Sixers Faceoff Against Rival Celtics In Season Opener

This offseason was busy for both clubs, the Celtics parted ways with Kyrie Irving and welcomed in Kemba Walker. Philly committed to Tobias Harris, inked deals that brought crafty vet Al Horford and two-way player Josh Richardson into the fold.

The energy circulating through the Wells Fargo Center was palpable as the new-look 76ers played host to their arch-nemesis the Boston Celtics.

Both teams were geared up for this one Josh Richardson Sixers guard said “It felt like a playoff atmosphere, already. It was ready to pop from the jump.”

Philadelphia pulled the ultimate troll move as they let Al Horford ring the bell to start the game vs his old squad. Al was a Celtic for 3 years and gave Joel Embiid headaches as a defender, now he’s in the Sixers starting line-up.

The first quarter we saw 55 points scored as Boston got out to an early 25-20 lead. From that point forward the Sixers came out and won every quarter with their defense. With about 49 seconds left in the second Ben Simmons slammed it home to draw the home team within one 48-47. Richardson put the Sixers up one 49-48 to give them their first lead since it was 12-11 going into halftime.

Philadelphia never lost the lead again, Boston was able to close the gap to three making it a 68-65 game. The defense stepped up from there giving up only 25 points the remainder of the game.

The Sixers went on to post a 107-93 victory over Boston marking it the first opener Philly’s won in five years!

Ben Simmons led all Sixers with 24 points he was just one assist (9) and two rebounds (8) shy of yet another career triple-double. All 5 starters from the city of brotherly love scored in double figures, Harris and Embiid both had 15, Joel grabbed 13 boards giving him his first double-double. Richardson dropped 17 and Horford netted 16 giving both men successful Sixer debuts.

Boston was led by Gordon Hayward’s 25 and Jayson Tatum’s 21. Jaylen Brown got into foul trouble early and sat out the majority of the second half. Enes Kanter helped out with 12, Kemba Walker in his Boston debut shot a disappointing 4-18 from the field ending up with12 points on the night.

Both teams have things they can build off of going into the season, the Sixers next game is Saturday in Detroit and the Celtics will play host to the defending NBA Champion Raptors.

SIXERS VS CELTICS GAME HIGHLIGHTS

(Video is courtesy of YouTube and House of Highlights, source CBS Sports)