NBA: Boston Celtics V Philadelphia 76ers- 3 Talking points as Celtics win in overtime 121-114

Boston Celtics sneaked in a close victory against the Philadelphia 76ers in a highly competitive and exciting basketball game.

The final scoreline at the buzzer was 121-114 in overtime, in favor of the Boston Celtics.

With this victory, the Celtics have now won 2 in a row but are still at 5th position in the East, while the 76ers have a record of 22-13 and are at 4th in the Eastern Conference playoff rankings.

In this Christmas Day thriller, both teams came out strong and kept firing from all cylinders from both the sides. Both of them were not showing any signs of stopping, and their best players were determined to win this one for their respective teams.

The Celtics badly needed this victory to keep building their momentum for a top seed in the East.

Now, let’s look at the top 3 talking points from this match -

#3 Good show on the boards from both the teams

The Philadelphia 76ers racked in 56 rebounds while the Celtics were just 1 behind with 55. It was a good performance for them on the boards.

It’s no hidden fact that they’re naturally a good rebounding team, as they’re ranked 5th and 10th respectively on the total rebounds per game in the whole league and this reflects in the kind of dominance that they have in the league and why they’re considered as one of the contenders.

For the 76ers, Embiid and Simmons got 16 and 14 rebounds respectively, while for the Celtics Kyrie Irving and Jayson Tatum put their bodies on the line and grabbed 10 rebounds each.

It was a good performance from both the teams on the boards and one of the biggest reasons why this was such a tight and competitive game.

#2 Turnover problems for 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers coughed up the ball 19 times in such a close game, against such a competitive team like the Boston Celtics. On the other hand, the Celtics handled the ball well and gave away only 9 turnovers.

This was a huge concern for the 76ers throughout the match as this allowed the Celtics to stay in the game when the 76ers were ahead of them and had the opportunity to finish them off.

But they were not able to do so, because they themselves were not able to capitalize on the lead. Whenever they tried to get away and create a bigger gap, they coughed up the ball or made a wrong play which allowed the Celtics to come-back into the game and keep building pressure on the 76ers.

The Celtics also defended very well, and kept active hands which led to them getting so many turnovers and also won them the match.

#1 The Uncle Drew show

Kyrie Irving against the Philadelphia 76ers

The game turned into the Uncle Drew show when Kyrie Irving started hitting every shot from almost every and any corner of the court. He was unstoppable and was the biggest X-Factor in today’s game.

He hit clutch shots, important 3-pointers and most of all he delivered whatever was required of him and gave his team the important victory against a crucial rival such as the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Celtics have drastically underperformed this year, and a major reason for that is that they have not been able to find the right mix of players who they could put together and who would perform well together.

Slowly, they are figuring things out and especially Kyrie is starting to come back into his usual self, where he’s a star and playing like one.

Hopefully, this is a sign of many more great performances for Kyrie Irving to come.

In their next game, the Boston Celtics will face the Houston Rockets while the Philadelphia 76ers will play the Jazz in an away game.