The Boston Celtics will play the Philadelphia 76ers, who are also one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. This will be the Celtics’ last road test of the NBA season.
Latest news on Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown
Even though they’ve won their last two games, Boston is still two games behind Milwaukee for the top spot in the conference and the NBA as a whole.
If the Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers again on Tuesday, it will be their fourth straight win over Sixers.
Since Friday, when they beat Utah 122-114, the Celtics haven’t played. That was the night after their flight from Milwaukee, where they beat the Bucks 140-99.
Tatum had 39 points and 11 rebounds after scoring 40 points against the Bucks. He made five of the team’s seventeen 3-pointers, and for the third game in a row, he had the most points.
Monday afternoon, the Celtics said that Jaylen Brown might not be able to play because of pain in his low back.
Keith Smith of Spotrac.com says that Brown could miss Tuesday’s game against the 76ers because of back pain.
In two of his last three games, Brown’s team held him to less than 20 points, and he is now having back problems.
Even though he hasn’t been scoring as many points lately, in his last 11 games he has still averaged 28.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 34.7 minutes.
If he can’t play against Philadelphia, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard might play more.
Tim Bontemps of ESPN says that Robert Williams will not play in Tuesday’s game in Philadelphia so that he can get some rest.
As they have done all season, when the Celtics play two games in a row, they will be careful with Williams. On Wednesday, the big man is likely to play against Toronto.
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Recently, there have been a lot of ups and downs for the 76ers. They lost three straight games, then won two in a row, and then lost in Milwaukee on Sunday by a score of 117-104.
Joel Embiid had 28 point. The 76ers’ star player was again picky on offense, and in his last two games, he has only taken 30 shots.
Before he got hurt in his calf and missed a game, he averaged 18.9 tries per game in his previous 10 games.
By the end of March, Embiid will have played 15 games and averaged 33.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 2.0 blocks.
The season only has four games left. The 76ers know that has to change quickly.
The Celtics won the first two games between the two teams by 9 and 7 points. On February 25, Brown hit a three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left to give the Celtics a 110-107 win on the road. Tatum led his team with 18 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists in that game.