BSJ Game Report: Celtics 126, Wizards 107 - Brown, Tatum, lead stomping of Wizards

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics win over the Washington Wizards, with BSJ insight and analysis. 

IN A NUTSHELL

With Daniel Gafford out for the Wizards, Boston attacked Washington’s small lineup relentlessly and got 16 points from Jaylen Brown to build a huge early lead. The lead grew to 34 as the Celtics ramped up the pressure, Brown stayed hot, and the Wizards looked lost. Jayson Tatum got in on the fun with 17 third-quarter points and Boston’s lead hit 37. The rest was garbage time (even though it got a little dicey at one point).

Box Score

HEADLINES

Taking care of business: It was very easy to think this team would coast through this game. But they didn’t. In fact, every time I thought to myself “okay, HERE’S where they get too cool for this game,” and it never happened with the regulars.    

Holy Smokes, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum: Brown's 27 points and seven 3-point makes in the first half were both career-highs for a first half. He added nine third-quarter points for a cool 36 points on 13-24 shooting (8-13 3pt). Tatum’s first half was pretty good (17 points on 7-13 shooting), but it was his third quarter (17 points, 5-5 from 2, 2-3 from 3) that helped salt the game away. All told, it was a 69 point night for the Jays on 27-45 shooting, 12-21 from 3. 

Wizards terribly out-matched: Washington looked shook from the beginning. Boston came out and hit them with a haymaker and they didn’t really recover. Washington is probably the worst team in the league.

TURNING POINT

I’ll go with Brown’s pull-up 3-pointer with about 9:00 to go in the first quarter. That was part of a 13-5 run to start the quarter and it was the point where it was clear Brown had it rolling. He denied that's where he knew he was hot, but I’ve seen enough of Jaylen Brown to know that an early pull-up falling the way it did there is the sign he’s on one. 

THINGS I LIKED

- The hot start: Because we’re constantly comparing this year to last, this felt like a game Boston wouldn’t take seriously, fire up a bunch of 3-pointers, and hope to cruise to a win by getting hot from beyond the arc. Instead, they came out attacking the rim to take advantage of Washington being small. 

That's how it’s done. They had one minor lull at the end of the first half, but Tatum cut that off with an aggressive drive. 

Post ups: The Celtics took advantage of their size advantage and hit the Wizards with a ton of early post plays. They were incredibly effective. 

“I like the balance because we’re not going down there to score every time, we’re going down there to make a play,” Joe Mazzulla said. “It’s given us offensive balance, it’s given us the ability to stop a run, or continue to run. So as long as we go with the mindset of making a play, whether it’s for yourself or for others, and we have the proper spacing, I think it’s something that's important for our team.”

- Breaking the 3-point trend: I’m very happy to report the Wizards shot 11-36 from 3, just 30.6%. So for now, we can table the “why do Celtics opponents always get hot from 3” discussion. Good thing I published my piece on this yesterday. 

- Holiday & White: I felt bad for Wizards ball handlers who didn't realize Derrick White or Jrue Holiday were flying in from their blind side to rip the ball free. Those guys are Peregrine falcons. 

Do you know about Peregrines? They fly above their prey and dive at speeds that can hit 200 miles per hour to knock them out of the sky. It’s vicious. And the basketball version of that is what Holiday and White are doing all over the floor. 

- Home away from home: I’d guess the arena was almost half full of Celtics fans. At one point midway through the fourth during a timeout, Jayson Tatum, then done for the night, waved to all the Celtics fans in the sections behind Boston’s bench. There were a LOT of arms waving back. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

The fourth quarter: The 28-point lead dipped to 16. The only people REALLY worried were the bettors who took Boston -10.5, but it’s still a less-than-ideal performance. The bench hasn’t been great for Boston so far, and that's a little bit of a concern. However, it’s only been three games, the Celtics have the seventh-best offense in the NBA over that insanely small sample size, and they’ve won all three. So let’s give them time to figure that out. 

Sam Hauser’s shooting: The rough start to the season continues with a 2-9 shooting night from beyond the arc. He’s 3-15 from 3 to start the season, a rough 16.7%. But he’s just as capable of going 5-5 against the Pacers, and if he did, he’d be shooting 40% on the season. So just remember that the 3-pointer is a high-variance shot that is prone to streakiness even among the best shooters. 

The Wizards dance team: They really played Michael Jackson’s thriller with two dozen dancers on the floor and no one did the Thriller dance? No one cared to learn it? 

Sorry, there wasn’t much not to like.

HIGHLIGHTS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- It’s incredibly important that Jaylen Brown got these two big scoring games after opening night: I think Brown is going to have the hardest adjustment with all this new scoring talent around. Tatum isn’t going to lose shots, and there are going to be nights where Kristaps Porzingis is a matchup nightmare for the other team. 

That means Brown is going to have some nights where he isn’t quite going to get all the shots he wants. 

Which is why, after getting 11 shots and 11 points against New York, it’s so huge that he got 27 against Miami and the game-icing shot and then came into Washington and dropped the hammer early. Because Brown is still concerned with how he’s perceived, and the Celtics are going to have to make sure he gets plenty of time in the sun. 

When he was asked after the game to share some of the stuff that he worked on over the summer that we’re seeing on the floor and he said “everything” before saying last year is done, and it should stay in the past. 

“It's a new year, and that's kind of my mind frame,” Brown said. “Come out each and every night and I want to show that, one, I’m going to add to winning, help my team, be a leader on my team, but also show that I'm one of the best players on the floor each and every night.”

He’s very good, but I don’t believe he thinks he gets the respect he deserves. If he did, I don't think he’d feel the need to show he’s one of the best players on the floor each and every night. We know he is, even if he’s having an off night or takes a step back to let someone else cook. But I do think he still feels slighted. 

So getting it in games like this is important, because he will have a game or two where he’s asked to take a step back and for each one of those, he needs a monster game to balance that out. It wouldn’t have been good for the Celtics if he was averaging 11.5 points per game right now. Credit the Celtics for making sure he stayed fed in this game. Mazzulla played him a few extra minutes than everyone else, he got 36 points and was a game-high +32, and he was the early catalyst of an impressive win that showed Boston can, indeed, get up for a game against a bad team. 

We know Brown is capable of this, but he might feel the need to prove it every once in a while. So recognizing this was his night to do so and leaning into is a good thing for the team moving forward. 

Next up: The Celtics return home to face the Indiana Pacers Wednesday night