November 10, 2026
Bill Streicher/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Those on the floor for Tuesday's primetime matchup between the Sixers and Boston Celtics had a whole lot of history.
PHILADELPHIA – How does a coach handle a player entering a game with the loaded emotions that Jaylen Brown carried into Tuesday's clash with the Boston Celtics, his first regular-season matchup against the team that traded him to a rival last summer?
"Well, I did talk to him a little bit this morning, see how he was doing," Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said pregame. "I think he's approaching it as another game, big game. He's excited for the opportunity, but not – he wasn't expressing it in a personal way. He said this is a really good test for our team, and I agree with him."
The emotions were certainly heightened for everybody inside Xfinity Mobile Arena, where the Sixers staved off one of their rougher starts of the season – particularly offensively – storming back in the third quarter and erasing a deficit that neared 20 points. But just when the Sixers tied the game up, Boston responded with an avalanche of three-point makes – a 21-3 run produced entirely from beyond the arc – to pull away with a lead it would never relinquish. Tatum and George were the two best players on the floor by a wide margin, Brown struggled and that was that.
Takeaways from the Sixers' 123-101 loss:
Brown may have told Nurse that he is not taking anything personally, but his continued commentary about being shipped out by the Celtics – and the deterioration of his relationship with former running mate Jayson Tatum – told a different story. An enormous collection of fans circled this game, and not just ones in Philadelphia or Boston. All eyes were on Tatum and Brown as they squared off for the very first time.
Predictably, Brown opened the game with the primary assignment of defending Tatum; he is the Sixers' lone starter with the requisite size and mobility to handle that sort of wing assignment. Boston had a bit more optionality; they put Paul George on the player he was traded for with Tatum manning the LeBron James assignment. But Tatum and Brown spent a whole lot of time matched up with each other; every single one of those quick battles prompted a special buzz inside the arena.
Round one – and there only ended up being one extended stretch in which Brown and Tatum squared off – resoundingly went to Tatum. After Brown intercepted his pass and assisted a Tyrese Maxey transition triple, Tatum stonewalled Brown in the post and forced a turnover. Then he got loose on offense, shaking free with a cut and benefitting from a Sixers miscommunication. That first bucket got him going and he totaled nine first-quarter points while Brown had one basket, two fouls and two turnovers.
Brown is always somewhat erratic and can be too aggressive with the ball, but the emotions of this moment certainly played to Boston's favor. The former Celtics star tried way too hard to make an early statement, while Tatum largely stuck to his usual brand of basketball.
Tatum moved over to defend Brown at the start of the second half, but Brown immediately picked up his fourth foul of the game and checked out. His lone shot during that stretch: a three-point misfire over Tatum. Brown did not return until the start of the fourth quarter, and while Nurse quickly went to his starting lineup in hopes of mastering another late-game comeback, the Celtics soundly put the game away without needing Tatum for more than two minutes.
Typically, the return of a nine-time All-Star to a team he signed a four-year max contract with (and was traded by halfway through the deal) would be the unquestioned top storyline of the night. But it almost got lost in the shuffle that George was making his return to Philadelphia after a turbulent and complicated pair of seasons.
"The biggest thing was at least he really finished it pretty well there," Nurse said. "There was a stretch there at the end of last year, towards the end of the year and through the playoffs that he played very, very well. Like very, very good. Like we were hoping... He just never really got into a good long stretch of games prior to that. So yeah, I sum it up as it was. I would have loved to see him on the court more and more, like he finished, for the two years combined."
George was predictably booed when Sixers public address announcer Matt Cord introduced the visiting starting lineup on Tuesday; after all George is a member of the Celtics. But under normal circumstances, a player with such a complicated Philadelphia tenure would hear resounding boos.
Perhaps the focus on Brown and Tatum played a role in it, but it is unavoidable that George's masterful finish to last season set the stage for the Sixers' dream summer. There is no Brown-for-George trade without George's late-season resurgence and first-round excellence against Boston, and there is no James signing for the Sixers if not for the blockbuster deal with Boston.
"To me what stands out the most is just the joy and the competitiveness that he plays with," Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. "The other thing that stands out – I didn't know this about him – I didn't realize how hard he was on himself, like the standard he holds himself to. He's really hard on himself, whether it's missing defensive assignments or not making the right read offensively and pushing himself in that. So it's fun to watch that. He's been great for us."
George has predictably been excellent for Boston; his ability to force turnovers as a defensive playmaker has been a godsend for a team that has struggled to do so. His shot-making has been critical, too. He set a tremendous tone for the Celtics early with his two-way production and knocked down a flurry of jumpers in the first half, scoring a game-high 17 points prior to intermission and adding another 19 in the second half. George punctuated his dominant night by forcing Brown to throw an ill-advised pass right to Payton Pritchard before burying his sixth triple of the night.
As if Tatum thoroughly outplaying Brown was not enough, George outdid them both – just like he did in last season's seven-game playoff series.
Up next: The Sixers will be back in action on Thursday when they play host to the Kawhi Leonard-less Toronto Raptors.
