Celtics shoot lights out in 144-102 win over Washington

Ime Udoka, ever on the alert for slippage, was alarmed by the return of some bad habits over the three preceding games, including Friday night’s win over Indiana.

Another high-scoring opponent checked in Sunday — the Wizards have increased their scoring since the arrival of Kristaps Porzingis at the trade deadline — but as the Celtics discovered, the other end of the floor was wide open. They broke the 30-point barrier in all four quarters.

The Celtics took their second straight with a 144-102 win over the light-defending Wizards. Jaylen Brown scored an easy 32 on 12-for-17 shooting, with six other Celtics also reaching double figures, including 22 from Jayson Tatum.

The Celtics strung together quarters of 35, 35 and 34 points on their way to a 104-79 lead while shooting at a 60.3% clip. If the gap wasn’t wide enough already, the Celtics blew it open thereafter by opening the fourth with a 20-2 run that included two 3-pointers each from Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard, another from Derrick White, and a three-point play from Brown.

Brown checked out for good at that stage, with the game in hand.

The Celtics built a 70-59 halftime lead, with Brown’s 19-point half leading both sides, shooting 63.6% on the way to their 11-point lead, and boosted the margin early in the third with a 10-0 run for their first 20-point lead at 80-60.

The flow continued, through 3-pointers from Horford, Brown, Tatum and White, the last for a 95-72 edge with 3:03 left in the third quarter. Horford buried another bomb for a 100-76 edge, on the way to a 104-79 lead by the end of the quarter.

Brown’s 13-point first quarter — he’s back to getting this team off to fast starts — got the Celtics on their way to a rather effortless 35-22 first quarter lead.

Longtime Celtics killer Ish Smith checked in with his usual scoring mayhem, but with the Celtics scoring at a 65% clip, the Wizards had trouble breaking inside a 10-point margin.

Williams’ second three of the day triggered a 13-4 run for a 63-47 lead, on the way to the 70-59 halftime edge.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/9qZLI07