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Another game, another disastrous first quarter dooming the Boston Celtics to a blowout loss. The Celtics were outscored, outrebounded, and outplayed in the first 12 minutes. Otto Porter joined Emmanuel Mudiay in the disturbing new “decent young player outscores the entire Celtics team in the first quarter” club. Isaiah Thomas was held scoreless in the quarter, and the team as a whole shot 19%. They were held to just 8 points in the opening frame. Being held to single digits is never good, but it’s especially bad when you give up 34 to the other team.
Facing a 26-point deficit, Boston quickly struck back in a second-quarter run led by Isaiah Thomas. The lead was cut to 16, but the Wizards answered with more of Wall and Porter.
Thomas and Bradley pulled the Celtics back within striking distance at the end of the half though with their playmaking. Boston clawed back to cut the lead down to 15. Despite this second-quarter effort, the Celtics failed to gain any ground in the second half.
Second-chance opportunities were an issue all game, and it showed in the third quarter. Boston had possessions with solid defense, only to give up costly offensive rebounds. On one particularly ugly play, Otto Porter somehow came down with the board going against all five Celtic defenders. Porter continued to dominate the Celtics with his scoring too, ending the third with 26 points.
While the third quarter was largely a train wreck, Marcus Smart was excellent. He dropped 18 points by himself, with some nice shooting from deep. Despite Smart’s huge quarter, the Celtics trailed by 20 heading into the fourth.
The most eventful part of the fourth quarter was the ruckus between Smart and Wall. Wall—for some reason still in the game up 20 with 5 minutes left—committed a needlessly hard foul on Smart. They both jawed at each other and were separated by teammates. Wall was hit with a flagrant 2 and ejected, while Smart got whistled for a technical. An ugly end to an ugly game for the Celtics.