C’s lose bad blood bath
Blowout includes ejections
WASHINGTON — This time, the Celtics actually paid for their season-long habit of bad starts against the Wizards.
In a game decided by the end of the first quarter, they lost Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals to Washington last night, 11689. The Celtics’ series lead was cut to 2-1, and neither team has won on the other’s floor this season.
The Wizards are averaging 39.6 points in the first quarter after last night’s 39-17 start, fleshed out by a debilitating 22-0 run that knocked the Celtics into an inescapable hole.
The current pattern, as they say, isn’t sustainable.
“Just coming out with more urgency. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s true,” Avery Bradley said. “We came out kind of cool, and they won the jump ball and attacked us right away. We have to do a better job defending those guys consistently.”
They weren’t cool for long, though.
The snarky nature of this rivalry carried on with eight technical fouls in Game 3, including ejections for Washington’s Kelly Oubre Jr. and Brandon Jennings and the Celtics’ Terry Rozier — the latter two after a pair of confrontations in the fourth quarter. The bad feeling spilled to the sideline, as coaches Brad Stevens and Scott Brooks earned technicals for separate complaints. In Stevens’ case, perhaps the complaint was about the horrid performance by his team.
Oubre was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul, the cost for shoving Kelly Olynyk to the floor in the second quarter following a hard pick by the Celtics big man.
Considering the ill will that has spread between these two teams the past two seasons, both sides have every right to expect this tenor will continue.
“We don’t like them, and they don’t like us. That’s just what it is,” Isaiah Thomas said. “Two teams competing. Whatever bad blood we’ve had in the season, it’s carried over to the playoffs. We’re just competing and trying to win, and they did that today. We took care of business at home. Now we just have to try to get Game 4.”
Gerald Green, who returned to the starting lineup without much success last night, amplified Thomas’ point when he shouted, “We’re going to beat their ass in Game 4.”
Last night, though, the reverse was true.
Thomas struggled with 13 points on 3-for-8 shooting as a follow-up to his 53-point explosion in Game 2, but he wasn’t alone among the missing. Al Horford (16 points, two rebounds, three assists), Bradley (seven points, 3-for-8) and Marcus Smart (nine points, eight turnovers) did not have good nights.
But it was preordained by Washington’s ability to once again land the first punch, in this case for a knockout.
“That’s the whole game. We talked about how we can’t go down big early. That’s what happened,” said Jae Crowder (14 points, seven rebounds), one of the few Celtics with a decent night. “They were the most aggressive team. We got down early and fought from behind the rest of the way.
“We’ve got to match it. It’s the playoffs, and the home team has been the most physical team. We were the most physical team at home, and the tables turned today.”
The takeaway is equally simple.
“Still the same game plan for who we want to attack, but it’s having a different mindset moving on to Game 4, imposing our will earlier in the game and not playing from behind,” Crowder said. “It’s about adjusting your mindset.”
Bradley admits maintaining composure has to be part of that mindset.
“You have to be physical but smart at the same time,” the guard said. “That’s the type of team we need to be. That’s how the best teams are. They don’t let teams get them out of their game plan. That’s what happened tonight. We lost composure a little bit. . . . Hats off to those guys. They played basketball the right way.”