Joel Embiid describes how much Caleb Martin hates the Celtics

Celtics

Caleb Martin has been a thorn within the Celtics' side for a while, and his performance on Wednesday night helped the 76ers to a 118-114 loss on Christmas Day.

The 6-foot-2 guard drilled seven three-pointers, a lot of them open, as Philadelphia withstood Boston's comeback attempt and secured a 118-114 win.

“That was the game plan. So we [just] We stuck to the game plan, we trusted the game plan.” Jaylen Brown said. “Martin hit, what seven threes tonight? That's hard. He’s done this to us before, but once we got into it, we felt comfortable letting him take all the shots and he knocked them down tonight.”

Before joining the Sixers, Martin was a key member of the 2023 Miami Heat, who eliminated the Celtics in seven games within the Eastern Conference Finals. Martin shot 60 percent from the sphere within the series, including 48.9 percent from 3-point range.

His 19.3 points per game were second to Jimmy Butler for Miami within the series.

“He's playing Boston,” Embiid said with a shrug when asked about Martin's seven 3-pointers on Christmas, a career-best. “He hates her as much as I do, so I guess I guess. No, but it was great. I like it when he doesn't think about it, and tonight he just didn't think about it. We see every time he has the ball, shoots or drives, and we see that he made his shots. We need him to continue to do that and build our confidence.”

Tyrese Maxey led all scorers with a double-double of 33 points and 12 assists. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said the Celtics could have used more effort defensively to slow Maxey down. It's about taking away a few of his tendencies and taking pride in the person challenge of guarding him, which can lead to raised team defense, he said.

When asked concerning the decision to let Martin shoot despite knowing he had heated up against the Celtics up to now, Mazzulla responded with an issue about helping on defense.

“Who are you helping? He made great shots, but if you want to slow down Maxey and Embiid, you have to show someone the game. You must have good shift activity. Of the nine threes he shot, I have to go back and see how many were contested.

“But that’s the catch,” Mazzulla added. “Good teams that shoot the ball well put you in a difficult position. That's why it's important to eliminate the tendencies on a man's right side, eliminate the transition, not turn the ball over and hit good shots. So when you’re in a situation where you don’t pay attention to those details, it doesn’t make up for the margin of error and he made shots.”