The Philadelphia 76ers still have a steep hill to climb after their injury-riddled, dysfunction-filled, downright disastrous start to the season. But Philly looked Wednesday like the team it hoped to be after its all-in offseason: a legitimate Eastern Conference challenger to the defending champion Celtics.

As a dangerous January schedule looms, Boston hasn't been playing up to its standard recently, falling 4 games out of first in the East.

A lackluster defensive effort caused the Celtics to come up short. The post Tyrese Maxey torches Celtics’ defense as 76ers beat Celtics on Christmas: 9 takeaways appeared first on Boston.com.

But Maxey zipped past Pritchard and found a clear lane to the basket, where he put in an off-balance layup just before time expired. The play all but finished off the Celtics in this 118-114 loss, and it was an example of the uncharacteristic missteps that doomed them.

As Joel Embiid writhed in pain on the ground, a cohort of Sixers staffers stared in disbelief. The game hadn’t even started yet. It was just warmups. But somehow, Embiid managed to stumble on a security guard’s foot and twist his ankle less than an hour before the 76ers’ Christmas Day game against the Celtics.