Philadelphia @ Boston preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 23, 2019 ) Boston 93, Philadelphia 107

The Philadelphia 76ers look to bring their home success with them on the road when they visit the Boston Celtics on Thursday. The 76ers are a superb 13-0 at home but are a shaky 5-7 in away games as they meet a Boston squad with its own stellar 10-0 home mark.

Philadelphia has won 11 of its past 13 games overall during a home-heavy stretch (nine at Wells Fargo Arena) and forward Tobias Harris likes the fight displayed in back-to-back wins over strong teams such as the Toronto Raptors and Denver Nuggets. "I think throughout this whole year we've been able to find ourselves in a lot of positions late in the fourth quarter, where we have to really be in crunch time and be ready to pull out a win," Harris told reporters after Tuesday's 97-92 win over Denver. "And this was another one of them, where I thought we did a really good job of just getting stops and being solid." Boston had a four-game winning streak halted with Wednesday's 122-117 road loss to the Indiana Pacers despite star guard Kemba Walker pouring in a season-best 44 points. "He gave us a chance to be in the game," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said afterward. "Kemba really showed up and played great."

TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT, NBCS Boston

ABOUT THE 76ERS (18-7): Center Joel Embiid recorded 22 points and 10 rebounds against Denver for his 12th contest of at least 20 points and 10 boards this season. The big man has six double-doubles in the past seven games but said he needs to pick up his scoring in the fourth quarter of close games. "I'm not doing good enough," Embiid told reporters. "I'm still getting used to the whole season and I'm still trying to adjust. Obviously, it is not the same as last year, so the adjustment has been hard, but I am going to do whatever I'm asked to do every single night."

ABOUT THE CELTICS (17-6): Walker made seven 3-pointers and had seven assists but he wasn't overly thrilled about his individual performance after Wednesday's contest. Though he was 16-of-28 from the field, he was only 2-of-7 in the final quarter and he airballed a 3-pointer that could have tied the score with 4.2 seconds left in the game. "I just missed," Walker told reporters. "I took some good ones, maybe a few that weren't so good but I just missed."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. 76ers PG Ben Simmons had 24 points and nine assists as his team produced a 107-93 win over the visiting Celtics on Oct. 23.

2. Boston SF Gordon Hayward (nose) departed Wednesday's game while PG Marcus Smart (eye) has missed two straight games.

3. Philadelphia is 10-0 when holding opponents under 100 points this season.

PREDICTION: Celtics 105, 76ers 101