Celtics stats snapshot: Turnovers, lack of assists, free throws doom Boston vs. 76ers

The Boston Celtics made one less assist (19) than Philadelphia 76ers big man and Most Valuable Player candidate Joel Embiid made free throw attempts (20) in Tuesday’s 106 – 96 home loss to the Sixers.

Ball movement has been the decisive factor across the bulk of the Celtics games, with the team winning 16 of 20 out of their highest team assist total games, with nearly the inverse being the case for their lowest-assist games, having dropped all but 6 of their 20 worst nights dishing out dimes. Tuesday night’s debacle was tied for their fifth-worst outing in that regard with 19 on the night, the season low coming in a loss to the lowly Washington Wizards on Feb. 14 with just 14 assists in the game.

But that wasn’t the only way the Celtics got in their own way against Philly.

Sending Embiid to the line is one thing -- he's an MVP candidate for a reason, after all -- but not getting to the line on the other end certainly didn't help. While far from their season-worst of 3 against the Utah Jazz on March 16, Boston was outshot at the stripe by Embiid himself with 20 individual attempts to the Celtics' 18 total. The real killer for Boston in Tuesday's loss was turnovers, however. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1379828293935972359?s=20

Somehow the team stayed in it for much of the game despite an absurdly high turnover rate, finishing the game with 20 to the Sixers' 13. Add in that Philly stole the ball 11 times to the Celtics 5 and pulled down 38 rebounds to Boston's 32, and it's a miracle the gulf in the final score wasn't larger by a considerable margin. The Celtics can take some small consolation in that these are mostly fixable issues, though they are running out of time to do so. This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook! [lawrence-related id=48702,48695,48693,48689] [listicle id=48708]

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