Joel Embiid dissects the team's defensive struggles after the Philadelphia 76ers fall to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Cup.

On Friday night, the Philadelphia 76ers will welcome the Boston Celtics into the Xfinity Mobile Arena for the opening match of the NBA Cup tournament. The Sixer

The Sixers came back from 19 points down to beat Washington 139-134 in overtime on Tuesday in D.C. Tyrese Maxey posted game highs of 39 points and 10 assists in 47 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back. Joel Embiid scored 25 points in 23 minutes, while Quentin Grimes added 23 points off the bench.

Payton Pritchard and Derrick White had 15 points apiece for the Celtics, who evened their record at .500 by winning their third straight after beginning the season with three consecutive losses. Boston evened a 117-116 season-opening defeat to the 76ers on Oct. 22.

Tyrese Maxey had a great highlight during the third quarter of the 76ers' NBA Cup opener against the Celtics on Friday night.

"The challenge is they're going to come with a different mentality," Justin Edwards said. "We beat them at home in the opener. We just got to try to build off of what we did last game and then add the pieces that we have and the film that we've been watching just trying to put into the game."

The Boston Celtics face the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025 (10/31/25) in a regular season NBA game at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.

Nikola Jokic has started the season with three consecutive triple doubles and Denver was a shot away from being 3-0. Aaron Gordon dropped 50 points in the season opener, Jamal Murray 43 in their most recent outing, and Denver has the third-ranked offensive efficiency.