The Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) extended their winning streak to six games with a victory over the defending champion Boston Celtics.
The Sixers were led by Joel Embiid (27 points, 10 rebounds) and Tyreese Maxey (25 points, 9 rebounds) to beat Boston 106-103 in the 2023-2024 regular season at the Wells Fargo Center in Pennsylvania, U.S., on Monday (local time).
At 6-1, Philadelphia remained in first place in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia's only loss came in the first game of the season against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Philadelphia and Boston met in last season's Eastern Conference semifinals, where Philadelphia took a 3-2 series lead before dropping Games 6 and 7 to fall short in the finals.
Since then, head coach Doc Rivers has been fired, and the team's signature player, James Harden, demanded a trade and was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.
There were a lot of changes in Philadelphia, but one constant was center Embiid.
A close game tilted in Philadelphia's favor when Embiid scored 13 points in the third quarter alone.
Leading 81-71 entering the fourth quarter, Philadelphia held off a late Boston rally to win by three points.
Boston was led by Kristaps Porzingis (29 points) but has lost two straight in recent games.
The Los Angeles Clippers, who were even considered favorites to win the title with the addition of Harden, lost 93-100 on the road to the Brooklyn Nets.
Paul George scored 24 points and Kawhi Leonard added 17 to lead the Clippers' offense, but Harden didn't have an explosive game, scoring just 12 points.
The Clippers have lost all four of their road games this season.
Yannis Adetokunbo, right.
Milwaukee defeated the Detroit Pistons 120-118 on Sunday despite having star power forward Yannis Adetokunbo ejected for a technical foul. Adetokunbo, who picked up one technical foul in the second quarter, left the court after picking up a second technical foul for taunting an opposing defender after a dunk with nine minutes left in the third quarter.
By then, Adetokunbo had scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
After Adetokunbo's ejection, Milwaukee ended the third quarter trailing 90-95. Milwaukee made a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, getting back-to-back baskets from Damian Lillard and Brook Lopez to make it 119-115 with 42 seconds left.
Lopez then blocked a driving hook shot by Cade Cunningham with 12 seconds left to preserve the win at 119-118. 19가이드03
