POST GAME WASHINGTON - HOME - WAS 96 - BOS 107 Final

Celtics Wrap: Boston Snaps Losing Streak With 107-96 Win Over Wizards

NESN by Logan Mullen on Fri, Mar 1, 2019 at 10:16PM

The Celtics have played some ugly basketball since the All-Star break, and though they didn’t set the world on fire Friday night, they snapped their skid.

Boston put an end to its four-game losing streak with a 107-96 win over the Washington Wizards at TD Garden.

The Celtics got off to a quick start, but once the Wizards pulled back close late in the first quarter it mostly was a back-and-forth affair the rest of the way. Boston finally created a little bit of breathing room before the midway point in the fourth, and it made sure not to allow the Wizards to make the game too interesting down the stretch.

Kyrie Irving posted a double-double with 13 points and 12 assists. Al Horford had a team-high 18 points, while Marcus Morris (17), Marcus Smart (16), Jaylen Brown (13), Daniel Theis (11) and Jayson Tatum (10) also tallied double-figure scoring.

Bradley Beal had a game-high 29 points and was one of four Wizards in double figures.

With the win, the Celtics climb to 38-25, while the Wizards fall to 25-37 with the loss.

Here’s how it all went down.

STARTING FIVE
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Marcus Morris Sr.
C: Al Horford

C’S COME OUT FIRING
Quality offensive possessions by the Celtics coupled with dreadful responses from the Wizards allowed the Boston to finish the opening stanza ahead 30-20.

The tone was set pretty quick, as Wizards head coach Scott Brooks had to call a timeout just 1:58 into the game because the Celtics had kicked off the contest with an 8-1 run. It took the Wizards 5:45 to score their first field goal, and by the time they did, the Celtics had opened up a 13-2 advantage.

Beal led all players with 10 points in the first 12 minutes. Horford paced the Celtics with eight.

SLOWING DOWN
Boston’s offense came to screeching halt in the second quarter, and though it went into the half ahead 49-45, the C’s were outscored 25-19 in the period.

After a sharp first quarter, it took the Celtics three minutes to get on the board in the second. Throughout the stanza, the Celts’ offense had stagnated quite a bit, which allowed the Wizards to get back in the game.

Things finally came to a head for the Celtics when Washington strung together an 11-2 run over 1:55 to grab a 45-44 lead, its first of the game, at the 2:07 mark. The Celtics responded with the quarter’s final five points to go into the break with the advantage.

Beal and Horford led all players with six points in the second. The Wizards star had a game-high 16 first-half points, while the C’s big man was next with 14.

OFFENSES HEAT UP
The few minute reprieve was much needed for both sides, as the third period featured some quality offense. Boston ultimately was outscored by the Wizards 36-33 in the period, but took an 82-81 lead into the final frame.

For much of the third, the C’s lead hovered around four and six as the two teams traded punches on the attacking end. With two minutes to play, a Troy Brown Jr. dunk pulled the Wizards within a pair, and though the Celtics got their lead back up to four, a triple just before the buzzer by Jabari Parker brought the Wizards within one.

Beal led all players with 11 points in the third, while Morris topped the Celtics with nine. Washington shot 62.5 percent from the field in the third while Boston hit 60.9 percent of its attempts.

BOSTON CLAIMS FOURTH, AND GAME
The Celtics kicked it into another gear enough in the fourth to create some much-needed separation. They outscored the Wizards 25-15 in the final 12 minutes en route to the victory.

The first few minutes of the frame remained narrow, but the Celtics finally created some breathing room shortly before the midway point. Thanks to a quick 6-0 run over 33 seconds, the Celtics upped their lead to 97-88 with 6:50 to play. Back-to-back steals by the Celtics lead to their final four points of the spurt.

A Brown lay-in with four minutes to play brought the Celtics’ lead back into double digits for the first time since the second quarter. Shortly thereafter, a Marcus Smart 27-foot trey with 2:58 left put Boston ahead by 12 and effectively set the game out of reach.

PLAY OF THE GAME
Have to love Morris yelling at the ball after the slam.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will remain at home for a Sunday matinee against the Houston Rockets. Tip from TD Garden is set for 3:30 p.m. ET.

112288

solid game last night, they seemed locked in on defense most of the time.

of course it was Washington, we'll know more sunday afternoon.

When this team plays defense they are very good.
When they don't, they are very bad.
So it's just a matter of effort, no?
It's been a long time since we have had to worry, whether a Celtics team plays with effort or not.
That's what makes this season so maddening.

Berlin-T

It is hard to fast break off of a made shot.  We shot three pointers at a rate of 10-35 last night.  That would be 25 long missed shots in one game.  I don't imagine it is much different for our other losses this season.  These misses lead to long rebounds and fast breaks for the other team.

Last night, Tommy said that our transition defense was bad.  At one of the breaks, Stevens said that our half court defense was fine but it was our transition defense that was lacking.  Both of these guys hit on the same problem.

It is very hard to defend a player when you are chasing him.  When it happens 25 times a game (and likely more, due to missed long twos and mid range shots) the odds are stacked against you.

I guess that my point is that we can live with the occasional breakdown of our half court defense. It is the absolute quantity of our long misses, 25-35 in each loss, that is killing us.  Even if we defend the resulting fast breaks adequately half of the time, the results where we fail to defend is killing us.

gyso

Hi,
One more game with good effort. Even against Wizards.
Shooting was horrible. Just over 28% from 3pt.
I hope the law of averages will pull us into 40% vicinity for the next 2 games.

AK

New NBA, majority of games the team with better 3 point % wins, we need more shooters or our supposed shooters have to get hot. Morris, Hayward, Tatum, Brown, Kyrie all been extremely off lately and Rozier pretty much off the whole year. Marcus Smarts 3 pointers won the game for us last night....think about that.

I couldn't watch the game last night, sometimes life overwhelms priorities, but I'm glad we won. - Captain Obvious

There may have been some buzzerbeating heaves in here, but when Morris and Tatum and Brown take 22 of our total 35 3pt fgas (62.8%) and only hit 4 of those 22 (18%) that might be part of the problem.

Nice to win...again...






bob


.

My thing with Morris is when he’s not hitting his shots I don’t see him helping us, his deficiencies get magnified and seems to cost us, with 2 J’s they can still help in other areas better as Tatum’s defense has really picked up this year. Now if only his offense could get consistent....

Last night was a tourniquet bandage. Stop the bleeding and stabilize the patient.

The patient is still kicking so total demise can still be avoided.