Celtics Lead Series 2-1, Sixers Seek Bench Boost

It's April 25th. Welcome to Boston Celtics News today, AI-powered coverage of your squad. I'm Cori with the story.

Boston snagged a 108-100 win over the Sixers in Game 3, Friday night, taking a two games to one lead in their first round.

Playoff series

The Celtics feasted on second chance points with a 22-17 edge, turning Philly's misses into easy buckets while their bench exploded.

For 34 points to the Sixers mere 13.

Without Joel Enbyte still recovering from that appendectomy, Philly leaned hard on their half-core defense, holding Boston to just 89 points.

Five points per 100 plays, way below their regular season average of 101.5.

But those gritty details, like offensive rebounds and turnovers, kept flipping the script. Tyree's Maxi dropped 31, but called out the little slips, like rebounds leading straight to 3s or layups.

Andre Drummond pointed to guard sneaking in from the corners, while Paul George owned the bad bounces, but stressed better box-outs to limit second.

Shots

Coach Nickner's praised the fight, but flag rebounding, shot contests, and bench production as fixable flaws.

Philly's reserves barely showed up in their 8-man rotation, with guys like Quentin Grimes and Justin Edwards seeing limited action that didn't pan.

Out. Game 4 hits Sunday night, and if the Sixers tighten those small edges and unleash their depth, they can even this series at two apiece playoffs.

Come down to possessions after all.