Celtics latest club to send Sixers spiraling

Philadelphia,  PA -- Brett Brown's club, which entered play losing by an average of 16.9 points per game, are now just four  losses  from matching the infamous NBA record-setting 1972-73 team for the worst start in franchise history.

Brandon Bass  and  Jared  Sullinger combined  for  55 points,  Rajon Rondo  had 13 assists  and the Boston Celtics pulled  away for a 101-90 win Wednesday night that kept the Philadelphia 76ers winless.

Bass scored 23 off the bench, Sullinger added 22 with nine rebounds and Marcus Thornton  had 13  points  for the  Celtics, who  snapped  a three-game  losing streak.

Tony  Wroten scored  21 points off the  bench to lead the Sixers, who returned home from an 0-4 road trip and fell to 0-11 on the season.  Henry  Sims added 14  points in the loss, Luc Mbah a Moute and Michael Carter-Williams scored 11 apiece and Nerlens Noel had 10.

The Sixers won three of the four meetings between the Atlantic Division rivals last  season and  were in line to make  a run at their first win before Boston pulled away in the second half.

The  Celtics outshot the  Sixers 52.5 percent to 37.5 percent in the third and fourth quarters after the score was tied 46-46 at halftime.

Rondo  had  six assists in  the third quarter,  including an alley-oop to Jeff Green for a dunk during a 9-0 Celtics run that turned a two-point deficit into a seven-point lead.

Avery  Bradley capped the  spurt with a 3-pointer and Boston led by as many as eight before Wroten's 3 pulled the Sixers within 73-68 going into the fourth. Carter-Williams,  making his  first start of the season, scored seven straight Philadelphia  points after  Boston built an 11-point lead early in the fourth,
but the Sixers never got closer than five in the last 12 minutes.

Sullinger's 3 and another alley-oop dunk by Green extended Boston's lead to 15 with 1:33 left.

Mbah  a Moute's 3  sparked a 9-0 run in the first quarter that gave the Sixers an  eight-point lead. They  went up by nine in the second, but Thornton scored five points during a 15-4 Celtics flurry that gave the visitors the lead.

Notes: The  Celtics will  go from playing the worst  team in the NBA to the best when they  face  the league-leading Grizzlies  in Memphis  on Friday ... The Sixers remain  in  Philadelphia to face  Phoenix on Friday  ... Bass came within four points  of tying  his career high of  27 set Dec. 3, 2010, for Orlando against
Detroit.  Four Magic  players missed  that game  because of  a stomach  virus, including Dwight Howard.