Three Studs, Three Duds After Celtics Swiftly Breeze Past Wizards
Alex Sarr, meet Jayson Tatum
Fresh off an emotional, eventful and dominant banner-raising celebration to begin the season at TD Garden, the Boston Celtics got right back to work against the Washington Wizards with a 122-102 win at Capital One Arena on Thursday night.
The Celtics weren’t chasing records, collecting rings or welcoming back some old friends as the team flipped the page and refocused. Boston attempted 45 3-pointers and connected on 37.8% of them, using a more versatile offensive style of play to put the Wizards away well ahead of the final buzzer and notch the second straight 20-plus-point Celtics victory.
Here are three studs and three duds from Boston’s first trip to the nation’s capital:
STUDS
Jayson Tatum (obviously)
Another night in the office, another double-double performance from Tatum.
Tatum made a statement on Banner Night and even though the Wizards aren’t positioned to contend with the Celtics, the 26-year-old isn’t slowing down yet. Washington had nothing for Tatum defensively, and just like he did to the New York Knicks on Tuesday, Tatum put on a spooky showing a week before Halloween to keep the rest of the league at bay moving forward.
Boston’s five-time All-Star finished with 25 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field with 11 rebounds and six assists in 29 minutes.
Payton Pritchard
Opening Night was a slow start for Pritchard (three points on 1-of-10 shooting), but a short-lived slump nonetheless.
Pritchard found his rhythm and contributed a reserve unit-leading 15 points along with nailing five 3-pointers in 26 minutes off the bench. He got right back into the preseason form that made the undersized guard one of Boston’s standout performers entering the regular season. Pritchard shot 21-of-43 (48.8%) from three through five Celtics preseason contests, and in Washington, he even drilled a half-court heave that nearly beat the third-quarter buzzer.
No need to worry. “Preseason P” has officially arrived.
Boston’s defense
Washington didn’t face the punishment of Boston (convincingly) chasing the NBA’s all-time record for most threes made in a game. However, that only helped the Wizards so much because the Celtics still did their part in tallying three straight 30-plus-point quarters to grant Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla the flexibility to rest Tatum for the entirety of the fourth quarter, again, and unload the bench.
The Celtics did such a good job that three different season debuts were made in the fourth quarter: Baylor Scheierman, Jaden Springer and Drew Peterson. It also opened the door for Boston to outscore Washington, 58-24, from 5:20 left in the second quarter to 10:30 left in the fourth quarter.
The Wizards, on the other hand, committed 13 turnovers, shot 19.4% from three (7-for-36) and got outrebounded, 49-40. Another win on the margins for Mazzulla.
MORE CELTICS
DUDS
Alex Sarr
The second overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft learned a valuable lesson: when defending Tatum, pray for the very best.
Sarr received a first-hand masterclass seat, for free, watching Tatum welcome the 19-year-old to the NBA in a ruthless fashion. It’s not hard to imagine Tatum’s mission-continuing presentation took a toll on Sarr considering the 7-footer contributed nothing on the other end of the floor, ending the night with a measly two points on 1-of-7 shooting with five rebounds. Sarr was a minus-24 rating in 22 minutes, giving Washington head coach Brian Keefe no reason to keep him on the floor.
It wasn’t a pretty or memorable debut for Sarr, by any means.
Kyle Kuzma
Remember when Los Angeles Lakers fans thought Kuzma had a chance to be better than Tatum coming out of the 2017 NBA draft? Yeah, Kuzma doesn’t either.
The 29-year-old Wizards co-star was an inefficient offensive liability. He scored a modest 12 points, but shot 6-of-16 from the floor and missed all five 3-point attempts. Kuzma also collected just two rebounds, tallied one assist and got outperformed by every Celtics starter in terms of efficiency, including Al Horford, who scored zero points but logged a plus-14 rating to Kuzma’s minus-18.
Wizards fans sitting courtside
Not once, but twice Wizards staffers needed to rush courtside to clean up a game-delaying beer spill. From afar, it looked as though Washington’s frustrated attendees resorted to desperate measures to stop Tatum’s red-hot touch, but of course, it didn’t work.
Moving forward, the Wizards should consider implementing a one-spill limit to prevent any future Jason Kidd-inspired disasters. The second spill occurred midway through the third quarter, when Tatum had reached 25 points and Boston took a 25-point lead heading into the final frame.
Do better, Washington — on and off the floor.
