2022 - 2023 POST GAME WASHINGTON WIZ - HOME

Celtics Wrap: No Jayson Tatum? No Problem For Jaylen Brown, Boston
Boston rolled to a third-straight win


NESN by Keagan Stiefel


The Boston Celtics picked up a third-consecutive victory Sunday night with a win over the Washington Wizards, 130-121, at TD Garden.

The Celtics improved to 16-4 on the year, while the Wizards dropped to 10-10.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Celtics were without the NBA’s leading scorer in Jayson Tatum on Sunday night, but they had no problem putting points on the board.

Boston took it to Washington on the offensive end, outpacing them in just about every category one could think of. The biggest scoring disparities came in the form of bench points (Boston – 46; Washington – 36) and 3-point field goal percentage (47.1%; 25%). There’s no wonder, because for most of the night Boston could not miss.

All five Celtics starters had a positive plus/minus, as that unit dominated their counterpart. The unit combined to score 84 points, with the majority of their damage being done in a 72-point first half. When the bench came in, things got ugly for a while as Boston went nearly five minutes without a made field goal. Luckily, a few bench contributors were able to hold Washington off before things got too close for comfort.

Sam Hauser continued shooting lights out from beyond the arc (3-for-4). Malcolm Brogdon pitched in from all over the place, scoring 17 points, grabbing six rebounds and dishing out four assists. Luke Kornet continued to show off his odd contest while impacting the game offensively with 12 points and defensively with two blocks.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Jaylen Brown took over in the scoring department for the missing Tatum, reminding Celtics fans how nice it is to have two superstars. He scored 36 points on 13-for-23 shooting and added five rebounds and two assists.

— Marcus Smart’s playmaking abilities were on full display without Tatum, as the veteran point guard finished with 14 points and seven assists.

— Kristaps Porzingis was Washington’s best player in pretty dreadful day for the Wizards. He scored 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting, pitching in four rebounds.

WAGER WATCH
Al Horford got the scoring started against Washington and made some bettors a nice chunk of change in the process. DraftKings Sportsbook set the odds of the 36-year-old opening the scoring at +800 prior to the start of the game. His 3-point make in the first minute would have netted a $900 payout on a $100 bet.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will continue their extended homestand Monday night against the Charlotte Hornets. Tipoff from TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

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Jaylen put on a bully ball clinic and could have went to the line even more, but because he’s so big and strong compared to the guys covering him, they are not giving him all the calls as he is constantly finishing thru contact. He should be getting more calls, Tatum also wasn’t getting the calls, until this year. There is no doubt in my mind, if Jaylen was on a less talented team like say the Mavs or Thunder; he could be scoring over 30 a game, similar to Luka or SGA.

Without dwelling on the mild 4th quarter collapse with the bench/team, I think that was a good learning experience for them and will pay dividends down the road. The bench scored 46 points out of 130. That's not bad at all and Malcolm, Doogie and Luke all showing up and doing more than their part. P-Squared's numbers didn't look that good but he took up space and time doing other non-recordable things like he always does. Could he have hit more 3's at the end to help out? Absolutely. But I'm not going to lose any sleep over this game. We smoked a team we should have smoked and the final score turned out to be closer than what we saw and what took place on the court.

Nice balanced bench effort from those three. JB and CJ going Old School by driving to the basket first AND bombing from 3-Ville. Second game in a row we've realized that lay ups with And 1's are just as easy or easier than bombing from the parking lot. Who's our resident German Language expert on this site? I think the word I'm looking for is Blitzkrieg, right? Whatever the word that means firing from/being fired upon from every possible angle, that's what I mean and that's what I saw last night. There are probably secret zoom meetings going on between all the coaches in the league that don't include CJ to try to figure out how in Hells Bathroom to stop this train.

Now, let's predictably rest Al tonight, let a PO'ed JT back on the court after having to sit out for a night and ransack the Hornets! No time for mental lapses. CJ's doing a great job managing personnel during this stretch through mid-December.

I ask this only because the ride is very good right now, sometimes too good, and I don't want us to lose another game from here all the way through the playoffs. MIL is keeping pace right behind us so we're not gaining any additional ground here lately even having gone 12-1. That sucks. Are we missing anything? You guys and gal have the much more critical eyes. What needs working on? Any chinks in the armor? Just curious as to what you see and don't see from Boston at this point.

db

If Jaylen sat out too would we average 150?  This offense is insane in the way it appears to be defying gravity. The last time we had an offense with this much octane was the heady days of Bill Russell, when the NBA was a track meet, and we're not running that much. We are just loaded with shooters. In 2008 we had House @ 39.3% 3pt fg% and Posey @ 38% 3pt fg% for shooters off the bench. In 2022 we have Sam @ 48.9% 3pt fg%, Fast PP @ 44.4% 3pt fg%, Brogdon @ 44.3% 3pt fg% and, when RWill comes back, 43.7% 3pt fg% shooter Grant Williams and/or 43.9% 3pt fg% shooter Derrick White will go to the bench. Not one of our current inventory of bench shooters is shooting below 40% from 3. In fact, none of them are even close to 40%, they are shooting well over it.

47% 3pt shooting won it for us.  They took 2 more fgas than us, had 10 fewer turnovers than us, had 6 more steals than us, took 7 more ftas than us and had 6 more points in the paint than us.  Grant was 1-4 from 3, Jaylen was 2-7 and Luke was 0-1 but every other Celtic who took a 3 shot at least 50% from there.  Our lead shrunk down to 6 or so and then Sam the Show put on a little mini-run from 3 of his own.

Jaylen needs to go to the line more.  He's getting the contact, per my eyeballs, he's just not getting the whistles.  As annoying as it is maybe Jayson complaining and throwing his arms up isn't such a bad idea after all?  Jaylen's averaging 5.0ftas/game.  He needs, and deserves imo, to average 7-8.  The road to the All-Star team and, therefore, ultimately to the HOF is through the frito line.  He just needs to point out to the refs what they're missing.  Help them help you, Jaylen.  Watch the film and see for yourself how much contact he absorbs without whistles.




Luke Kornet, NBA back up center. I never thought I'd ever say that. He's looking very comfortable out there and I'm getting more comfortable with him. It's a strange world we live in.

Malcolm Brogdon has to be in the conversation for NBA 6th Man. He is solid and productive. The reason why our bench shooting is so good is because the ball handlers are delivering the ball to them in an easy catch-and-shoot position and Brogdon is doing that. He's not averaging the heavy minutes he did when he was younger (and being regularly injured), he's averaging 22.7mpg vs his career 29.8mpg, but if you look at his /36mpg efficiency he's about the same as he always has been, more or less. Having a player of his quality running our team off the bench is such a luxury. We'll see what happens when RWill comes back and Derrick White goes to the bench, but Brogdon is a joy to watch. Such a smart, team-oriented player.




Our MoV is now +7.0. Two teams, Cleveland and Phoenix, are +6.9. #1 record, #1 MoV. The stars are still, currently, aligned.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468449


Bob


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