Paul George Scores 36 in His Philly Return as Boston Beats the 76ers 123-101
George shot 14 of 22 with six threes, and Boston turned a 79-79 tie into a 105-82 lead in just over seven minutes to take first place in the East.
Photo: NBA.com. Paul George, Boston Celtics. Card design: The Dyme.
Paul George scored 36 points on 14-of-22 shooting, including 6 of 11 from three, as the Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers 123-101 on Tuesday night in his first game back in Philadelphia. Boston closed the last 3:19 of the third quarter and the first 3:43 of the fourth on a 26-3 run, and the 9-2 Celtics moved past the 9-3 Sixers for first place in the East.
George spent two seasons in Philadelphia before the Sixers traded him to Boston for Jaylen Brown, per the Associated Press.
Seven threes and a tie that lasted 17 seconds
Philadelphia trailed 62-51 at halftime and climbed back in the third. Dean Wade's three tied it 76-76 with 4:02 left in the third, and Tyrese Maxey's step-back three tied it again at 79 with 3:19 left.
Boston answered with seven straight made shots, all threes, by our count from ESPN's play-by-play. Payton Pritchard hit one 17 seconds after Maxey's tie. Sam Hauser, Jayson Tatum and Baylor Scheierman followed before the quarter ended, and the only Philadelphia points in that span were another Maxey three. Pritchard opened the fourth with two more, and George hit a 25-footer at 9:36 that made it 100-82 and forced a Sixers timeout.
George then finished it himself. A four-foot shot and a free throw after a Maxey foul, then a two-footer at 8:17, put Boston up 105-82. The Celtics had scored 26 of the 29 points after the second tie.
The Celtics' team recap noted that the Sixers did not make a field goal in the fourth until Brown's three at 7:37. That three cut it to 105-85.
The trade's first scorecard
George scored 13 in the second quarter and 14 in the fourth, per the Celtics' recap. In the fourth he went 5 of 7 from the field and 3 of 4 from deep while Philadelphia shot 7 of 21 as a team. He finished plus-17 in 30 minutes, the best mark among Boston's starters.
Brown had 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting with four turnovers in 25:49 in his first game against his former team. He finished minus-27, the worst plus-minus of anyone in the game, per the NBA's official scorer's report. Tatum, his old running mate, scored 21 on 8-of-17 shooting.
That gap is one game. Brown joined LeBron James, Joel Embiid and Maxey, and the Sixers were 9-2 coming in. James scored 11 on 4-of-12 shooting. Embiid scored 16 but made 2 of 9 shots and got the rest at the line, 11 of 13.
Where the 22 points came from
Philadelphia's numbers in the box are not all bad, which makes the margin stranger. The Sixers took 28 free throws to Boston's five and won fast-break points 21-10, per the official report. Boston gave the ball away nine times all night, and Philadelphia scored nine points off those turnovers. The Sixers' 14 turnovers became 21 Boston points.
The Celtics won it everywhere else. They made 48 field goals to Philadelphia's 33 and 22 threes to the Sixers' 11, and they won the paint 46-32. Take free throws out and Boston outscored Philadelphia 118-77. Philadelphia's largest lead all night was one point, and the Sixers led for about one percent of the game, per ESPN's team stats.
Boston's bench did a lot of the damage. Pritchard scored 18 with four threes and finished plus-26, the best mark in the game. Hauser went 4 of 6 from deep in under 18 minutes and was plus-24. Hugo González added 10 points and three steals off the bench. Boston's five reserves who played more than 15 minutes were a combined plus-78.
What changes for the East
Eleven games is a small sample, and these teams meet again. Tuesday still gave the trade its first real scorecard. George answered with 36 points on 22 shots in the building he left, and Philadelphia added a star and still lost by 22 at home. Boston has now won nine of its last 10, per the AP.
Joe Mazzulla spent his postgame time on Tatum and the attention around him. "He doesn't get enough credit for his emotional stability," Mazzulla said, per the Celtics' team site.
Boston plays at Toronto on Wednesday.
Photo: NBA.com. Paul George, Boston Celtics
Sources
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