PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jayson Tatum continued to shine in his return from injury with 25 points and Jaylen Brown also scored 25 to help the Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers 108-100 on Friday night and take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference first-round series.
Game 4 is Sunday in Philadelphia.
Tatum was 5 of 9 on 3-pointers in just his 19th game this season following surgery last May to repair his Achilles tendon. Brown scored eight straight points late in the fourth for a 96-92 lead that put some distance between them and a Sixers team brimming with confidence following a surprise Game 2 win in Boston.
Tatum buried a 3 for a 100-96 lead and Payton Pritchard hit a step-back 3 to make it 103-98. Tatum, still looking to regain his top form after not playing for nearly a year, may just be there and hit the final 3-point dagger for the 106-100 lead that even sent Allen Iverson headed toward the exit.
Philadelphia played again without center Joel Embiid for Game 3 as he continues to ease his way back into practice following an appendectomy on April 9.
Tyrese Maxey scored 31 points and Paul George added 18.
The more games Embiid misses, the more Maxey and VJ Edgecombe have played their way into the faces of the franchise.
Fans were already on their feet when the Sixers brought the ball down in the fourth and roared when Maxey let a 28-footer fly and hit it for an 85-84 lead.
Yet growing pains are inevitable in the playoff process.
Tatum took the lead right back on a goaltending call against Edgecombe. Edgecombe paired his second double-double of the series – 10 points and 10 rebounds — with a brutal 0-for-7 effort from 3-point range. With Boston up 90-85, Edgecombe was whistled for his third foul when he smacked Brown on his way to the bucket. Brown hit both to stretch the lead to seven.
Boston’s 32-point Game 1 win stands as the outlier so far of two otherwise fantastic playoff games. What has stayed steady, the team with the 3-point edge wins. Boston hit 16 in Game 1 and the 76ers had the advantage with 19 in Game 2. Led by five each from Tatum and Payton Pritchard, the Celtics made 20 of 47 in Game 3 while the Sixers were just 12 of 35.
The Sixers got only a combined 22 points from Embiid replacements Adem Bona and Andre Drummond.
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