BSJ Game Report: Celtics 122, Wizards 102 - C's dominate after slow start behind Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum

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

IN A NUTSHELL

Jordan Poole fueled an early Washington run to take an early eight-point lead, but Jayson Tatum’s 14 first-quarter points helped Boston take the lead back after one. The lead grew to 10 after some back-and-forth thanks to a 10-1 run to close the half. That run carried through the entire third quarter, especially when Payton Pritchard got hot. The lead crossed 30 early in the fourth thanks to Jaylen Brown and the Celtics cruised to the easy win even though they lost the garbage time minutes.

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Slow start, strong finish: The first quarter was mostly the kind of “good team vs. bad team after ring night” kind of effort. There was a lot of individual play instead of ball movement, the Wizards were getting all the 50/50 balls, and Jordan Poole had a monster quarter. Then they started moving the ball more, Tatum took over, the defense stepped up, and talent took over. 

- More dominance from the Jays: Tatum cooled off in the third quarter, but he finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists. Brown started off slow and then finished the job with 10 in the fourth quarter and 27 points to go with eight rebounds and three assists. 

- Similar formula: Once again, the Celtics and their opponents were pretty close in made field goals (42 for Boston and 41 for Washington) but Boston made 10 more 3-pointers than Washington to help fuel what ultimately became a 32-point lead.

TURNING POINT

Boston’s 10-1 run to close the second quarter was met with a 19-6 run beginning the third quarter. Add it up and it’s a 29-7 run that blew the game open. 

THINGS I LIKED

- The recovery: The Celtics came out like a team expecting to talent their way to a win. Brown especially looked like he wanted to give himself a 50-point game as a birthday present, but just like the end of the opening night game, the Celtics were punished for not playing the right way. Once they settled down, played better offense, and stopped playing Washington’s game, they took off. 

- Derrick White: He finished with 19 points, four rebounds, and four assists. He hit 4-7 from deep and was a big reason the Celtics kept the game close in the first quarter. He was hitting shots while the rest of the offense was a bit discombobulated, so when Tatum took over it was a chance to take a lead rather than climb out of a deep hole. 

- Payton Pritchard: He followed a rough shooting night by hitting half of his 3-pointers (5-10) to put up 15 off the bench. He even hit a three-quarter court shot but he released it just after the buzzer so it didn’t count. 

- Jaylen Brown’s defense after the first quarter: After the game, he admitted that some of the early ugliness was his fault. He made up for it with some pretty good defense afterward, finishing the game with four steals. 

- The backup bigs: Al Horford was a non-factor, but the combination of Luke Kornett, Neemias Queta, and Xavier Tillman did the job behind him very well. Queta was the most notable of them all, matching power for power with Jonas Valanciunas and chipping in 12 points and seven rebounds. He had a couple of strong putbacks and he ALMOST hit a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock. Tillman did hit a couple from outside, which was a really nice bounceback from an oh-fer in the opener. Kornet was a +13 in his 16:13 of play. It’s a nice display of the versatility of Boston’s backups. Joe Mazzulla had different looks to throw out there depending on Washington’s lineuips. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- The start: Not going to belabor this. It happens. But it was pretty clear what was happening. I’m glad they settled down. 

- Al Horford: Tough matchup for him. The Wizards are young and they play fast. He played well enough, so I’m not going to say he was bad in this game, but this might have been a night to just rest him. I still think the Celtics should be more strategic about his minutes. 

- Baylor Scheierman’s jumper: He took a straightaway 3-pointer that may have cracked the backboard. I’ve said this before, but I just don’t like his release from that spot on the floor. It just feels like he’s trying way too hard to get the ball to the rim. I’m hoping that settles down at some point. 

- Party fouls: We had not one, but TWO delays to clean up spilled drinks. One was because the ref ran into someone carrying the drinks. Remember when Sam Hauser was about to break a 3-point record but then sprained his ankle in the crowd? The sidelines are TOO NARROW in Washington. Can the league do something about this?

HIGHLIGHTS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- I hope Tatum isn’t falling in love with the 3: His shot is improved and he proved that in the opener. He hit some tough ones in this game but then he continued to take a lot of them when he started to cool off. 

I do not want to fall victim to the “it’s a good shot if he makes it and a bad shot if he misses” trap, so I’m not going to harp on anything from this game. However, I’m just going to throw out there that I’d like to see a little more variety moving forward. 

I don’t blame him for heat-checking to see if he still has the touch. I’d like to see some “good-to-great” shots in those situations with an extra pass or two. That's all. I know this is nitpicky.     

- Poor Alex Sarr will never be the same: Tatum lit him up every chance he got. Someone will ask Sarr what his welcome to the NBA moment was and this will be it: 

Tatum saw rookies in front of him and said it was time to eat. What he did to Sarr was borderline cruel.

Next up: The Celtics visit the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night