Six days ago, the Boston Celtics rolled over the Philadelphia 76ers 144-106 in the second preseason game of the season.
On Friday, the Celtics beat the 76ers again to close out the preseason at a perfect 4-0. This time, Boston won 125-120 in Philadelphia.
The 76ers finish the preseason at 1-3.
Here's what you need to know.
The story of this one
The 76ers played most of their regulars for substantial minutes: LeBron James played 25, Joel Embiid played 29, Jaylen Brown played 31 and Tyrese Maxey played 30. The Celtics? Well, they played none of their starters, electing to go with a starting lineup that had played in one combined NBA game before (Hayden Gray).
And not only did the Celtics sit their regular players, they also sat their regular head coach. Joe Mazzulla gave way to Sam Cassell for this game.
And Boston still won.
Inside the box score
--The Celtics got a team-high 21 points from Hugo Gonzalez off the bench and then also got 16 points from Ron Harper Jr. Also, Boston got 14 points from Milos Uzan, 13 from Luka Garza and 12 from rookie Chris Cenac Jr.
--Fellow rookie Dillon Mitchell had seven points in 25 minutes, hitting a big three-pointer late to help push the C's over the hump in the fourth quarter.
CLUTCH DILLON THREE 🙂↕️ pic.twitter.com/2TnA24czlP
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 17, 2026
--Boston continued to shoot the 3-ball at a prolific rate, going 17-of-54 from deep (31 percent). They attempted a whopping 108 field goal attempts in the game, shooting 41 percent.
--They were also 20-of-26 at the foul line and out-rebounded Philly 63-46. Boston had 18 offensive rebounds in total.
--The Celtics had 31 assists vs. 21 turnovers.
What else worked well
Zeroing in on Garza: He's certainly looking like someone who can truly help this team on the interior. While Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Queta will undoubtedly get the bulk of the attention among big men, Garza continues to look solid as a third option. He was 2-of-4 from beyond the arc in this game, and brings a skillset that Queta and Robinson don't have.
What needs improving
Considering the Celtics didn't play their starters, it's really hard to say. You'd like to see the team shoot better than 31 percent from the arch, but there was a lot to like in this game, from the rebounding edge to the assist numbers to the 13 steals the defense recorded in tital.