BSJ Game Report: Wizards 116, Celtics 107 - Effort called into question again

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics 116-107 loss to the Washington Wizards with BSJ insight and analysis.

This was as disjointed a game as you’ll ever see. The Celtics took turns looking awesome and terrible. Ultimately, their defense failed them, giving up 58 points in the paint, mostly to Montrezl Harrell who dominated an early second-quarter stretch to give Washington control for most of the game. Boston would make runs and then let up, getting close then falling further behind, for most of the game. That included a late fourth-quarter run to get it to three, but then never getting any closer.

Box Score

HEADLINES 

Another rough night at home: The Celtics have now lost two bad games at home. It’s not that Washington is particularly bad (they’re actually 3-1), it’s that Boston’s effort waned, which is a consistent problem. 

Al Horford sat in front of the media and looked and sounded pretty dejected. When asked if this was a tough loss to take, he said “It is. I expected us to come out and win, and be at a certain level, and here at home in front of our fans, how great they are, we need to be better than this. So there’s a lot of work ahead for us.”

Energy in question: This ... This is concerning. Here’s Horford with a pretty damning quote:

“We should never be questioning energy and effort. That should never be something and you know, it's something that we just need to -- we're playing for something big here and we just have to make sure that we're all on the same page and we're all committed to it. I think that's the biggest thing."

Yikes. 

More on this in a separate piece. 

TURNING POINT

The officials blew an out of bounds call with 3:37 to go, giving Washington the ball. Spencer Dinwiddie hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 10, and even though Boston made a late run to cut it to 3, they could never come all the way back. 

SECOND GUESS

Jaylen Brown had a rough night that he only sort of mildly salvaged in the fourth quarter. After another slow start, Ime Udoka could have tried to get him into better positions early to score. 

“Just call certain plays, get him in certain spots, try to limit him trying to do it all by himself and feel like he has to get himself going,” Udoka said after the game. “Just when you see it from the getgo, really grab him and talk to him and tell him, 'You got to carry the load tonight, especially when Jayson is out.' Calling him sets, giving him certain plays and getting him in a comfort zone, maybe some free throws will help because he obviously started out slow tonight.”    

THREE UP

Al Horford: 16 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and the only one of the Celtics who at least gave a consistent effort. Horford is 35, so he’s not exactly supposed to be your energy guy. 

Robert Williams: 13 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 of those were offensive rebounds. He’s making a living on the offensive boards lately, which is very helpful on a night light this when the Celtics finished with only 18 assists. 

Dennis Schröder: “He upped the pace, increased the pace as soon as he got in tonight,” Udoka said. If there’s anything Schröder can do, it’s play uptempo basketball. There are downsides to it, including some extended dribbling runs that are counterproductive. “His pace changes our tempo, changes our team, and we get out and get much more easy baskets.”

TWO DOWN

Marcus Smart: His shot selection in the first quarter was poor, but then he stopped shooting and really focused on playing defense. That part was awesome. He was very good defensively for a long time. And then in the fourth quarter he got called for a stretch of fouls that clearly frustrated him, and I think that carried into his offense. He had an out-of-control drive and an ill-advised 3-pointer that basically negated all the good he’d been doing.

Jaylen Brown: Brown was awesome in a double OT game against New York, then he was terrible against Toronto. He was awesome against Charlotte in OT, and then he was terrible against Washington. 

“It's a tough one,” Udoka said after the game. "I'm trying to ramp him up during the game, pump him up to get going, but the contrast of some of those previous games, especially Charlotte and the New York game and the way you see him come out tonight is kind of mind-boggling.

“It can be a number of things. He was out for 10 days like you mentioned and was banged up with the knee but just got to find the juice from the start. It's something that I can help him with, put him in some positions to get going but when I see that, have to jump on it early and help him get going.”

It feels like that quote is loaded with places to go with it. Brown has a history of getting into his own head, and his mind has been known to wander on the court in the past. But that has largely been in the past. 

It could simply be that his COVID recovery makes it harder to recover from those overtime games. Maybe his knee is the issue. But considering Udoka’s response, I’d say the Celtics might be just as confused here as we are about the extreme ups and downs in the early going for Brown. 

ONE SO SO

Jayson Tatum: I definitely feel that Tatum got caught up in the emotions of the game. He was clearly bothered by the refs, which earned him a tech. He may have been too caught up in battling his buddy Bradley Beal, because he went hero ball a lot. 

Of course, he’s Tatum, and so some of that hero ball worked out. He had dominating stretches and bad stretches. 

PLAY OF THE GAME

ONE TAKE THAT KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

I’m officially concerned. Celtics players are saying “it’s only five games,” but that, to me, is part of the problem. 

A lack of energy or effort is the one thing I didn’t expect, at all, from this group. There was no chance, I thought, of these players stepping into these games at home and coasting.

Maybe the Toronto game was an aberration, as Ime Udoka has said. This one, though, doesn't feel quite like that. Judging from the tone of the press conferences, especially Al Horford’s, there’s some concern on the inside, too.