Team effort by Celtics, overcome Beal and Wizards 140-133

As the Celtics warmups took place in preparation to take the court against Isaiah Thomas and his Washington team for the first time this season, official word broke that both rotation bigs Robert Williams III and Daniel Theis would be unavailable for the clash. As such Enes Kanter was giving the start, his first since the opening game of the season in Philadelphia. With Theis out, the Cs sacrificed a bit of floor spacing and D, however Kanter is adept at creating second chance point attempts and carving out space in the key for offensive rebounds (3 rebs and 5 points in the first quarter).

Things were pretty open in the first quarter with both teams taking turns in the lead and Brad Stevens went to ten players seeing time and seven scorers in the opening 12 minutes. Jayson Tatum appeared to leave his shooting woes behind him pacing the Cs early with 10 points on 5-9 shooting. Tatum was in complete control with some outstanding footwork early in and around the key.

The Celtics went ultra small in the 2nd quarter with bench guard players Carsen Edwards, Brad Wanamaker and Marcus Smart all seeing time together, Brad Stevens rounded out the trio with Tatum and Grant Williams. With Smart and Williams on the floor at the same time both were impactful with Williams slapping the ball away as he was backed down in the low post and Marcus Smart challenged Wagner at the summit.

With Marcus Smarf AKA the Cobra AKA heart and soul leading the way on the defensive end, he then proceeded to bomb away from deep hitting on 3 big triples to see Boston hit the lead. A neat step back jumper from Jayson Tatum (15 point half) in the key and a Kemba Walker three pointer saw the Celtics edge in front by 2, 68-66 despite 19 first half points by Bradley Beal.

After a quiet 1st half, Jaylen Brown came out strong in the second half to storm into double figures scoring on 5 straight baskets. Boston as a team, went a perfect 10/10 from the field to start the 3rd as they extended a lead to over double digits. However Washington got hot and Boston got lazy as Bradley Beal pulled his team back into the game. Beal was doing whatever he wanted on the way to a game high 44 points.

Down the other end Carsen Edwards had his best game of the season with 18 points, 4/4 three, 4 rebounds and 2 assists in an efficient display through just 20 minutes of action.

In a big scoring affair, Boston would finish with a total of 11 scorers and 7 players in double figures. Tatum, Walker and Brown all tallied 20+ points for the win. Boston has now won 9 straight and travel west for a 5-game road trip, starting off Friday at Golden State.