Pre-Game Wizards

I think what we all are looking for is the turnaround. While we finally stopped the bleeding with a home win vs. the Pacers, we've been snake-bitten so many times in these scenarios hoping for the Celtics to follow up with something now very rare this season, another win, that we're becoming numb to the whole thing.

I am one of those reserving judgment. Dboss so illustriously pointed out we got lucky winning the Pacers game. Nothing really had changed. We just added a couple of strange maneuvers foreign to the whole league as of late...defense in order to pull this one out of our proverbial asses.

I know I should be happy with a win and I am, but I'm not jumping back into the snake pit just yet.

If this is part of a 4-0 to the ASG Finish Line, then that will indicate quite a lot since we have LAC in this mix and they are pissed about losing to us the last time on their floor so good luck with that game.

If I were Vegas, on this stretch I've got us somewhere between 2-2 and 1-3 for the safe money. 4-0 and you can parlay $1 into $100.

We have some unfinished business of our own against WAS since they handed us our backsides the last time and now they are on the move up figuring things out.

We can't even call this a trap game because we have now become the trapees and reversed roles. Trap games are for teams that are on top of the standings.

I did notice we have moved up into 6th place! A 4-0 run will get us up to 4th at best and until those 3 clowns start losing with regularity, 4th is about as good as we will be able to do this season unless we go on a 20 game run.

Hope springs eternal...

db

Celtics try to tame red-hot Wizards

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-try-tame-red-hot-083719144.html

Sun, February 28, 2021, 3:37 AM

Despite a resilient victory Friday, the Boston Celtics aren't out of the woods yet. The team seeks its first winning streak in more than a month when it hosts the Washington Wizards on Sunday night.

The Celtics were victorious 118-112 over the Indiana Pacers last time out -- a game in which they trailed by 14 less than five minutes in. The win snapped a three-game losing streak and was just Boston's fourth in its last 12 outings.

"It's good to get a win on a day that ends in 'Y' right now," coach Brad Stevens said postgame.

The Celtics' recent funk saw the team slip below .500 and temporarily out of playoff standing in the Eastern Conference. A win Sunday would even its record and represent a measure of revenge after Boston fell 104-91 at Washington on Feb. 14.

That victory kicked off a stretch of seven wins in eight games for the Wizards. Washington defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 128-112 at home Saturday night.

"It means a lot," said Wizards star Bradley Beal of the team's recent success. "It's big for everybody. It's big for our confidence moving forward. We know our schedule gets tough. At the same time, we still know we haven't done much. We haven't done anything. That's what I keep telling our guys.

"We still have a lot of work we need to do -- things we need to get better at and clean up -- and we still need to win more games. That's the ultimate goal."

Sunday's meeting will be the last of three between the clubs this season. The Celtics were victorious 116-107 at home on Jan. 8.

It's been since Jan. 24-25 that Boston has won back-to-back games. With All-Stars Jayson Tatum (nine points on 4-of-18 shooting) and Jaylen Brown (15 points, 5-of-12 shooting) each struggling against the Pacers on Friday, Kemba Walker stepped up with a season-high 32 points to give the team a much-needed reason to celebrate.

"We've got to keep it together," said Walker of enduring the tough stretch. "We can't let nobody go in any other direction. ... Things might not be going as well as we would like it at the moment, but things could change really fast, so the only way you can get out of struggles is by doing it together."

The Celtics further received key contributions from Jeff Teague (14 points) and Robert Williams III (14 points, 11 rebounds) off the bench. Teague's production was especially notable after a stretch of did-not-plays earlier in the week.

For the Wizards, it was the usual suspects at work in Saturday's win over the Timberwolves. Beal scored 34 points, and Russell Westbrook backed him up with a 19-point, 14-rebound, 12-assist triple-double -- his 10th of the season, setting a franchise record.

Davis Bertans also scored 19 points after missing the team's previous contest with a knee injury. Reserve guard Raul Neto sustained a left knee contusion late in the matchup and did not return.

--Field Level Media

Last win doesn’t alter fact 2 J’s are in midst of terrifying stretch, we are not gonna win too many games with those kind of efficiency numbers, until these guys get their games back together, we are still in big trouble.

From the injury report:

Brown is questionable for Sunday's game against the Wizards due to left knee soreness, Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com reports.

Brown has a lingering knee issue and Tatum is experiencing random covid aftereffects.

Could it be that simple?

I knew that Jaylen has been less than 100% He needs to sit and when he goes to the ASG he should not play a lot unlike the utter fiasco last year when Kemba logged 29 minutes on a bum knee and it was not until Friday that he hit the 30 Point mark.

Not a good time to play the Wizards. They have won 7 of 8. The problems that Boston is having has many angles but maybe the one that puts a thumb in the eye socket begins and ends with bad habits. Bad habits are easy to acquire but difficult to break. When losing becomes a habit the end result is what we are seeing from this team.

Hoping for a win tonight.

Since the Raptors game may be postponed, we do not have 4 games to play. Maybe just 2 more. One loss and we go into the break as a below .500 team.