NEWARK, Del. – Thaddeus Young had 20 points and five rebounds to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 97-85 preseason victory over the Boston Celtics on Friday night.
Spencer Hawes had 17 points and seven rebounds and Evan Turner added 12 points and eight rebounds for the Sixers, who won their first preseason game on this side of the Atlantic Ocean after playing two earlier this week in Europe.
Jared Sullinger had 19 points and nine rebounds for the Celtics, who dropped to 0-3 in the first preseason of Coach Brad Stevens.
The Sixers opened an 18-point halftime lead as first-year coach Brett Brown’s starters were 21 of 30 from the field (70 percent) and accounted for 46 of the team’s 54 points.
The Celtics got within 84-79 on a 3-pointer by Gerald Wallace with 5:30 to play but never got any closer in the game played at the University of Delaware.
NOTES
PISTONS: Guard Rodney Stuckey has had surgery on his broken right thumb.
The team said on Friday that he’ll wear a splint on the thumb for two weeks before being re-evaluated.
The Pistons announced Thursday that Stuckey broke a bone in his thumb after catching it in a car door. He averaged 11.5 points in 76 games last season.
WIZARDS: The yeam visited a shantytown that was once one of the most violent slums in Rio de Janeiro.
The team is in Brazil for an exhibition game Saturday with the Chicago Bulls.
The game is the NBA’s first in the country and a crowd of nearly 15,000 is expected.
The Wizards were led on their visit Friday by Nene, a 6-foot-11 Brazilian.
They went to the Complexo do Alemao, a shantytown on the city’s north side that police took over a few years ago.
The players met with dozens of children at a sports complex and held a clinic. Former Chicago Bulls center Horace Grant also took part.
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