PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Allen Iverson scored 37 points and Dikembe Mutombo added 17 points and 14 rebounds Monday night as the Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Boston Celtics for the seventh time in a row, 99-83.
Two nights after dropping 40 on Cleveland in a 94-91 victory that snapped a seven-game losing streak, Iverson went 14-of-24 from the floor and increased his league-leading average of 27.8 points per game.
Aaron McKie scored 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting off the bench for Philadelphia, which has not lost to Boston since March 26, 1999.
Paul Pierce had 11 points during a 19-6 run and cut Philadelphia's 22-point lead to 65-56 on a dunk with 3:41 remaining in the third quarter. But McKie scored 11 points over the rest of the period to make it 78-57 entering the fourth.
The Celtics got no closer than 15 points thereafter and lost for the 11th time in the last 13 meetings with the Sixers.
Boston, which had won three games in a row to get off to its best start (14-7) since the 1991-92 season, was paced by Pierce's 24 points.
Antoine Walker added 15 but was just 6-of-23 from the floor-- 0-of-11 from 3-point range. Backup center Vitaly Potapenko chipped in a season-high 14 points.
The Sixers shot 53 percent (35-of-66) while limiting the Celtics to under 39 percent (31-of-80). Philadelphia had a distinct advantage at the line, making 27-of-34 free throws to Boston's 14-of-20, and had a 46-31 cushion in rebounds.
Iverson scored 14 points and Mutombo had nine and six rebounds in the first quarter as the Sixers jumped to a 30-21 lead. Iverson continued his hot play in the second quarter, scoring another 10 points to give the Sixers a 51-35 lead at the break. Mutombo had 11 points and 12 rebounds by halftime.
