BOSTON _ This was the big game.
Never mind that the 76ers had a three-game winning streak. A victory Wednesday over the Boston Celtics would have given them a signature victory over an elite team playing its best ball of the season.
The Sixers kept it competitive. They just couldn't close the deal, as the Celtics prevailed, 116-108, at the T.D. Garden.
The loss dropped the Sixers to 21-35. The Celtics (37-19) won their fourth straight game and their 11th out of 12. This also marked the 10th consecutive victory over the Sixers for Boston, the Eastern Conference's second-place team.
Boston point guard Isaiah Thomas had a lot to do with the outcome. The 5-foot-9 All-Star selection made 4 of 7 3-pointers on the way to 33 points. Thirteen of his points came in the fourth quarter.
"He is so unassuming," Sixers coach Brett Brown said. "So you look at him, and it's not like you are looking at LeBron (James), you know, somebody that's tall and all cut up ... . Then all of the sudden you start studying him and his ability to, I think, control the speed. I think he can go from 80 to 100 back down to 40 to 90."
Thomas has the knack to get defenders off balance and create separation. That's what he did Wednesday.
But he wasn't the only Celtic with a solid game.
Marcus Smart finished with 21 points. Jae Crowder added 18. Kelly Olynyk (16), Al Horford (12), and James Young (10) were Boston's other double-digit scorers.
Dario Saric paced the Sixers with 20 points. Robert Covington scored all 18 of his points in the first half. The small forward missed all five his second-half shots before leaving the game with what appeared to be a head bruise with 3 minutes, 35 seconds left. Meanwhile, Nerlens Noel (16), T.J. McConnell (12), Gerald Henderson (11), and Nik Stauskas (11) were the Sixers' other double-digit scorers.
Jahlil Okafor finished with four points and four rebounds after rejoining the team for the game.
Okafor did not play the last two games because of ongoing trade talks. Although those talks continue, the team was not as close to trading the second-year center as it seemed to be in recent days. Okafor did not travel with the team to Monday's game in Charlotte against the Hornets or play in Saturday's home game against the Miami Heat.
The Sixers trailed 87-79 after three quarters. However, they made their first six shots in the fourth quarter to close the gap to 96-95. Then after they missed a couple of attempts, Noel's dunk gave them a 97-96 lead with 7:56 left.
Noel later knotted the score at 101 after making a pair of foul shots with 5:07 left. He went to the foul line after Horford was called for a flagrant foul on the Sixers center. While setting a screen, Horford put his left elbow out. Noel went low and ran into his forearm and fell to the court.
The Celtics responded with a 10-0 run to put the game away.
Henderson got tossed after receiving a double technical while arguing a foul called on him with 51.8 seconds left.
