Celtics fall early and never come back in 111-99 loss to Sixers

Within a minute of first-quarter offense, the Philadelphia 76ers sealed a comfortable win over the Boston Celtics on Friday night. The Sixers led by a whopping 22 and won by a 111-99 final at the Wells Fargo Center, on a sloppy night of turnovers for the C’s.

Jaylen Brown scored to make it 14-12 Sixers with 4:51 left in the first quarter, but from then on Philly took over. Getting contributions from across the lineup, the Sixers went 18-2 to end the first quarter with a 32-14 record.

During that same span, the Celtics went 1 for 8 off the field as a team, and Jayson Tatum committed three turnovers on his own. Boston was never able to cut the deficit to single digits for the rest of the game.

The Celtics didn’t have a bad shooting night overall. They shot 47.4% as a team, compared to 44.7% for the Sixers. But the most striking statistical disparity was in turnovers: 20 total for Boston, versus 9 for Philadelphia.

Brown and Tatum combined for 67 points in the Celtics’ previous game, a 119-100 win over the Pacers. The pair scored just 41 points Friday night, on 14-for-35 shooting.

Following: The Celtics return to Boston and get back to work on Saturday, when they face the Chicago Bulls at TD Garden.

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