Not many fans of the Boston Celtics expected the Philadelphia 76ers to jump out to a 4-0 start to the 2025-26 NBA regular season, and fewer still expected the Sixers to beat Boston on opening night given what we had been seeing from Philly big man Joel Embiid, the onetime MVP barely able to get off the ground on many plays since coming back from a recurrent knee injury.
The Celtics started their season in a 0-3 hole sparked by that loss to the Sixers at TD Garden on Oct. 22, but have since made things interesting with a win streak as long as their streak of losses was to start the season. And ironically enough, it was capped off with a win against Philly on their own home court — and with Embiid starting to look more like the player that won a Most Valuable Player award, too.
Embiid was not happy with the loss, of course, but still took pleasure in the big comeback his team was almost able to pull off against the Celtics in the second half. “I’m excited, because I feel like we grew up,” he explained via CLNS Media before pivoting to laud the 76ers’ opponent.
“When you’re missing Jayson Tatum, you’re not going to be as good as usual,” he said. “Still, it’s a pretty good team. And they’ve got the finals MVP (in Jaylen Brown). Sixth man of the year (in Payton Pritchard). You know, that one (Derrick White)’s a gold medalist. Pretty good player. And then they’ve got (Josh) Minott that’s been playing well — kid is doing a fine job.”
“So they’ve still got some players; it feels like a new team that lost a lot of guys, but they’re still going to be good. The way they shoot the ball … they’re always going to be in games, but that’s not a team you should dismiss just because they lost Jayson Tatum. They’re going to be fine.”
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