Final, Celtics 105-87: That’ll do it for this one. The Celtics cruise to an 18-point victory to snap their three-game losing streak.
Fourth quarter 5:57, Celtics 96-73: The Celtics have this one in the bag.
Olynyk’s night likely is done, as he went to the bench after picking up his 30th point of the game. That’s a new career high for him. Boston’s bench as a whole has been strong, as Brandon Bass (14 points) and Evan Turner (10) also have reached double figures.
End third quarter, Celtics 73-56: We might have a Dwight Powell sighting here before long. In other words, this game is firmly in the Celtics’ control.
Kelly Olynyk leads all scorers with 26 points, just two shy of his career high.
Third quarter 4:11, Celtics 73-56: Kelly Olynyk has surpassed his season high with 24 points, and the Celtics are in full control again after that brief hiccup to start the third.
Third quarter 9:11, Celtics 60-48: The Sixers open the second half on a 10-3 run capped off by an emphatic put-back dunk by Nerlens Noel. Noel has been great for Philadelphia tonight; he’s now up to 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting and has added six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Third quarter 11:59, Celtics 57-38: We are underway in the second half.
Halftime, Celtics 57-38: The Celtics outscore the Sixers 25-11 in the second quarter to take a 19-point lead into the locker room.
Second quarter 2:50, Celtics 53-36: The Celtics have blown this one wide open. Since falling into that 11-2 hole, they’ve outscored the Sixers 51-25. That’s quite the shellacking.
Kelly Olynyk continues to wield the hot hand, piling up 18 points in just 12 minutes on 7-of-9 shooting.
Second quarter 7:50, Celtics 37-27: Jared Sullinger finally gets off the schneid, draining a three to give the C’s their largest lead of the night. Sullinger had been 0 for his last 11 and just 2-for-19 over his last two-plus games.
End first quarter, Celtics 30-25: Man, Kelly Olynyk is having himself a night. The center buried another three at the buzzer — his third of the quarter — to up his team-leading point total to 14.
Avery Bradley has 11 points for the Celtics, but he’s been far less efficient from deep (1 of 5).
First quarter 1:20, Celtics 23-20: Olynyk attempts two threes in the span of about 20 seconds, makes two and gives the Celtics their first lead of the night. The big man also came up with a steal between those two triples.
First quarter 5:19, 76ers 15-14: It didn’t take the C’s long to wake up.
Boston outscored Philly 12-4 coming out of that last timeout to quickly whittle their deficit down to one. Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk sparked the run, scoring seven and five points, respectively.
On the Sixers’ side, Everett, Mass., native Nerlens Noel has been very impressive, scoring six points on 3-of-4 shooting to go along with two rebounds and two assists.
First quarter 7:49, 76ers 11-2: This has been about as bad a start as the Celtics could have.
First Tyler Zeller picked up two fouls in the first 43 seconds and headed to the bench shortly after. Then, the Celtics missed their first nine shots before a Jeff Green layup finally put them on the board.
The Sixers already led 7-0 by that point, though, and after four more Philly points, Brad Stevens decided to take his first timeout. We can’t say we blame him.
First quarter 11:59, 0-0: Tyler Zeller outjumps Nerlens Noel for the opening tip, and we are underway.
6:45 p.m. ET: The Boston Celtics will be in Philadelphia on Monday — well, some of them, anyway.
Injuries have taken their toll on the 7-14 Celtics, who will have just 11 healthy players available for their tilt with the 2-21 76ers.
Marcus Smart (Achilles), Marcus Thornton (calf) and James Young (shoulder), all have been ruled out for the game (as has Vitor Faverani, who hasn’t played a minute yet this season), leaving the C’s extremely shorthanded at the shooting guard position.
Avery Bradley and Evan Turner are the only active players who have seen time at the two guard this season, so expect to see a heavy dose of minutes for both of them and perhaps some heavier Celtics lineups throughout the night.
The Sixers are, as their record would indicate, a very bad team, but they have been playing some better basketball of late. Philadelphia lost to the Brooklyn Nets by just two points Friday and pushed the Southwest Division-leading Memphis Grizzlies to overtime the following night before eventually falling 120-115.
The first Celtics-Sixers matchup this season also was far from a Boston cakewalk. The teams were tied at halftime before Jared Sullinger and Brandon Bass helped the C’s pull away down the stretch.
Here are the starting lineups you can expect to see Monday night:
Celtics
Rajon Rondo
Avery Bradley
Jeff Green
Jared Sullinger
Tyler Zeller
76ers
Michael Carter-Williams
Hollis Thompson
Robert Covington
Luc Mbah a Moute
Nerlens Noel
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Follow along with all the action right here, and follow NESN.com Celtics beat writer Zack Cox on Twitter for instant updates and analysis.
Photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
