Terry Rozier, Celtics crush 76ers in the TD Garden, 113-96
The Boston Celtics' second unit got the nod to start on Monday night, and cruised past the Philadelphia 76ers, 113-96. The C's were carried by strong performances from Marcus Smart (12 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast), Jaylen Brown (12 pts, 9 reb), and most notably Terry Rozier (15 pts, 10 reb, 6 ast).
Rozier knocked on the door of a triple double in the third quarter. He dominated in the first, putting up ten points, alongside fellow starter Marcus Smart who tallied eight in the opening frame.
On the shoulders of the young guys, Boston jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Jayson Tatum cracked open the scoring with a three and within five minutes, the Celtics were up 17-5.
Markell Fultz uncorked some sweet spin moves to drive to the rack, rattling up eight points before the break, but not before Smart and Rozier started to predict the spin and started swiping it from the number one overall pick, and then turning it around on the fastbreak.
Don't get me wrong, there was more than just Terry and Marcus in the first (even though they combined for 18 of the 37 points). In fact, Guerschon Yabusele pulled down three boards, Aron Baynes made some plays, and the C's dominated the stat sheet.
Celtics were 6 of 8 from three, 9 of 9 from the line and out-rebounded the 76ers 21-11 in the first quarter.— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) October 10, 2017
But seriously, the first quarter was kind of a Terry Rozier mixtape:
Rozier finishes the difficult layup on the break 🔥 pic.twitter.com/CP01QJIgKt— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 10, 2017
Only downside of the first quarter was Aron Baynes leaving because of a knee injury. He wouldn't return to the game.
Onto the second, the C's didn't let off the gas. Only difference? Abdel Nader decided to take over. Three points in the first quarter was alright, but he went off in the second to the tune of nine more points in about 6.5 minutes.
Smart ➡️ Nader pic.twitter.com/GvMivmudK3— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 10, 2017
Enjoy that. Bask in it. Soak it in. It was nice.
The second was arguably the C's worst quarter of play, and it was still better than the Sixers.
Coming out of halftime, no Smart? No problem. Semi Ojeleye's got you covered. You want sexy stepback threes? No worries, this guy's got it all.
Stepback Semi 👌 pic.twitter.com/MYCB0BnqfY— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 10, 2017
Semi picked up 12 of his 16 points in the third, alongside Jaylen Brown who started to heat up in the third as well.
The Sixers really couldn't figure out who to try and focus since the scoring was coming from all over the place. Even Jabari Bird notched double digits in the scoring column. Compare the Celtics' six players with at least ten points to Philly's three.
The fourth was more of the same, as the C's continued to dominate with even the last string players.
No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz doing damage against #Celtics fourth-stringers.— Scott Souza (@Scott_Souza) October 10, 2017
Notable contributions outside of scoring came from Yabusele who swatted three blocks and swiped three steals, plus Jaylen's near double-double with nine rebounds, and Daniel Theis pulled down nine rebounds as well, but couldn't find the bottom of the net, finishing with only one point.
Follow Topher Lane on Twitter, @Topher_L. Photo credit: USA TODAY Sports.