PHILADELPHIA — Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid almost outproduced Detroit in the first half and sparked the 76ers to a mammoth lead even they couldn't blow in a 114-78 romp over the Pistons on Friday night.
Embiid had 23 points and nine rebounds. Simmons had 19 points and nine assists to lead the Sixers to their fourth straight win, which moved them back to .500.
With 2 minutes left in the first half, Embiid and Simmons had combined for 26 points on 12-of-19 shooting. The Pistons had 26 points on 11-of-38 shooting.
The 76ers have a bad habit of blowing double-digit leads that crushed their push toward a more respectable spot in the standings. They wasted an 18-point lead in a loss to Portland. The Sixers turned a 22-point edge into a loss against Toronto. And they led by 16 points before Sacramento beat them.
The Sixers opened the game on a 15-2 run and, unlike their December collapses, they never let this one get close. They led 97-61 through three.
Embiid waved his arms toward fans as they chanted "Trust the Process!" a motto that surely had to grate at Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy. Gundy was one of the more vocal critics of Philadelphia's maligned rebuild and said in 2014 the strategy was "embarrassing."
"If you're putting that roster on the floor, you're doing everything you can possibly do to try to lose," Van Gundy said.
True. And that was the point of the method to tank seasons. While the Sixers have mostly collected duds in the first round of the draft (Jahlil Okafor, Michael Carter-Williams, Nerlens Noel) under their plan, Embiid and Simmons are the Powerball payoff for the franchise.
The 76ers sell "Ben & Jo" shirts as part of the promotional push to earn them each their first All-Star berths. Simmons — who has no jump shot — backed defenders in the paint and spun around them for easy buckets. Embiid plowed his way to the rim and even buried a 3 in the second half.
The move of the night?
Hard to pick one when each play was more GIF-worthy than the last in the first half.
Embiid made Dwight Buycks look like a JV player when he handled the ball at the top of the arc and used his left shoulder to knock back the guard two times before he tossed up a prayer and made the bucket.
Simmons hustled toward a loose ball in the second quarter, ran a tightrope down the sideline as he tried to regain his footing and curved toward the baseline to throw down a two-handed dunk that sent the crowd into a frenzy. Simmons even flexed for the crowd, one more performance worthy of the Big Ben moniker that will surely be crowned on him next week when the Sixers play in London.
Tobias Harris led the Pistons with 14 points.
Cektics 91, T-Wolves 84
BOSTON — Marcus Smart scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, Kyrie Irving had 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists and the Boston Celtics pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 91-84 on Friday night.
Terry Rozier had 14 points and nine rebounds, Aron Baynes had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Jaylen Brown also scored 11 for Boston, which has won five straight and six of seven.
Karl-Anthony Towns led the Timberwolves with 25 points and a career-high 23 rebounds. Jimmy Butler scored 14, Jamal Crawford had 13 points and Andrew Wiggins scored 10 for Minnesota, which lost back-to-back games for the first time since November.
Towns pulled down more than half of the Timberwolves' 43 rebounds, and no other Minnesota player had more than four as Boston dominated the glass 56-43.
Boston had a rough night shooting, going 38 for 94 (40.4 percent) and making just 6 of 36 3-pointers. Minnesota shot 36.8 percent from the field.
The Timberwolves, coming off a 98-97 loss at Brooklyn on Wednesday, faded early in the fourth after leading by as many as seven in what had been a tight game. The lead changed 14 times before Boston went up for good in the final period.
Irving drove for a layup with one second left in the third, starting a 10-2 run that allowed the Celtics to start pulling away early in the fourth. Baynes scored Boston's first four points of the final period, and Rozier banked in a shot and then added a 3-pointer with 8:02 left that gave the Celtics a 77-68 lead.
Boston continued its run, getting a dunk by Baynes followed by a steal by Smart that started a fast break and sent Smart to the line for two free throws that pushed the lead to 85-73 with 6:05 remaining.