Two days after celebrating Banner 18 with a dominant win over the New York Knicks, the Boston Celtics put the ring ceremony behind them on Thursday night in Washington and began the quest for Banner 19 in earnest against the Wizards. Though they struggled on the defensive court in the first half, they made the necessary adjustments to lock down Washington in the second, securing a 122-102 win and advancing to 2-0 on the year.
Jayson Tatum continued his excellent start to the season, recording 25 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists – he might have challenged for a triple-double if his services had been necessary in the fourth quarter. In support, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White combined for 46 points on 16-of-31 shooting, and Payton Pritchard tacked on five made threes off the bench. For the Wizards, Jordan Poole rode a strong first half to a 26-point outing, and Jonas Valanciunas added 18 points off the bench.
While the Celtics opened their season with a massive 43-point first quarter against the Knicks, they didn’t find nearly as much separation in the early going against Washington. The offense continued to dissect its opposition – they scored 33 points in the opening frame, led by 14 first quarter points from Tatum – but the upstart young Wizards put the Boston defense on their heels. Specifically, it was Poole who found himself on an early heater; after an uneven first season in Washington, he opened his second with a blistering 17-point quarter, shooting 5-of-6 from three-point range. The Celtics entered the second quarter nursing a 33-32 lead.
Scoring continued to rule the night as play resumed in the second quarter. The Celtics did considerable damage at the free throw line, taking 16 shots at the charity stripe to Washington’s six in the first half, making 13. The defense was puzzlingly inept, however. The Wizards were able to push the tempo and find success against the Celtics at the rim, including a particularly egregious sequence in which Kuzma faced Horford and Neemias Queta and came up with a wide-open dunk. Washington recorded a whopping 30 points in the paint in the first half.
Led by the continued brilliance of Tatum, though, the Celtics found some momentum late in the first half. Fresh off a near-flawless 37-point game against the Knicks, Tatum poured in 20 first-half points against the Wizards, including cooking the rookie Sarr for a pair of pull-up three-point jumpers. Brown chipped in a pair of consecutive buckets late in the second quarter, and the Celtics enjoyed a 10-point advantage at the half, 64-54.
An early 9-2 stretch for the Celtics in the early third quarter extended the change in fortunes, with the Celtics riding a 19-3 run to take a lead that more closely resembled what was expected from them. The Boston offense continued to generate and convert on quality looks, but, more importantly, the defense shut the water off on Washington’s scoring attack. The Wizards scored just six points in as many minutes to open the second half, and the Celtics surged out to a 25-point lead entering the final quarter, 98-73 – a lead which could have been even greater if Pritchard had released a successful end-of-quarter heave just a few fractions of a second sooner.
If there was any potential for drama in the fourth quarter, it was quickly quashed by a red-hot Brown. Boston’s star wing celebrated his 28th birthday by drilling consecutive threes as play resumed, pushing the Celtics’ lead to 29 points and effectively putting the Wizards on ice. The Boston lead hit 30 points and the core rotation hit the bench not long thereafter. Notably, as the Celtics ran the clock down towards the end of regulation, rookie Baylor Scheierman checked in for the first time this season and recorded the first points of his NBA career. Scheierman converted on a layup and cashed in a pair of free throws to finish with four points in his first NBA action.
