But as dazzling as the offense was, the team’s stellar defense can’t be overlooked for causing turnovers that created easy transition opportunities.
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“We just don’t have the commitment to defend and play the way that we have to play”, coach Randy Wittman said.
“They dared [Sullinger] to make baskets”. Stagnancy is not the way to snap out of a three-game losing streak.
“I’ll play how the game is going”, Stevens said. They were connected and comfortable, and the shots that had been so errant suddenly became so accurate.
In the third quarter, the Wizards (3-2) showed a few signs of life.
This is exactly how the Celtics have hoped to play offensively.
Hard to know to begin with last night’s first half – a stretch of game that has plagued this team over the first four games of the season. It’s plays like this that give us a friendly reminder of just how valuable Wall is to the Wizards and of the incredible things that he’s capable of doing at any given moment in any given game. The Wizards never threatened the rest of the way.
Four players finished with 16 or more points, including 21 from Jared Sullinger, arguably their best player over the first five games, and 19 off the bench from Kelly Olynyk. It is a style that players readily lobbied for after the game. “I guess that’s disrespect”, Celtics swingman Jae Crowder said.
Coming into the night, there was uncertainty. Bradley had two. And they didn’t even have Smart, who missed his second-consecutive game with a sprained toe.
Stevens called a timeout just 88 seconds into Boston’s bout with Washington after the C’s fell behind 6-2 early on.
The Celtics need to look at this Wizards game as a standard for them in the future.
“We were lucky to respond the way we did”, Stevens said.
It marked the first time since January of 2010 that the Celtics had scored at least 70 points in a half.
In the first quarters of the last two losses, the Celtics had scored 29 points combined.
Instead, with Smart on the bench, and Wall and Beal initially taking their defenders off the dribble three straight times, the Celtics uncorked their biggest quarter of the season with a 40-25 lead after 12 minutes.
The Celtics made it clear they are not hitting the panic button just yet on their slow start to the year. We went through the motions tonight and that’s a disappointing [thing] less than 10 days into the season.
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For the Celtics, the contributions came from a variety of sources. The lead was down to 14 but Boston hit its first six 3-point attempts of the quarter – two each by guard Avery Bradley and forwards Jared Sullinger and Olynyk – to keep the Wizards from getting too close. More details will emerge later, but he hurt himself driving for a fast-break layup with a bit more than three minutes left. They were slow in their defensive rotations, which resulted in 12 Celtics three-pointers, and were bodied on the boards, 53-45.
