Celtics managed a rare ‘ugly’ 20-point win

“Successful ugly” is usually a phrase used when a staff doesn’t statistically play effectively however nonetheless manages to battle their option to a W anyway. The Boston Celtics’ 122-102 win over the Washington Wizards was ugly.

It was additionally a whomping.

Normally, you don’t get to see each issues without delay, however I suppose that it’s #DifferentHere.

Boston’s begin to this sport was the polar reverse of every part we noticed from them on Opening Evening. They lacked vitality, the ball didn’t transfer, and so they discovered themselves in a battle with the Jordan Poole-led Wizards.

Regardless of all of that, they nonetheless completed the opening body with a one-point lead over the hosts. They’ll thank Jayson Tatum for that, as he acquired off to a different sizzling begin on this one with 14 first-quarter factors.

After one other interval, the Cs had been capturing simply 46.7% from the sphere (not the worst, however not nice by their requirements) and had turned the ball over six occasions, which was double their whole on Tuesday.

“I anticipated a little bit little bit of a (low), simply due to coming off of such a excessive,” Joe Mazzulla mentioned of his staff’s lackluster begin. “The emotion was going to take us a short time to settle in… It simply took us a short time to get acclimated to the pace of the sport.”

Oh yeah, and their lead was in double digits on the break.

As soon as play resumed, it continued to develop all the best way as much as 32 factors.

Certain, there’s a layer to this the place Washington is simply an objectively dangerous NBA staff. Boston nonetheless adjusted their depth on the fly, made higher selections, and performed to their strengths.

From the highest down, the squad did an amazing job of pounding the offensive glass, the place they completed the sport with 19 second-chance factors on 12 offensive rebounds.

4 of these got here from Neemias Queta, who introduced nice vitality off of Boston’s bench. He tallied 12 factors and 7 boards in 14 minutes.

Mazzulla credited the large man after the win, reminding reporters that he was a key contributor in a number of totally different wins final season.

He wasn’t the one one, both. Cs guard Derrick White shouted Queta out too, saying that it felt like he grabbed “each offensive rebound.”

Pay attention, this isn’t the kind of win that you simply’ll be telling your youngsters or grandkids about sometime. However, it was an amazing instance of how Boston performs and works greatest as a staff. They parlayed Queta’s hustle and nice vitality with higher ball motion and extra concentrated protection to alter the whole course of this sport.

Boston’s star pairing of Tatum and Jaylen Brown (comfortable birthday) had their respective moments, too, however there’s something actually satisfying about seeing a staff come collectively and collectively resolve to play the suitable option to take management.

It was additionally a unique sort of particular to look at Wizards not named Jordan Poole shoot a mixed 1-25 from past the arc.