Final: Celtics 116, Wizards 87 - Tatum dominates in blowout of Wizards

GAME 48
Boston Celtics (23-24, 8-14 road, 10th East) vs. Washington Wizards (23-23, 13-10 home, 9th East)
Capital One Arena
3:30 PM - NBC Sports Boston

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS

Boston: Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Robert Williams

Washington: Spencer Dinwiddie, Bradley Beal, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Daniel Gafford

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- Marcus Smart and Aaron Nesmith are available

- Washington wins the tiebreaker if they win tonight. They won the first two matchups and this is one of two remaining games between both teams. 

- Bruno Fernando has been assigned to the G League Maine Celtics

- Dinwiddie has scored at least 15 points in eight of his last 11 appearances

- Beal has recorded 5+ assists in 14 straight games, the longest such streak of his career.

- Boston is favored by 2

GOING A LITTLE DEEPER

The Celtics have everybody back!

Every team in the NBA has gone through a rough injury patch, but Boston has been hit especially hard. Their normal starting lineup, which they're starting today, has played 12 games and 145 minutes together. That's 200 minutes fewer than any lineup in the top five. 

“I mean, just from a COVID standpoint, everybody's almost been hit pretty hard. So as far as that, we don't see that hampering us as much anymore,” Ime Udoka said before the game. “So hopefully guys stay healthy, we can start to shave down some minutes on other guys and go deeper into the rotation. And so at some point it has to balance out and hopefully this is for the rest of the season where it balances out.”

The Celtics have gone to some unique lineups with certain absences, but now we can expect a little more traditional look from Udoka’s Celtics with some other things we’ve seen recently tucked a little deeper into the playbook. 

“Yeah, I think (Josh Richardson) would be somewhat of a backup, backup plan (at point guard), Udoka said. “At times Jayson was handling the point a lot last game and we went with him because that unit was rolling well. We've seen Josh do that in the past, but having the full complement back now, we'll obviously go with Marcus, Dennis, and Peyton when we can get those minutes. So we’ve have a lot of different things that we've seen work out well, but like I said, it's a good problem to have everybody back in and figure out the rotations now.”

One thing it will mean is fewer minutes for the younger Celtics who had found their way into some opportunities.

“Unfortunately for them, when they did play when guys were out, they got injured as well,” Udoka said. “Romeo missed quite a few games there and then Aaron as well coming off a game we played well in. So didn't get the consistent minutes or kind of rolled down with all the guys in and out, so didn't really get to see them fully like we wanted to in that stretch.

“But they both had their flashes and Josh being out a few games, Romeo was really steady and really good before he got hurt. And then Aaron, the same. Like I said he helped us obviously win a game and played great down the stretch, and then obviously rolled the ankle in that game so we haven't seen him lately. But would have loved to get everybody more opportunity and I felt like injuries were plaguing guys at the wrong time when we had some opportunity with guys out with COVID.”

THREE THINGS TO WATCH FOR

1. Consistent effort: It hurts me to my core to make this as basic as this, but it also hurts me to my core to watch these guys have these long scoreless stretches. The Celtics need to put forth a consistent 48 minutes, even if the shots aren’t falling. They can’t let any continued cold streaks lead to mistakes on the other end. 

2. Good communication: These guys do have some built up chemistry, but they need to be on point with their defensive communication. The Celtics can’t have things like the back-breaking Anfernee Simons 3-pointer late in the loss to Portland. 

“We didn't want to double at that point being up where we were. We wanted to make him score in the post,” Udoka explained. “The others weren't expecting it because we weren't supposed to double at that time. We were doing some different things in pick-and-rolls to keep Al off of switching every time, but the post ups we were living with, and just a miscommunication there.”

That play was a killer, and they just can’t afford to have too many of those moving forward.

3. Finishing strong: What more do I need to say here? Seven scoreless minutes is horrific. They need to find it in themselves to stop these opponent runs early. Don’t come down trying to answer what the other team did, come down and run your offense. 

GAME THREAD

Stick around for more comments below as the game goes on. Feel free to add your two cents in the comments.