After the last game in this brutal series, I didn’t want to watch or talk about basketball for, like, a while. And I don’t really want to right now, either! But to be fair, these contests between the Washington Wizards and Boston Celtics have gone the way of the regular season: The home team wins, usually in humiliating fashion. And home-court advantage belongs to the Cs. So let’s not cry too much about this one…ah hell. IT WAS GODAWFUL.
THE GAME FLOW
The early offensive ineptitude of the Celtics on the Wizards’ home court continues unabated and frankly remains inexplicable. Wizards are good, sometimes very good–but D isn’t their strength at all and somehow they’re playing fairly well on that side at home. This allowed them an early start solely off of disgusting midrange jumpers (AKA Randy Wittman and John Wall’s favorite shot; #sorrynotsorry). Boston bounced back, thankfully, with a 9-point run, making this the first Q1 in which they haven’t been massively behind for the whole series.
And then…and then…Boston was leading, even though said lead lasted about 4 possessions, maybe 5. Whatever. The Cs looked better than they have since the second half of Game 2, and the Wiz couldn’t contain Isaiah Thomas the way they did in Game 3. There appeared to be a clear realization among our heroes that they’d unequivocally embarrassed themselves last time around, and effort was evident all around in that first frame–which ended with a small but welcome 24-20 Boston lead.
Seemingly well aware of how fickle any advantage has been in this series, the Cs came charging out for the second quarter and added 6 quick points. And then 5 more due to Kelly Olynyk being uncharacteristically coordinated on a charging dunk and subsequent 3-point-play layup. On the Wiz side, Otto Porter and Bradley Beal continued their deadeye accuracy, but John Wall couldn’t buy a shot and nor could any other of their starters or reserves. D.C. led in rebounds, but not by much, and even when they managed a brief run Boston immediately recovered. One key difference: Washington couldn’t interrupt Boston’s ball movement the way they had quite thoroughly in Game 3, and this time were winning the booby prize in turnovers (9 to Boston’s 6 in the first half).
Wall began to emerge from his offensive coma in the quarter’s last few minutes just as the Celtics offense got logjammed. Luckily for the Cs, he only managed to briefly regain the lead for his squad and Al Horford went on a mini-run to retie it at 48–just before the Wizards had a chance to grab a halftime lead and blew it when Marcin Gortat failed to tip in an offensive rebound. (After that he seemed to grab at his head in frustration like he hoped he could tear his hair out, which is odd, because he has none, except for on his weirdly jutting chin.)
Q3 began with an Amir Johnson drive and subsequent free throws, which he made, and this is not a sentence I expected to type during the second round. Nor is “and then he made a three”–wide open or not, that’s kinda hysterical. (Not that I’m complaining.) Wall, Beal and Markieff Morris responded with a series of made jumpers to retake the lead for D.C., and the team’s bigs began to throttle Isaiah’s drives whenever he could get them.
Then the wheels fell off the goddamn cart with a 26-0 Wizards run. No, I didn’t mistype. The Celtics coughed up the ball 8 times within that run–about 7 minutes in length–alone, and now my stomach hurts, and it’s not because of the green curry I just made. It didn’t get much better, and a game once tied now lay in the hands of D.C. with a 20-point lead at Q3’s end. No one looked good or aggressive except for stretches of play by Marcus Smart and Olynyk, and it didn’t help that the Wiz benefited from a fair amount of ticky-tack fouls.
Boston has had crazier comebacks, but usually over the course of a half, not a quarter, and being down 21 with 9 minutes to go would be a tall order for any team not named the Golden State Warriors. The only hope left was Wizards coach Scott Brooks leaving his bench in for too long. Sadly, this is not really a thing Scott Brooks does, because while he’s not smart enough to actually devise anything but the simplest plays, he is smart enough to know his starters, who are excellent together, are all he’s got. Terry Rozier and Jaylen Brown provided signs of life, but they didn’t mean much. Brad was resting every starter. (Brooks was not, for reasons previously stated, which Celtics fans would hope is a harbinger of future exhaustion on their part.) The bench mob played out the string, and shit got wrapped up with a hideous 102-121 loss. Jesus Christ.
Let me count the ways: Amir Johnson starting again despite being fairly cooked. TURNOVERS, which reappeared with a vengeance after the team established decent ball control in the first half. Bullshit calls (though to be fair Wall should’ve gotten a few that he didn’t as well). REBOUNDING, LACK OF, which returned after finally seeming to work in the Bulls series and the first two games. I’m gonna have some gin now.
Nice shot-fake-turned-overhead-pass by Al to Amir.
Al finds Amir for the easy jam 💪 https://t.co/UVxhdgfj2e
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 7, 2017
From the 1st half, in which he was very Good, before the 2nd half happened.
IT picks off the pass and finishes on the other end. ☘️ https://t.co/BudAgDXrlu
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 7, 2017
THE GRID
Isaiah Thomas: 19-1-5 with 6 turnovers for a -30. Yikes.
Al Horford: 11-5-5-2-1 and only two turnovers…but somehow a -36???? Double yikes.
Terry Rozier: Mostly in garbage time, but hey, he looked good, so he gets the Recap Podium Treatment. 16-7-1 for a +16.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
