Celtics 136, Wizards 107

 

Hooray! The Celtics bounce back from back-to-back losses, including their frustrating 105-103 loss to Utah, with a 29-point win over the Washington Wizards (1-7), the worst team¹ in the NBA. 

The less said the better about the slow start in the first quarter, when the Wizards outscored Boston,  37-26. Let's focus instead on the positive: Jaylen Brown almost singlehandedly carried the Celts through that first quarter, scoring 16 of the team's 26 points, and finished the game with 36 points overall. He sat out the fourth quarter because Boston built up a big enough lead to play the bench, and he became the first Celtics player ever and just the fifth in NBA history to post 35 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in fewer than 26 minutes. The only two players who reached 35/5/5 in fewer minutes were Michael Jordan and Luka Doncic. 

Josh Minott had 21 points and Payton Pritchard, 18. Neemias Queta had a double double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Overall, the Celtics finished the evening with 28 defensive rebounds and 12 offensive boards and improved on three-point shooting, hitting 39% - only a half dozen teams in the NBA have higher average percentages than that.

At 4-5 on the season, Boston is in fourth place in the Atlantic, but only 1½ back from Philly and the Knicks. They head down to Florida to play a pair against the Orlando Magic (3-5), one game Friday night and the other Sunday at 6:00 pm.     

¹ To be fair to the Wizards, the Brooklyn Nets are 1-7, too, so Washington's tied for "worst team in the NBA."