Jaylen Brown scored 32 points, Jayson Tatum added 25 and the Boston Celtics avoided a season sweep at the hands of Philadelphia with a 116-95 victory over the visiting 76ers on Saturday night.

Marcus Smart had 16 points, and Brad Wanamaker chipped in 15 as the Celtics won for the sixth time in their last seven games. Boston played without leading scorer Kemba Walker, sidelined by a sore left knee.

Ben Simmons led the 76ers with 23 points, and Joel Embiid was held to 11 on 1-of-11 shooting. Philadelphia shot 36.9 percent (31 of 84) for the contest and 21.2 percent (7 of 33) from 3-point range in losing its second straight.

The 76ers had beaten the Celtics in their first three meetings this season, including Dec. 12 at TD Garden.

Up by eight at halftime on this occasion, the Celtics began the third on a 12-2 spurt to grab their largest lead to that point, 71-53, with 6:49 on the clock. Boston's advantage reached 20, 77-57, on a Smart bucket at 4:21 and remained at 19, 86-67, at quarter's end.

The 76ers got within 13, 89-76, with 9:01 to go to force a Celtics timeout, and Boston responded with a 7-0 stretch to restore its 20-point margin. The lead reached as high as 23 as the hosts cruised to victory.

The 76ers scored the game's first points before the Celtics ripped off a 7-0 run. Boston's lead reached 10, 16-6, and a thunderous Tatum dunk over former teammate Al Horford followed by a Smart 3-pointer made it 22-8 with 5:18 left. The Celtics led 32-19 after one.

Philadelphia fell behind by 16 again, 46-30, with 6:30 to go in the half before getting within single digits, 53-45, on a Furkan Korkmaz basket with 2:24 remaining. Simmons hit a short shot with 1.6 ticks left as the 76ers trailed 59-51 at the break.

Tatum had 16 points and Brown 14 for Boston in the first half. Simmons led Philadelphia with 14.

--Field Level Media