Two days after celebrating Banner 18 with a dominant win over the New York Knicks, the Boston Celtics put the ring ceremony behind them on Thursday evening in Washington and started the search for Banner 19 in earnest in opposition to the Wizards. Although they struggled on the defensive courtroom within the first half, they made the required changes to lock down Washington within the second, securing a 122-102 win and advancing to 2-0 on the 12 months.
Jayson Tatum continued his glorious begin to the season, recording 25 factors, 11 rebounds and 6 assists – he may need challenged for a triple-double if his companies had been mandatory within the fourth quarter. In assist, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White mixed for 46 factors on 16-of-31 capturing, and Payton Pritchard tacked on 5 made threes off the bench. For the Wizards, Jordan Poole rode a powerful first half to a 26-point outing, and Jonas Valanciunas added 18 factors off the bench.
Whereas the Celtics opened their season with a large 43-point first quarter in opposition to the Knicks, they didn’t discover practically as a lot separation within the early going in opposition to Washington. The offense continued to dissect its opposition – they scored 33 factors within the opening body, led by 14 first quarter factors from Tatum – however the upstart younger Wizards put the Boston protection on their heels. Particularly, it was Poole who discovered himself on an early heater; after an uneven first season in Washington, he opened his second with a blistering 17-point quarter, capturing 5-of-6 from three-point vary. The Celtics entered the second quarter nursing a 33-32 lead.
Scoring continued to rule the evening as play resumed within the second quarter. The Celtics did appreciable harm on the free throw line, taking 16 pictures on the charity stripe to Washington’s six within the first half, making 13. The protection was puzzlingly inept, nevertheless. The Wizards had been capable of push the tempo and discover success in opposition to the Celtics on the rim, together with a very egregious sequence through which Kuzma confronted Horford and Neemias Queta and got here up with a wide-open dunk. Washington recorded a whopping 30 factors within the paint within the first half.
Led by the continued brilliance of Tatum, although, the Celtics discovered some momentum late within the first half. Contemporary off a near-flawless 37-point recreation in opposition to the Knicks, Tatum poured in 20 first-half factors in opposition to the Wizards, together with cooking the rookie Sarr for a pair of pull-up three-point jumpers. Brown chipped in a pair of consecutive buckets late within the second quarter, and the Celtics loved a 10-point benefit on the half, 64-54.
An early 9-2 stretch for the Celtics within the early third quarter prolonged the change in fortunes, with the Celtics using a 19-3 run to take a lead that extra intently resembled what was anticipated from them. The Boston offense continued to generate and convert on high quality appears to be like, however, extra importantly, the protection shut the water off on Washington’s scoring assault. The Wizards scored simply six factors in as many minutes to open the second half, and the Celtics surged out to a 25-point lead getting into the ultimate quarter, 98-73 – a lead which may have been even higher if Pritchard had launched a profitable end-of-quarter heave just some fractions of a second sooner.
If there was any potential for drama within the fourth quarter, it was rapidly quashed by a red-hot Brown. Boston’s star wing celebrated his twenty eighth birthday by drilling consecutive threes as play resumed, pushing the Celtics’ result in 29 factors and successfully placing the Wizards on ice. The Boston lead hit 30 factors and the core rotation hit the bench not lengthy thereafter. Notably, because the Celtics ran the clock down in the direction of the tip of regulation, rookie Baylor Scheierman checked in for the primary time this season and recorded the primary factors of his NBA profession. Scheierman transformed on a layup and cashed in a pair of free throws to complete with 4 factors in his first NBA motion.
Subsequent up, the Celtics will look to stretch their early win streak in Detroit, the place they’ll face off with the youthful Pistons at 7 pm EST on NBC Sports activities Boston.
