely moments where we have to play harder.”
Brown missed his first six shots while turning the ball over after a jump ball win to let Kelly Oubre Jr. run full court for a slam. He stepped out of bounds attacking Embiid and played in crowds into the second quarter as the Celtics fell behind by as many as 14 points. In the most baffling moment, he flipped the ball around his back to Luke Kornet, who couldn’t catch it with Martin lurking for the steal.
Kornet relieved Kristaps Porzingis late in the first after the big man turned his left ankle 90 seconds into the game, the second time he’s done so in 11 games back from his surgery on the same leg. It also marked the third tweak since his return. He tried to play through it before going down for the game at halftime. Mazzulla had no update and he left the locker room later without any visible limitation.
Tatum took over with nine straight points to cut Philadelphia’s lead to five before tying the game in the second half with a mid-range jumper. Brown turned his night around with makes on six of his next nine shots into the third. Kornet provided six offensive rebounds and several put-backs to counteract early shooting struggles before Boston worked its way back to 40% from three.
Tatum, back from an illness that scratched him minutes before game time on Monday, shot 4-of-8 from three. Boston hit 20 three on 4 tries, but struggled inside the arc at 50% while missing five free throws. Brown missed all three of his attempts at the line.
Still, the score remained tied into the fourth where Kornet stopped back-to-back shots inside. Maxey buried a pull-up three, poured in a pair of floaters and found Kyle Lowry for a back-breaking three. Mazzulla said the Celtics didn’t take away his tendencies. Martin, hitting another off glass, made it a 14-point game again. Two plays later, White pointed at Martin as he stood in the paint next to Neemias Queta in the paint with the scorching Sixer wide open. Mazzulla called timeout — not happy.
“We didn’t have great defensive execution,” Mazzulla said. “Listen, we’re playing inconsistent basketball. We gotta be better at both ends of the floor. We gotta be more consistent on both ends of the floor.”
The Sixers saw, reacted to and beat the many looks Boston threw at them. Maxey attacked a drop early, which forced the Celtics into higher pick-ups and eventually switches. They moved into traps on Embiid, and strangely jumped into one near half court on Martin that allowed Maxey to glide uncontested to the basket. He torched mismatches off the dribble and hedging away from Martin proved wildly unsuccessful. Even Guerschon Yabusele split four three-point attempts and became a threat the Celtics needed to account for.
With Porzingis, the solution to the team’s early season rim protection troubles, and Holiday sidelined, the Sixers found more answers and holes than what would normally be available. The effort over multiple games became the story, rather than one slip-up on the big stage.
That Boston could rally and erase their double-digit deficit to reach within striking distance too late reflected past unsuccessful Celtics teams, and that another defensive mistake cost them that comeback after they flipped the switch showed a team that believes it can turn it on when it matters. That wasn’t how they won the championship last season. There are teams that can hurt them, and down 1-2 players only further bridged that talent gap.
“We have to dive into our work a little more and understand that we can’t relax during periods of the game, no matter the circumstance,” Horford said. “I know that we’re capable of getting it together.”
