The Celtics were down six rotation players but still put up a heck of a fight on Wednesday night. However, missed opportunities and sensational shooting from Bradley Beal (34 points) failed to push them past the Washington Wizards, who escaped the TD Garden with a 125-124 win in double overtime. Marcus Morris scored nine of his season-high 31 points in the fourth quarter, but made a crucial mistake at the end of regulation that opened the door to a Jodie Meeks open corner 3 to tie the game. Jayson Tatum (21 points) had several crucial plays in overtime but missed a 3-point shot at the end of double overtime and a free throw at the end of the first overtime that could have won Boston the game.
Morris led a balanced Celtics offense that was missing six key rotation players (Al Horford, Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Daniel Theis, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart) in the defeat. Without them, five different Celtics scored in double figures, including a pair of reserves. Greg Monroe (14 points on 7-of-8 FG, 10 rebounds) was useful down low while Shane Larkin (11 points) brought energy with his defense and attack in transition.
GAME: No. 68 of 82
WHO: Celtics (47-20) vs. Wizards (38-30)
WHEN: 8:00 EST
WHERE: TD Garden
RADIO: 98.5 The Sports Hub
TV: NBC Sports Boston, ESPN
Projected Starting Lineups:
Celtics
PG: Terry Rozier
SG: Jayson Tatum
SF: Marcus Morris
PF: Guerschon Yabusele
C: Aron Baynes
Wizards
PG: Tomas Satoransky
SG: Bradley Beal
SF: Otto Porter
PF: Markieff Morris
C: Marcin Gortat
Second Half Notes
- It took a couple quarters but Bradley Beal that he had mismatches against everyone in the Celtics lineup outside of Terry Rozier. He sought out these switches for nearly the entire third quarter and caught fire, scoring 19 points in the frame to help bring the Wiz all the way back from a 20-point deficit.
- Offensively, things slowed down quite a bit for the C's as the frame wore down. The isolations that were producing points for Tatum and Morris in the first half started producing misses. Turnovers began cropping up as well which took the C's out of rhythm just a bit.
- C's also feasted on offensive rebounds in the first half and that window started to shut as well (Just one in the third quarter). With 42 percent shooting and 1-of-6 shooting from downtown, points understandably became hard to come by.
- Wizards scored all 29 of their points via the starting unit in third quarter. With 57 percent shooting they easily put up 29 points, and only six turnovers kept that tally down as they began showing energy in transition (nine fast break points).
- The Wizards are coming off a back-to-back on Tuesday night and it looked like it from the opening tip. C's undermanned starters came out with energy on offensive end that Wizards didn't come close to matching.
- Jayson Tatum and Marcus Morris showed some nice aggression out of the gate, taking advantage of mismatches and in the post and some timely drives to anchor the offense.
- Rozier spent most of his energy ensuring that Bradley Beal didn't get going early (three shot attempts in first quarter) while the rest of C's oversized lineup did a nice job containing the Wiz on the perimeter (1-of-5 from deep in first half).
- Yabusele had a few open looks on the perimeter but wisely declined them and served as a solid facilitator/energy role player.
- Incredibly, there was little dropoff when the undermanned bench unit came into play as well. Abdel Nader and Semi Ojleye kept fighting hard defensively, while Greg Monroe and Aron Baynes feasted on the offensive boards in their various stints. C's shot 58 percent from field and 80 percent from downtown after one.
- The hot scoring continued in the second quarter up until into the final few minutes of the frame. Washington shrunk a 17-point Celtics lead to seven behind a 10-0 run from Markieff Morris (nine points during run).
- A few (ok a bunch of) injury updates from Brad Stevens on Jaylen Brown: "Jaylen is great. As far as he’s progressing in the right direction. Still hasn’t started any progression from the concussion protocol, still has a little bit of a lingering headache but is clearly better. And hopefully all goes well and he can start that this weekend. But he will not travel with us. He will not be at either game."
- Stevens on Kyrie Irving: "Kyrie was a little bit better, again, each day. Not playing tonight, unlikely for Friday, plan is to have him travel, though. So could play in one of the games on the road."
- Stevens on Al Horford: "Al is feeling a little bit better. He was knocked out through really through yesterday. He did go to the gym yesterday evening to try to shoot around a little bit, felt pretty weak. Went through some stuff this morning, still didn’t feel great. Probably just erring on the side of caution with that but, at the same time, he hasn’t done anything for four days. Try to get him feeling great heading into the weekend. He should be back and ready to roll by Friday, hopefully."
- Daniel Theis will undergo surgery on his torn meniscus tomorrow.
- Stevens on Marcus Smart: "He did the thumb at the end of the game the other day – sprained it, assessing how significant the ligament damage is through our docs. He’ll go talk to another doc about what his chances are of playing without further injury, and also if he needs surgery or not, and what the recovery time would be. After all that information is gathered, he’ll make a decision along with all of us about the rest of the year."