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topicnews · October 25, 2024

The Celtics continued their dominant start with a win over the Wizards

The Celtics continued their dominant start with a win over the Wizards

Celtics

Washington Wizards guard Jordan Poole (left) is knocked off the ball by Celtics guard Jrue Holiday in the second half. AP Photo/John McDonnell

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

Here are the snack bars.

1. The Wizards stayed tough for most of the first half and were especially boosted in the first quarter by Jordan Poole, who started 5-for-6 from behind the arc and scored 17 points in the first 12 minutes.

But even early on, with Poole raining three points, Thursday’s game never really felt in doubt. There may not have been a team in recent memory as capable as the Celtics of making a good showing on every single possession through ball movement or obvious superior talent and mismatches, and the Wizards began to lose their control in the second quarter when Jayson Tatum The Celtics had a lead of 10 at halftime.

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

The Celtics will face teams that are better equipped to run their offense than the Knicks, and they will certainly face teams that can play them harder than the lowly Wizards, who will likely compete for the chance to sign Cooper Flagg.

But if there’s one thing we can probably leave in the past forever, it’s the idea that the Celtics automatically play down to the level of an inferior opponent. There will be off-nights and out-of-character appearances here and there, but the Celtics know who they are and how to look their best. The Wizards, on the other hand, probably know exactly where they are heading this season.

2. Tatum pulled ahead with 2:40 left in the third quarter and never had to stop his warmups again. After his extremely efficient 37-point opener, he scored 25 points on 9-for-20 shooting and 3-for-11 from distance. If the Wizards had kept the game a little closer, Tatum might have posted a triple-double: He added 11 rebounds and six assists to his total.

Tatum’s odds weren’t as eye-catching as they were on Tuesday night, but the shot still looked comfortable overall, and he spent most of the first half playing with Wizards rookie Alex Sarr, who had to repeatedly attempt his return jumpers defended with very little success.

We’re only two games into the season, so we don’t need to talk about Tatum in depth just yet. Instead, let’s just note that in the two games so far, Tatum has been moving like a weight is off his shoulders. The game looks effortless – he glides through pick-and-rolls, trusts his teammates, attacks the rim with power and confidence, and shoots 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 break at the start of the second quarter.

An interesting note from Celtics statistician Dick Lipe about this 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 a bit in the second half, Brown was more than capable of closing the gap with multiple faceoff ball buckets in the paint and one of the more over-the-top “not enough” celebrations you’ll ever see after coming through Contact scored, more than made up for by Jordan Poole. His two 3-pointers at the start of the fourth quarter underscored a period of dominance that tested the final 12 minutes of the game.

5. Payton Pritchard shot 1 of 10 in the opener, but if you’re worried his 3-point shot is letting him down, rest assured he’ll be fine: He finished Thursday’s game 5 of 10 from the field the distance with 15 points.

These numbers would have been even better if he had had a split second more time to shoot at the end of the third quarter: To the delight of Celtics fans, Pritchard took an inbounds pass at three-quarter court and threw it the full length of the playing field, out of the glass and in.

Officers didn’t need to check whether he made it or not because he only had 0.2 seconds to shoot, which isn’t long enough to collect it. However, Pritchard is still the king of full-court shots.

6. Xavier Tillman’s 3-point percentage remains a schematic to watch, 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 as he and the rest of the Celtics’ bench took the lead with the game well in hand. Scheierman also nearly hit a very deep 3-pointer, and he finished with four points after smoking a potential one-goal attempt but making both free throws.

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

9. The Celtics now travel to Detroit to face the Pistons on Saturday before returning to TD Garden for a showdown against the Bucks on Monday.

We will offer more snacks later in the evening.

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