Post Game - Celtics at Washington Wizards - Thursday, October 24 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401704639

Takeaways: Jaylen Brown, Celtics continue dominant start with blowout over Wizards

https://sports.yahoo.com/m/d8de1507-e93d-33ff-8874-ca7ce07eda3f/takeaways-jaylen-brown-.html

By Tom Westerholm
October 24, 2024

The Celtics continued their dominant start to the season on Thursday, blasting the Wizards 122-102 with a huge second half and a balanced attack.

Here are the takeaways.

1. The Wizards hung tough for much of the first half, bolstered in the first quarter in particular by Jordan Poole, who started 5-for-6 from behind the arc and scored 17 points in the first 12 minutes.

But even in the early going as Poole rained 3-pointers, Thursday’s game never really felt questionable. There might not be a team in recent memory as capable as the Celtics of creating a good look on every single possession with either ball movement or obviously superior talent and mismatches, and the Wizards started to lose their grip in the second quarter as Jayson Tatum pulled the Celtics ahead by 10 at halftime.

Then in the third, the Celtics began to pull away in earnest. A 16-4 run that spanned the end of the second and the beginning of the third pushed the lead to 20, and the Celtics never let the Wizards catch their breath.

The Celtics will face teams who are better equipped to handle their offense than the Knicks, and they will certainly face teams who can play them tougher than the lowly Wizards, who will likely compete for a chance to draft Cooper Flagg.

But if there’s one thing we can probably leave in the past for good, it’s the idea that the Celtics will automatically play down to the level of an inferior opponent. There will be off nights and uncharacteristic performances here and there, but the Celtics know who they are and how they can generate their best looks. The Wizards, meanwhile, probably know precisely where they are headed this season.

2. Tatum took a seat with 2:40 remaining in the third quarter, and he never had to pull his warm-ups off again. He followed up his highly efficient 37-point opener with 25 points on 9-for-20 shooting and 3-for-11 from behind the arc. If the Wizards had kept the game a little closer, Tatum might have finished with a triple-double: He added 11 rebounds and six assists to his total.

Tatum’s percentages weren’t as gaudy as Tuesday night, but the shot still largely looked comfortable, and he spent most of the first half toying with Wizards rookie Alex Sarr, who repeatedly had to try to defend his step-back jumpers with very little success.



We are only two games into the season, so we don’t need to talk extensively about Tatum in big-picture terms just yet. Instead, we’ll just note that Tatum is moving like there’s a weight off his shoulders through two games so far. The game looks effortless – he’s gliding through pick-and-rolls, trusting his teammates, attacking the rim with power and confidence, and shooting at a high level.

3. Tatum has now played the entire first quarter in back-to-back games before taking a four-to-five minute rest to start the second.

An interesting note from Celtics statistician Dick Lipe about that rotation: Last season the Celtics were 13-1 in games when Tatum played the entire first quarter.

4. Jaylen Brown scored 27 points and recorded four steals. When Tatum cooled off slightly in the second half, Brown was more than able to pick up the slack with several bully-ball buckets in the paint and one of the more exaggerated “too little” celebrations you’ll ever see after he scored through contact from Jordan Poole. His two 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter then punctuated a dominant stretch that put the final 12 minutes of the game on rails.



5. Payton Pritchard shot 1-for-10 in the opener, but if you were concerned that his 3-point shot deserted him, rest assured that he will be fine: He finished 5-for-10 from deep with 15 points on Thursday.

Those numbers would have been even better if he had a split second longer to shoot at the end of the third quarter: Much to the delight of Celtics fans, Pritchard took an inbounds pass at three-quarter court and hoisted it the length of the floor, off the glass and in.



The officials didn’t need to review whether he got it off or not because he only had 0.2 seconds to shoot, which isn’t long enough to gather. Still, Pritchard still reigns supreme as the king of the full-court shot.

6. Xavier Tillman’s 3-point percentage remains worth tracking purely from a schematic perspective, and he went 2-for-3 from deep including one from the top of the key.

7. Baylor Scheierman scored his first NBA basket – a layup in transition in the fourth quarter when he and the rest of the Celtics’ bench mob took over with the game well in hand. Scheierman also nearly banked in a very deep 3-pointer, and he finished with four points after smoking a potential and-one attempt but making both free throws.

8. Derrick White finished with 19 points on 4-for-7 shooting from 3-point range and was a staggering +33 in the box score.

9. The Celtics will now travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons on Saturday before they return to TD Garden for Monday’s showdown against the Bucks.

Wow, Payton made another one!!!!  He is amazing. (I don’t care that it was a split second late and didn’t count)

Great summary above of that game.  Yeah, the days of playing down to our competition are over.  I also like the stat of JT being 13-1 when playing the whole first quarter.  This is Joe's plan to make that stat X-0, where X --> 82 or 98.  I say play let him play all of the 1st quarter every game!!

JB is starting to show that Bully Ball mentality.  Not being a jerk.  Just making sure EVERYONE on the court knows he is The Enforcer and you need to go spend your effort and exhaust yourself on someone else.  You ain't stopping this train.  

I honestly think Pritch and Tillman compete for who scores the first 3 between them.  I don't believe I've seen Pritch miss his first 3 attempt.  Same with Tillman.  Wazzupwidat?

Then my favorite.  DW with +33.  You wouldn't know that unless you looked it up on the stat sheet.  The Glue.  

Here's what I saw:

1.  Don't want us shooting 3-bombs?  OK.  No problem.  We'll drive, score and you can foul us.  Then we'll go back to wide open 3-balling when you're back on your heels.  This shows some real maturity.  Also gone are the days of just 3-balling 'til the cows come home.  The mix of outside/in/inside/out is pristine, priceless and perfect.  How do you stop this?!  Taking what the defense gives us.   Joe is slowly but efficiently and effectively eliminating everything that causes a team to lose a game.  When you have nothing to cause you to lose, by definition, winning is the only thing left.  Like the absence of heat is cold.  Darkness...Light.  

2.  Game Ball to Pritch.  I know the two J's are a given every night.  But Pritch bit back last night.  And he hit another half court 3/4 court shot.  Ridiculous, Gus.  

3.  Knicks should feel good about themselves and their chances of knocking off the Celtics come playoff time.  Not.  We basically had the same game against 2 teams of equal caliber.  Same score result just about.  You do the math. Knicks = Wizards, Wizards = Knicks.  Again, Joe reducing the competition to a band of juvenile, bumbling, blubbering idiots.   

4.  Tillman and Al Queta doing a lot of good dirty work, banging around, scoring inside and out.  Nice.  

5.  Assists were down percentage-wise but that's ok since we were driving more to the basket this game.  This explains why we had the same number of fouls but went to the line 9 more times.  When those first 4 fouls of each quarter are marches to the free throw line and not side out, that's what you get.  You don't typically get fouled on threes, although we did a couple of times, it means you're driving to the hoop and getting fouled in the act more often than less.  I'll take that any night a team tries to shut us down from our appetizing smorgasbord of 3-bombing at +40%.  Wizards got caught in the same swapping 3's for 2's trap the Knicks did.    

6.  If there was any flaw last night, it was the points in the paint.  I could have made a lay up out there in that game.  We got slaughtered there.  We need the fly swatter back and that should take care of that in one fell swoop.  I don't know if Al was responsible for most of those miscues but he wasn't much help on the offensive end either that I could see.  Not his best outing.  He'll need to show up next game and Monday for sure by committee.  

7.  Anyone want to challenge my observations to date on White?!  I didn't think so.  I fell asleep on him again last night and he gives us a +33!  It really is amazing.  Clearly, I've never seen anything like this.  
What a HUGE pick up by Brad.  Rock Steady.  Priceless.  

OK.  Take a day off.  Watch G1 of WS tonight.  Hey, it's the two best teams in MLB squaring off in the WS!  See how easy that is, NBA?!  And baseball has such thin margins of error it is rare the best ever meet up in the WS.  NBA such try that.  Much easier to get the 2 best teams there.  Should be.  No wait...Don't get me started.  

db

Ho Hum.  Another 20 point victory that wasn't really even that close.  I realize that the Wiz are an NBA team and on any given night can rise up as we sleepwalk through a trap game but, so far through two games, Joe has them zeroed in.

The Wiz put out a credible effort in the first quarter.  Ok, to be more specific, Jordan Poole carried Washington on his back through one, scoring 17 of their 32 points.  He went 6-8, 5-7 from 3.  You just knew that wasn't going to last, and it didn't.  He only scored 3 points in the 2nd quarter on 1-4, and then the bottom dropped out for him in the 3rd and 4th.  4 points in the 3rd and only 2 points in the 4th.  He went from 6-8 and 5-7 after 1 to 9-17 and 6-11 from 3.  He went 3-9 and 1-4 for the last 3 quarters.  I saw Derrick on him on defense and I think Joe was doing his best to create mismatches where he had to guard Jaylen on defense.  Didn't matter who he guarded both Derrick and Jaylen tortured him.

14 turnovers, the bench had 6 of them and JD Davison had 3 in 8 minutes.  So, if this had not been a blow out JD wouldn't have played and so there's 3 turnovers fewer, or at least 1 or 2.  Joe's giving him a chance.

JD, Walsh and even Scheierman got into the game before Springer.  This blows my mind a bit.  Brad was being applauded for picking him up from Philly last year for a mere 2nd rounder and now he's the next-to-last player off the bench in a 30 point blow out (two-way Drew Peterson was last).  I thought that Springer did pretty well in his 6 minutes of garbage time but that's almost besides the point.  WTF did he do to put him so far down on the totem pole?  We waived Lonnie Walker IV and kept Springer for this?  Is Springer's $4M expiring contract that untradeable?  He's going to be a RFA next year.  That means if a team trades for him they can waive him and reduce their payroll, or they can keep him because they will still own his rights.  That's a win-win for most GMs since they have control either way and he is a legit NBA player.  I'm a huge fan of GM Brad Stevens, HUGE, so I'm willing to bide my time and let this unfold but, to be honest, I'm not seeing the method in Brad's madness...yet.

Ok, so the Wiz suck.  Someday they may be something, they have two young high lottery picks starting for them, ones a rookie and the other is only in his 2nd year, but right now they suck.  Their other talent is Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole.  Those are both players that would be coming off the bench in any playoff-ready team.  Valanciunas is coming off their bench because they want to develop those two lottery picks, so that's good depth at center but otherwise?  As Gertrude Stein once said about Oakland, "There's no "there", there".   So winning this game was a lead pipe cinch.  We should also win in Detroit for the same reason, they're in rebuilding mode too.  The game vs Milwaukee?  Now that will be interesting.





Bob


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https://nesn.com/2024/10/celtics-jayson-tatum-joins-larry-bird-reaching-very-rare-feat-vs-wizards/



Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Joins Larry Bird Reaching (Very) Rare Feat Vs. Wizards


'It's gonna be tougher this year'


Gio Rivera
Digital Content Producer



During All-Star weekend in Indianapolis last season, Jayson Tatum met Celtics icon Larry Bird for the first time. Now as a reigning champion in Boston, the 26-year-old joined the Hall of Famer in exclusive company after Wednesday night’s win.

Boston defeated the Wizards, 122-102 in Washington, putting the Celtics at a perfect 2-0 start with two straight 20-plus-point victories. Tatum, leading the charge with another double-double to follow Banner Night’s masterpiece, scored 25 points with 11 rebounds and six assists to earn another fourth quarter of rest. That made Tatum the second player ever in league history to log at least 62 points, 15 rebounds and 16 assists in the first two games to start a season, per NBC Sports Boston’s Dick Lipe. The other? Bird.

“Just to piggyback off (Joe Mazzulla’s message), continue to dominate on the floor and all the areas that stats show and all the areas that stats don’t show,” Tatum told reporters, as seen on NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage. “And that’s screening, cutting, creating advantages for my teammates and obviously getting involved in making plays and rebounding and things like that.”


Tatum continued the efficiency, shooting 9-of-20 from the field and shaking off a 3-for-11 output from 3-point range. He gave Wizards 7-foot rookie Alex Sarr, the second overall pick in the 2024 draft, nightmares on their 1-on-1 matchups, most notably with the rude welcome-to-the-NBA awakening of Tatum’s shake-and-bake step-back three in the second quarter. Sarr was fazed by Tatum’s mission-expanding night and logged a forgettable NBA debut of his own, finishing a minus-22 with two points on seven shots.

Clearly, the new and upset Tatum, even with a 15-carat championship ring on his finger, isn’t content with last season and last season only. The summer of disrespect, in which Tatum also inked a record-large $315 million, has stuck closely with Tatum like white on rice. Washington, in the process, became Tatum’s next victim caught in the fire.


Becoming a byproduct — with a historically impressive output — of Steve Kerr’s incompetency as USA Basketball’s head coach and Tatum’s personal shooting woes from last postseason, so far, has been dangerous. It’s kept the Celtics locked in, not just from Opening Night, but from training camp and the preseason.

It’s only been two games, but a blemish has yet to appear.


“I think having the same mindset of we approach everything the same, we just try to get a little bit better,” Tatum explained, per NBC Sports Boston. “We’ve respected every opponent, we respected every practice day and I think it paid off in the end. It’s gonna be tougher this year, obviously. Human nature might play a part of — obviously cause what we did last year and having to fight that but I think we’re on the right track.”


Bob


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Celtics are just so good. Can you imagine if we have all our guns when KP is healthy?

JT looks so focused. I really think he's got a shot at MVP if can maintain this focus and stay healthy. JB also looks locked in. When your two best players are this focused, the sky is the limit.

As for the game, After Poole came back to earth it was a mismatch. I really liked the way Queta played. Big JV did bully him some, but he hung in there. I really like our three bigs off the bench. Kornet is solid and I love the X man. He hit a three last night and took all his threes with confidence. His size and strength are definitely assets. It's going to be interesting to see how much we miss KP when we play better teams, but I think these guys are giving us what is needed.

I can only find fault with having 14 turnovers.

JD had 3 but really just 2 because he let the game clock run out.  

Washington made every effort to limit our 3 point shot attempts and went with more one on one defensive coverages.  That strategy did not work out so well because the Jays dominated those matchups.  By the end of the game, the Celtics took a pedestrian 45 3 point shots making 17 and a very acceptable 37.8%.

Queta gave us some valuable minutes while scoring 12 points and grabbing 7 rebounds (4 offensive)  As a matter of fact, our center by committee grab bag combined for 24 points and 17 rebounds and AH went scoreless.  This is the way it is going to be until KP returns with his high octane offensive production.

Washington has their sights set on landing another quality draft pick in June so they will play the role of 'The Gnat' just buzzing around to annoy the competition.

The Celtics will play 6 of their first 10 games on the road.  Our next game will be on Saturday at Detroit.  The Pistons should be well motivated since JB said they could unleash PP on them for 30 points.

We have some very interesting matchups in this early portion of the season.  We play the Bucks at home, the the Pacers on the road followed by B2B games at Charlotte and a trip down here to the ATL.  Remember those 2 games down here in Atlanta last season?  GSW will be in Boston and everyone wants to see Kerr's best 12 man deep team in their history.  The Celtics will host the Nets to complete their first 10 games of the season.  

Game 11 will be @ the Bucks before the dreadful and so unnecessary  In-season tournament begins on November 12.