In the Celtics five losses this season, there’s been one statistical anomaly that’s buried their effort. On Opening Night, fouls and three-point defense led to a one-point loss to Philly. Twenty-one offensive rebounds fueled the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. The defensive glass was again a problem vs. the Pistons. The Rockets hit 65.5% of their 29 threes. And on Monday night, Boston hit just 11-of-51 from behind the arc.
For the most part, none of that happened against Washington on Wednesday night in the Celtics 136-107 blowout of the Wizards.
To open the game, some of that cold shooting carried over against the visiting Wizards. The Celtics missed their first eight 3-point attempts before Josh Minott hit back-t0-back triples to close the first quarter. Had it not been for Jaylen Brown’s 16 points (7-of-11 from primarily the mid-range again), Boston would have been down more than 37-26 after one.
The second quarter was one of those twelve-minutes-of-perfect-Celtics-basketball that Joe Mazzulla sees this squad capable of on a consistent basis led by Derrick White and Payton Pritchard. Pritchard, who played less than three minutes in the first because two early fouls, hit 6-of-9 including two threes. White added another two triples to contribute to a 70-60 halftime lead as the pair look to get out of their early season shooting slumps.
If the first half was dominated by Boston’s stars, the second half was owned by the supporting cast. Alley-oops from Josh Minott, Jordan Walsh generating turnovers, and timely shooting from Sam Hauser and Anfernee Simons pushed the lead to as much as 33 points as the Celtics ended their two-game losing streak. Brown continued his strong play, didn’t play in the final frame, and finished the game with 35 points in 25 minutes.
Minott had a season and career-high with 21 points in his sixth straight start. Neemias Queta was solid again with a 12 & 15 double-double, making all seven of his field goal attempts.
The Celtics now head out to Orlando for a mini-series on Friday and Sunday against the 3-5 Magic who they eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last spring. They wrap up their road trip with another game in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
