The Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat are reporting for Christmas duty with neither squad at 100 percent.
The Sixers will head to Miami without Joel Embiid, the NBA’s leading scorer, while the Heat are missing leader Jimmy Butler. Nicolas Batum, Josh Richardson and Haywood Highsmith have also been ruled out.
That isn’t the kind of matchup the NBA would have been looking for when it assigned two of the Eastern Conference’s top teams to a primetime slot, but there is still plenty at stake with the Sixers sitting at third place in the East.
In earlier action, the New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, the Denver Nuggets topped the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics steamrolled the Los Angeles Lakers.
Live69 updates
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Celtics win 126-115 on the road in another impressive performance. Every starter scored at least 18 points, with Jayson Tatum leading the way with 28. From top to bottom, they’re looking like the best team in the NBA right now.
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Anthony Davis with the first 40-point game against the Celtics this year.
— Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) December 26, 2023
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LeBron James arguably had his best game of the season in OKC on Saturday with 40 points. He followed it up with perhaps his worst today, 16 points on 5-for-14 shooting with 2:40 remaining in the 4th Q.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 26, 2023
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Celtics aren’t going to double the post under any circumstances now it looks like. Content to give up 2s with this lead up 14 late 4th.
— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) December 26, 2023
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Boston is now hunting Austin Reaves. Mercilessly too.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) December 26, 2023
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Anthony Davis is up to a season-high 38 points on 15-for-25 shooting.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 26, 2023
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Lots of energy from Jrue Holiday with the second unit today. He’s sprinting in circles on defense to help and recover, even getting a big block on Rui from behind after Rui attacked his closeout. Then on offense, he’s getting into the paint and kicking out to the corners well.
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) December 26, 2023
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#Celtics attacking the rim and scoring on cuts, have played a strong defensive half. Up 11 with 6:11 left. Tatum and Brown a combined 10 for 28 FG. Porzingis and White 40 pts on 16 for 26 FG.
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) December 26, 2023
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All 5 Celtics starters now have 16 points or more. Porzingis the only one with 20+.
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) December 26, 2023
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You think in 20 years we’ll all be talking about the Pritchard-Prince shootout on Christmas Day 2023?
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) December 25, 2023
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LeBron blocked ruled clean but Tatum was fouled by Prince on the way up. Tatum actually lost the ball on Prince’s strip
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) December 25, 2023
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The Lakers are chewing Queta to pieces in PnR since he came in. He’s got a lot of work to do with his coverages.
He’s far better in 1-on-1 coverage. Wonder if Boston should just straight switch actions with him vs asking him to drop or hedge and recover?
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) December 25, 2023
