Celtics win in ugly fashion over the Wizards 108-96
On Friday night in the nation’s capital the Boston Celtics take on maybe the worst team in the NBA in the Washington Wizards. Washington sits at 2-11 at the bottom of the Eastern Conference while the defending champion Celtics sit at 12-3 after a win over the best team in the East the Cavaliers on Tuesday night. Boston ended the Cavaliers unbeaten start to the season with a 120-117 win after a total team effort on Tuesday, Boston will be without big man Al Horford tonight but they should have no problem with the lowly Wizards. Boston sits behind the Atlanta Hawks in their NBA Cup group standings but with a blowout win over Washington they could greatly increase their standing in the group.
First Half:
Boston would get out to an early 7-4 lead on Washington but the teams would trade shots throughout the first 5 minutes of the game. The Celtics defense early in games was still a problem on Friday night with Washington taking a 13-11 lead with 7 minutes left in the first.
The Wizards would continue to score and take an 18-13 lead into the last 4 minutes of the quarter led by Jordan Poole with 6 early points. Tatum struggled in the early going for Boston starting the game 1/6 with a turnover. The Celtics would score 15 points in the final 4 minutes of the quarter to take a 29-17 lead at the end of the first.
Washington would come out firing in the second quarter scoring the first 9 points of the quarter to retake the lead from the Celtics. Both teams struggled to score early in the second, until Boston went a 13-0 run with the Wizards going almost 5 full minutes without scoring a basket. Because of Boston’s bad defense though the Celtics weren’t able to pull away. Former Celtic Malcolm Brogdon was the Wizards leading scorer early on with 11 points and Washington holding a 45-43 lead with 3:20 to go in the half.
The Wizards would go onto outscore the Celtics 8-4 over the final three minutes and take a 51-49 lead into the half. No one is going to overreact to a first half in late November but the Celtics rebounding issues were rearing their ugly head in this one. Boston was outrebounded 29-18 in the first half and 6-2 on the offensive rebounds a troubling trend early in the season for the Celtics. Tatum, Brown and the Celtics would need to turn it around in the second half to get the win in Washington.
Second Half:
Boston’s struggles would continue in the third quarter with the team struggling on the glass and from beyond the arc. Tatum, White and Brown through almost three quarters were 3-25 from beyond the arc. Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla would get a technical around the 4:30 mark of the third after a missed call on Jaylen Brown. Cedric Maxwell on the stations radio broadcast surmised that it could have been Mazzulla trying to fire his team up after their lackluster play through 3 quarters.
Washington would lead 68-65 with 3:34 left in the third and Boston struggling on both ends. The Celtics would get back to Celtics basketball in the final 3:30 outscoring Washington 10-4 and taking a 75-72 lead into the fourth quarter.
Boston would immediately take their largest lead of the night after a Derrick White 3-pointer (his first of the night) made it 78-72. It was the Derrick White show in the 4th quarter with White scoring 10 of the teams first 14 points in the quarter and extending Boston’s lead to 89-82 with 7:15 left in the game.
Jayson Tatum’s MVP campaign was taking a little but of a hit in this one going 0/10 from beyond the arc to this point in the game and having some turnover trouble as well. While Jaylen Brown was racking up some numbers but still struggling shooting with 26/10/5 to this points on 8/24 shooting and 3/13 from beyond the arc.
Jordan Poole would hit a 3 to make it 91-87 to keep the Wizards within striking distance with just over 4 minutes to go in the game. Washington wouldn’t get much closer though as the defending champs started to show why they are the defending champs in the fourth. Boston would take a 97-91 lead into the final two minutes largely due to Jaylen Brown and Derrick White’s 4th quarter play.
Jaylen Brown’s good 4th quarter would continue with a very tough jumper falling with 46 seconds to go giving Boston a 99-92 lead putting the game away for Boston. The Celtics had their worst shooting night of the year and it looked ugly for almost the entire game but they showed why they’re the best team in the league winning on one of their worst nights of the year. Boston would go on to win by a final score of 108-96 moving them to 13-3 on the year and securely in second place in the Eastern Conference.
The difference in the championship Celtics compared to years past is they can survive their worst shooting night of the year and a bad Jayson Tatum game and still beat teams in the bottom half of the league. This win also increases the Celtics chances of advancing in the NBA Cup moving them to 2-1 in group play with the Hawks and Cavs still to play each other. The Celtics will be back in action on Sunday afternoon at home against Anthony Edwards and the TimberWolves.
Listen to the Green Teamers podcast with James Stewart and James Scaramozzino every Sunday night to recap every week of Celtics basketball.
