Struggling Celtics capitalize on Wizards’ late turnovers
BOSTON — There was little about the Washington Wizards’ offense Friday night that could be described as crisp. The Wizards started the game by missing their first 10 shots and scored a mere 20 points in the opening quarter. Despite their poor shooting, the Wizards found themselves almost even with the reeling Boston Celtics in the fourth quarter — until turnovers replaced wayward shooting as the Wizards’ biggest problem.
Washington lost control of its possessions and then the game as the Celtics capitalized on a bad stretch of turnovers on their way to a 107-96 win.
Boston (38-25) ended the game on a 16-8 run and scored a pair of easy transition dunks during the stretch when Washington committed four-consecutive turnovers. The Wizards finished with 18 turnovers that led to 24 points. Combine that with a poor shooting night — 36-for-89 from the floor and 10-for-38 from the 3point arc — and Washington fell to 25-37.
“I thought turnovers were the difference,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “I thought we played a really solid defensive game against a team that’s loaded with a lot of talent and all-star players. But yeah, the turnovers. We gave them so many easy opportunities.”
When the offense did click, the ball was in Bradley Beal’s capable hands for a game-high 29 points. In the first quarter, Beal scored half of Washington’s 20 points. By halftime, he had more than the combined total of three Celtics starters (Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum). Midway through the third quarter, no other Wizards player besides Beal had made more than two shots.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Beal went to the bench to rest with 27 points — and he ended up as the only player in the game to surpass the 20-point threshold. By the time Beal returned, the Celtics finally decided to do something about the Beal problem, trapping him. Under pressure, Beal committed consecutive turnovers sandwiched between Jabari Parker turnovers.
In their only visit of the season to Boston, the Wizards arrived during a time that might go down as the worst stretch of the Celtics’ underachieving season. Entering Friday night, Boston had lost its four games since the all-star break. The season-high losing streak has generated more drama inside an already fragile locker room. Following the Celtics’ loss in Toronto on Tuesday night, Smart told reporters, “We’re just not on the same page, and that hurts.”
Irving could leave in free agency. Gordon Hayward’s return after breaking a leg last year has not followed the narrative of a brave and courageous comeback. And the young players who played beyond their years last season — Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier — have faded to the background too often. The Celtics have their share of issues. but Friday night they stopped the hemorrhaging.
“It feels good from that perspective,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “I thought we did some good things. I thought they kept coming, which is what they’ve been doing in every game they’ve been playing. I thought Beal was terrific, and we were much better defensively in the second half — and that probably was the best thing about it.”