Rapid Recap: Not an afternoon delight – Celtics drop to .500 in loss to Wizards

NBA: Boston Celtics at Washington Wizards

Rapid Recap is designed for the busiest of Celtics fans. Whether you can’t stay awake to read 10 paragraphs or your hangover is just too much, Rapid Recap tells the timeline of the game in only a minute or two.

The Celtics have been terrible in afternoon start times this season, and that trend continued today with an embarrassing road loss to the Wizards, 104-91 – a game that was not as close as the final score. The Celtics are now a .500 team, with a 13-13 record.

The Cs were flat and did virtually nothing right all day. They shot poorly (35.6%, and just 9-35 on threes) and couldn’t get stops without fouling (Wizards were 31-36 at the line). They registered 14 assists while Washington had 24.

Bradley Beal got every shot he wanted on the way to 35 points. The Celtics got 25 points each from Jaylen Brown (11-21 FGs) and Kemba Walker (9-18, including 4 threes). It was Kemba’s best offensive game this season. But Jayson Tatum was in foul trouble all day and finished with a brutal 6 points on 3-14 shooting.

This lackluster performance came against a team that at 6-17 had the worst record in the East, and whose defense allows a league-worst 120.3 points per game.

On to the Twitter recap.

Celtics haven’t won an afternoon game yet.

Solid early Aaron Nesmith minutes as Brad Stevens again tinkered with rotations.

Good news.

After 12 minutes…

Some comedy from Russ.

With 8:16 left in the second, Tatum picked up his third foul and the Celtics were in penalty.

Shooting was also a challenge.

Fortunately, Kemba remained a bright spot.

At halftime, the deficit had grown to a dozen points. Except for Kemba and Jaylen, there was very little spark.

Third quarter and the wheels started to come off. Theis left with a sprained finger (he was able to return), and…

Just to break up the monotony, here’s Timelord’s one highlight.

https://twitter.com/efraincarmelo/status/1361035118232686592?s=20

Boston was down 24 (!) midway in the quarter when their 11-1 run gave us hope — but it was a mirage.

Box score

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