As Joel Embiid writhed in pain on the ground, a cohort of Sixers staffers stared in disbelief. The game hadn’t even started yet. It was just warmups. But somehow, Embiid managed to stumble on a security guard’s foot and twist his ankle less than an hour before the 76ers’ Christmas Day game against the Celtics.

A lackluster defensive effort caused the Celtics to come up short. The post Tyrese Maxey torches Celtics’ defense as 76ers beat Celtics on Christmas: 9 takeaways appeared first on Boston.com.

But Maxey zipped past Pritchard and found a clear lane to the basket, where he put in an off-balance layup just before time expired. The play all but finished off the Celtics in this 118-114 loss, and it was an example of the uncharacteristic missteps that doomed them.