Sixers Drop 11th Straight In 101-90 Loss To Celtics
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Brandon Bass scored 23 points, Jared Sullinger added 22 and the Boston Celtics sent Philadelphia to its 11th straight loss to start the season with a 101-90 victory over the 76ers on Wednesday night.
Rajon Rondo had 13 assists with nine points, and Jeff Green chipped in 11 points for the Celtics (4-6), who snapped a three-game losing streak.
Tony Wroten led five 76ers in double figures with 21 points. Philadelphia (0-11) is seven defeats from tying the 2009-10 Nets for the worst start in NBA history.
Boston, which entered third-worst in the league at 109.4 points allowed per game, was even worse on its recent skid (116.3). But the Celtics held the struggling 76ers to a season low in points.
The Celtics took control midway through the third quarter when they broke a 54-all tie with seven straight points. Rondo started the run with an alley-oop pass to Green for a backward dunk, followed by Rondo's over-the-shoulder, no-look pass to Avery Bradley for a jumper.
Bradley finished the spurt with a 3-pointer.
Wroten pulled Philadelphia to 73-68 at the end of the period by hitting a running, 38-footer at the buzzer.
But the Celtics opened the fourth on a 6-0 run with Kelly Olynyk's dunk, Phil Pressey's runner and two free throws by Evan Turner to take their largest lead to that point, 79-68, with 10:21 remaining.
The double-digit advantage was too much for the offensively challenged 76ers to overcome.
Philadelphia entered last in the NBA in scoring (88.5 points per game) and field-goal percentage (40.3 percent).
The 76ers led by as many as nine and jumped out to a 27-22 lead after the first quarter behind Luc Mbah a Moute's seven points. But they managed only 19 second-quarter points, and the teams entered halftime tied at 46.
It's been a difficult start for the Sixers — and particularly bad of late. They lost 88-87 to Houston last Friday but were beaten by an average of 36.7 points in their other three most recent defeats: at Toronto, at Dallas and at San Antonio.
The 76ers had success against Boston last season when they won just 19 games, taking three of four from the Celtics.
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