The Sixers beat the Boston Celtics 106–103 on Wednesday night, making it three straight wins and giving them the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Tyrese Maxey scored 25 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and gave out five passes against the Celtics. It was one of if not his best game ever. Joel Embiid scored 27 points, including a huge fadeaway late in the game. He also grabbed 10 boards, dished out 4 assists, and blocked 4 shots.

At the buzzer, here are some ideas.

The first three months

Boston looked different at the start of the game. They put Jrue Holiday in charge of protecting Joel Embiid, and they had a roamer on the help side. It seemed like Embiid was playing like a shark that smelled blood, and the Celtics took advantage of that. Embiid gave Boston three chances to switch plays when they were first trying to copy this dunk.

From the looks of things, Robert Covington has moved ahead of Jaden Springer in the rotation. He and Furkan Korkmaz both checked in late in the quarter. It would be great for Springer to play through his growth pains here, but Covington should be in the rotation right now.

It’s not a big surprise that units with Korkmaz on the ball didn’t do as well against tonight’s opponent. It was especially bad that he picked up his own dribble and got stuck in the corner on the last play of the quarter. Philadelphia’s offense didn’t look good at first, and the fact that they missed all nine three-point attempts made things worse. After the first quarter, they were down by five points.

The second quarter

Some great minutes from the second unit to begin the quarter, which began with Paul Reed. He scraped together a few offensive boards and put them back, which started a 9-0 run. While the team was taking a break, Tyrese Maxey blocked Holiday with a chase-down block, which Reed ended with a put-back dunk.

Nico Batum did all the little things that a role player should do tonight during another stretch. He moved for a three, which was the first three of the night for the Sixers. As a guard for players like Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis, he did a great job. He hit the weak side with an airball to get the put-back. He did seem to hurt his finger when he tried to block a Porzingis dunk, and he had to go to the locker room before the half was over. He went back to the game even though there was a pretty bad shot of it on TV.

The Sixers finally have enough wings to pose a threat to the Celtics. However, Porzingis makes them hard to match up. They’ve never really made it hard for him to score against Philly, and at halftime tonight, he had 16 points, more than anyone else. Since he is often their roamer, Boston’s strong defense helps hide his flaws there.

Maxiey had a great quarter. He has had a lot of trouble against Boston more than any other team. Maxey’s plan was to slow down the game, but Derrick White has always been good at stopping him in the half-court. Every time Boston missed a basket or turned the ball over, he looked for a way to get away quickly, making them try to catch up. He only had two points in the first quarter, but he scored 12 in the second. One of his shots, a jumper, beat the buzzer, giving the Sixers a seven-point lead at halftime.

The third quarter

There were a lot of stops and starts at the start of the second half. The Celtics were either getting called for fouls or throwing the ball into the stands. The Sixers, on the other hand, made just 1 of 8 shots from the field to start the quarter.

Even though Embiid didn’t score 29 points on perfect shooting like he did on Monday night, he kept the Sixers’ attack going in this quarter. From the start of the quarter until the end, only he scored for the Sixers.

At the end of the quarter, the Sixers had only scored 20 points, so it was a good quarter for defense. Boston didn’t score in the last 3:25 of the quarter, which was a great finish for Philadelphia. With a 10-point lead going into the fourth, Embiid had two of his four blocks during this stretch.

The fourth quarter

With Embiid on the bench, Boston was making moves to get closer to the lead, but Maxey’s jumper gave Philadelphia a way back. Because defenses are afraid of him taking a three, it’s so much easier for him to get there. To begin the fourth, he hit his shot four times.

In the second half, the Sixers’ defense was great, especially with Embiid on the court. When he came back into the game, Boston went over three minutes without scoring, which gave the Sixers a chance to increase their lead back to ten points.

Just when it looked like the game was over, the Sixers tried to speed-run a collapse, which gave Boston about two minutes to cut the lead to four. It will likely get louder when people talk about moving De’Anthony Melton to the bench, but he can’t be out there playing this badly to end games. There was a wide-open three-point shot that he missed that would have won the game for them. He then lost the ball when he got caught, which gave the Celtics an easy fast break.

It’s crazy that the last play of the fourth quarter made all the difference. Their risk-taking was a bit too much when they gave Porzingis a clear shot at a three-pointer. He missed, though, and the Sixers just barely dodged disaster.

Are you ready to play on the biggest court you’ve ever seen? Their game against the Pistons is set for Friday night at 7 p.m. ET in Detroit. For the Sixers, it will be their first tournament play during the season.