Jaylen Brown scored 32 points, Anfernee Simons added 19 and the Boston Celtics never trailed in a 109-108 win against the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Boston Celtics handed the Philadelphia 76ers their first loss of the season and delivered a wire-to-wire reminder of their resilience, edging out a tense 109-108 victory to open NBA Cup play on Friday night.

Simons is now averaging 15.5 points per game on the year with terrific shooting from 3-point range (40 percent). If he continues to find his groove with this new mentality within Boston’s second unit offense, the Celtics will be a much better team for it.

Boston fan and NBA expert Bill Simmons could not hold back from criticizing Joel Embiid’s foul-drawing tactics.

The Celtics led by 24 points in the second quarter on Friday and were still fortunate to leave Philadelphia with a win.

The Celtics fumbled all of an early 24-point lead and gave the hosts multiple shots to win at the end, but still managed to avenge their season-opening loss.

Joel Embiid dissects the team's defensive struggles after the Philadelphia 76ers fall to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Cup.