BOSTON — Jae Crowder was, in his own words, “pissed.”
The Boston Celtics forward was 1 for 9 from the floor at the midway point of the fourth quarter Wednesday, and his team trailed the winless Philadelphia 76ers by double digits at home.
“I didn’t like the way things were going,” Crowder said. “I was pissed at myself — pissed at everybody for the most part. I just wanted to win.”
Fortunately for Boston, Crowder channeled that anger into clutch play down the stretch. The 25-year-old knocked down two huge 3-pointers — including a deep ball with 38 seconds left that gave the C’s a two-point lead — to help his team escape with a much-needed victory.
Crowder’s night was a microcosm of how the Celtics performed Wednesday night: very bad for nearly the entire game, but good enough when it counted.
A four-point win over a historically bad Sixers team (more on that later) doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, but at this point, the team will take what it can get.
“This win teaches us that we have to stay together,” Crowder said. “… I think we’re still learning, figuring everything out, and we’ve got to do it together.”
Celtics-Sixers Wrap >>
Let’s hit a few other notes from Celtics-Sixers:
— Evan Turner, as he often does, delivered the quote of the night when asked about his pass that set up Crowder’s game-winning 3-pointer.
“When I was dribbling, I was like, ‘Oh snap, I’m at 15 feet, I’m about to end this,'” Turner joked. “Then I thought about (Michael Jordan) passing to Steve Kerr, and I was like, ‘Let me add that to my legacy: I’ll pass one time,’ and that was it. It was unbelievable, actually. Ingenious by me.”
— Jahlil Okafor had another solid night against the Celtics.
The Sixers rookie, who scored 26 points against Boston in his NBA debut back in October, tallied 19 points on 7 of 17 shooting while adding nine rebounds and four blocks.
Jared Sullinger was tasked with defending Okafor early on, and while Sullinger held his own at times, the 19-year-old phenom proved too talented to cover with just one defender.
“Sullinger’s had the most success one-on-one against him,” Stevens said of defending Okafor. “Nobody can stop him by himself, but Sullinger’s been really good, so that had a factor in it.”
— Phil Pressey returned to TD Garden for the first time in another uniform Wednesday night.
The Sixers guard, who endeared himself to Celtics fans with his scrappy play during two seasons in Boston, stuffed the stat sheet with six points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals.
“I’m happy for him,” Sullinger said of Pressey. “He’s one of the good guys in this league, and he’s a pro’s pro at an early age. … He deserves everything he gets.”
— The Sixers tied a record for futility set recently by — you guessed, it the Sixers.
Wednesday night’s loss was Philly’s 26th in a row, as the team lost its final 10 games of the 2014-15 campaign. That tied their own record for the longest losing streak in U.S. professional sports, which they set during their 2013-14 season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers (2011)Â and the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1976-77) also lost 26 straight, but no Big Four team has dropped 27 in a row. The Sixers play the Rockets on Friday night for a chance to change that.
— The Celtics recalled Jordan Mickey from the D-League affiliate Maine Red Claws on Wednesday.
Boston now has all 15 players on its NBA roster, although Mickey and second-year guard James Young didn’t suit up for the C’s on Wednesday along with injured guard Marcus Smart.
Thumbnail photo via Thomas B. Shea/USA TODAY Sports Images
