What Ime Udoka Saw As ‘Bigger Picture’ In Celtics’ Loss Vs. Wizards

Another overtime game for the Boston Celtics, and a second-straight loss to the Washington Wizards.

But Saturday night’s 115-112 result in double overtime didn’t look as bad as the last one Wednesday — when even head coach Ime Udoka felt compelled to call them out.

But for what it’s worth, Udoka thought they responded to it. Despite an abysmal 7.7% shooting performance from deep, Boston’s defense looked better against Washington, even without Marcus Smart and Robert Williams.

The Celtics, in the first overtime, showed flashes of its best defense of the year.

“The big picture overall is that we defended extremely well,” Udoka said after the game. “Night-and-day effort wise from the other game. I mean, they scored less tonight in double-overtime then they did in regulation the other night so I felt like we played well defensively.

“We’ll live with those shots and then rely on our defense like we did tonight.”

Living with those shots will be hard to do.

Sure, Saturday night was especially bad, but Boston’s perimeter shooting hasn’t been great all year — if not further back than that.

Defensive-minded players Jaylen Brown and Josh Richardson led the effort much of the game, with great plays from Al Horford (six blocks). And from two-point range, at least, the Celtics were fine.

Boston falls to 2-4 on the season with another tough-test against the Chicago Bulls on Monday.