PHILADELPHIA — Nightmares from the Celtics’ opening night loss to the 76ers returned as Philadelphia erased more than half of Boston’s 24-point second quarter lead before halftime. The Celtics committed three and-one fouls, turned the ball over and allowed the Sixers to race past them in transition in moments eerily reminiscent of opening night. By the halfway point of the third, Philadelphia tied the game on a 32-8 run.
Then, Payton Pritchard, whose early season shooting woes continued with a 1-for-9 night outside, grabbed an offensive rebound and fed Jaylen Brown for a go-ahead three. He stole the ball from Joel Embiid in the post on a sequence that ended with a Brown put-back. The Celtics never trailed, holding off another Philadelphia rally to within 109-108 by stopping Embiid’s last-second like how the Sixers halted Pritchard on opening night before the buzzer.
The win marked a 1-0 start for Boston in NBA Cup group play that’ll also include Brooklyn, Detroit and Orlando across the next month. More importantly, the Celtics turned around following an 0-3 start to reach .500 and top-10 status on offense and defense.
Here are some takeaways from the night in Philly:
- Jaylen Brown providing the shooting while Derrick White and Payton Pritchard facilitate: Brown has 25 assists and 23 turnovers through six games combined for 61 assists and 14 turnovers through the 3-3 start while struggling to find their shots. Pritchard stepped inside and went 7-for-8 on twos in the win. White fell to 32.1% from the field early this season. Brown lost an in-bounds pass with 12 seconds remaining that gave the Sixers their first of two chances at a go-ahead shot.
- White caught an inadvertent Joel Embiid elbow on the Maxey miss that followed, and left the locker room with two fresh cuts on his forehead: “I got hit by somebody. That’s all I got,” he told CLNS as he left.
- For Brown, frustration over what the officials allowed the Sixers to get away with boiled over with a third quarter technical: “My job is to go play basketball, I’m not an official. But, I think they allowed them to get away with a lot of contact on me. I just be getting tired of that shit,” he said after.
- Brown, who no longer appeared on the injury report entering the game, shot three free throws while Boston only reached the line 10 times as a team before Josh Minott’s crunch time misses following an intentional foul.
- Hugo González provided a significant boost off the bench in the third quarter after Philadelphia pulled within 79-77, grabbing a pair of rebounds on either end, diving for two loose balls and securing one. He dunked on a breakout following a Sam Hauser steal and made a quick decision to find Hauser for three in the following quarter. González fouled five times and missed a put-back try badly, but the minutes were hugely impactful as he wraps his head around the NBA schedule that differs so greatly from Europe: “It’s something different than what I’m used to, because of the timeline, we play today here, then tomorrow we play against Houston. You gotta change your mindset every single night, because tomorrow you got a new game, two days away, you got a new game. God bless if you got two free days. Trying to adapt to this many games. Trying to build a routine to allow my body to perform the next day.”
Rookie Hugo Gonzalez is still adjusting to the NBA schedule:
— Celtics on CLNS (@CelticsCLNS) November 1, 2025
“It’s something different than what I’m used to… god bless if you got two free days. Trying to adapt to this many games.”
–@CLNSMedia pic.twitter.com/o74pAevvDd - Another impressive note from our Noa Dalzell. González picked up Minott after his critical free throw misses: “(Minott) did a hell of a job and he’s played super, super good. I think he’s one of the examples on the team of giving 100% every possession. So I basically just gave him, cheers up, we won the game and he took a great part of winning the game with him. So just cheering him up as he’ll do for me too.”
- Nice to see Simons get going with 19 points on 21 shots. Not the most efficient night, but he led a bench unit that played the decisive stretches in the game, finishing +23, and even spent some time guarding Tyrese Maxey: “Coaches have been telling me to be myself, be aggressive. Tonight was probably the most aggressive I’ve ever been. It’s just figuring out from there, continuing to read the game, figure out what the game needs … it’s pretty much that simple. (The coaches) put me in some high pick-and-roll situations, which I’m comfortable being in, and we were able to get a couple of good looks off it, building that relationship with the bigs and everybody on the court, getting comfortable running those actions.”
Anfernee Simons:
— Celtics on CLNS (@CelticsCLNS) November 1, 2025
“The coaches have been begging for me to be more aggressive. I think I was aggressive today, just hope next time I make a couple more shots.”
–@CLNSMedia pic.twitter.com/YZR3yZEqiY - Joe Mazzulla and Simons agreed that the Celtics have played better through longer stretches as the season has progressed, from about 12-24 minutes in the early games to 36, Mazzulla said, on Friday. Mazzulla also loved how the Celtics moved onto the next play repeatedly as things went against them.
- Simons credited Mazzulla putting the Celtics in high-pressure situations for preparing them to win a game that came down to forcing turnovers and chasing offensive rebounds.
- Xavier Tillman Sr. closed the game with a three and layup across three straight possessions where the Sixers forced him to shoot in crunch time. Embiid didn’t get a shot attempt off over the final seven minutes he played opposite of Tillman, save for the three free throws he earned colliding with González’ groin.
- Minott, by contrast, tried to dunk on Embiid, forced a tough mid-range shot and missed a three down the stretch alongside Tillman. He missed two free throws ahead by one point with four seconds left. Early, he guarded Maxey to begin his third straight Celtics start, and Boston held him scoreless for seven minutes.
- Embiid gave his thoughts on the new-look Celtics after: “When you’re missing Jayson Tatum, you’re not gonna be as good as usual. It’s still a pretty good team. They got the Finals MVP, Sixth Man of the Year, Derrick White is a gold medalist, pretty good player. Then they got Minott, who’s been playing well, Queta is doing as solid job. So they still got some players. It feels like a new team that lost a lot of guys, but they’re still gonna be good. The way they shoot the ball, they’re always gonna be in games, but that’s not a team you should dismiss just because they’re missing Jayson Tatum. They’re gonna be fine.”
Asked Embiid about #Celtics after 2 G: "When you're missing Jayson Tatum, you're not gonna be as good as usual…still a pretty good team. They got the Finals MVP, 6th Man of the Year…they're still gonna be good…that's not a team you should dismiss…they're gonna be fine" pic.twitter.com/UDo5XNZDax
— Bobby Manning (@RealBobManning) November 1, 2025 - Sixers wing Trendon Watford played with Simons in Portland: “He looked like Ant. I know this new role is different for him coming off the bench and stuff, but I know what Ant can do, I’ve seen him play 1,000 times … I remember his grandad passed and he dropped 40 or something … he had a good game in Memphis before the all-star break and he hit a game-winner. I got plenty of (memories).”
Chatted with Trendon Watford about some of his memories playing with Anfernee Simons. His former teammates love him.
— Bobby Manning (@RealBobManning) October 31, 2025
Many have said POR defensive culture wasn’t the best: “We were trying to figure out different things. Different lineups. My second year we were probably better.” pic.twitter.com/gbx2gz4H7W
