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Celtics return home after challenging road trip

Mar 24, 2008 - 12:56 PM Philadelphia (35-35) at Boston (55-14) 7:30 pm EDT

BOSTON (Ticker) - Returning home after a productive road trip, the Boston Celtics face the Atlantic Division rival Philadelphia 76ers on Monday.

On their recent five-game road trip, the Celtics became the first team since the 2001 Sacramento Kings to sweep the "Texas Triangle" of Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.

The Celtics' trek also included a win over Milwaukee. However, Boston failed to sweep the trip with Saturday's 113-106 loss to New Orleans.

Despite Saturday's setback, Boston leads the Detroit Pistons (49-19) by 5 1/2 games for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Boston also is 12-1 against the Atlantic Division this season, including three wins over Philadelphia.

The Sixers have been hot of late as well, winning nine of their last 11 games to pull into seventh place in the East standings, just one-half game behind the Toronto Raptors (35-34) for the sixth spot.

Andre Iguodala scored 28 points and Samuel Dalembert had 11 and 18 rebounds, leading the Sixers to a 91-87 win over the New Jersey Nets on Saturday.