Joel Embiid, 76ers Mocked by Fans for Losing to Celtics Without Jaylen Brown, More

The Philadelphia 76ers missed a golden opportunity to pick up a road win against the rival Boston Celtics on Wednesday at TD Garden.

Boston was without Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Robert Williams and then lost Jaylen Brown after he played just 18 minutes because of a facial contusion. Yet the 76ers still couldn't overcome the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed in a 106-99 defeat and fell to 34-19 with a second straight loss.

It seemed as if the 76ers might escape with a late comeback win when they cut a 10-point deficit with five minutes remaining to three multiple times, but they could never get over the hump.

Joel Embiid (28 points and seven rebounds) and James Harden (26 points and 11 assists) played well, but nobody else on the team scored more than 12 points.

Social media was quick to criticize the team for losing to this version of the Celtics:

It wasn't a surprise that Embiid played so well with Williams and Horford both sidelined in Boston's frontcourt, and he carried the visitors for extended stretches. Harden also created shots for himself and others, and the stars did what they needed to do offensively and each outscored Jayson Tatum (12 points).

Yet six Celtics scored in double figures with Malcolm Brogdon providing a spark off the bench and Blake Griffin catching fire from deep when Embiid was hesitant to venture out that far on the defensive side.

Throw in Derrick White making a number of clutch plays, and Boston had too much firepower for a 76ers team that played poorly outside of its primary two playmakers. That the Celtics were missing so much only made it that much worse of a loss.

Philadelphia will look to turn things around Friday with a home matchup against the New York Knicks.