The Boston Celtics put up a valiant effort on Wednesday night against the Washington Wizards forcing the Wizards to double overtime before falling 125-124
Despite being down Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and Daniel Theis, the Boston Celtics were able to put up quite the fight against the Washington Wizards.
Boston was delegated to a starting unit of Terry Rozier, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris, Guershon Yabusele, and Aron Baynes. The depth behind the starters also had to step up with players like Abdel Nader seeing a massive uptick in playing time. With all this uncertainty the Celtics forced the Wizards to double overtime.
Morris had himself a monster game scoring 31 points with 50% shooting in 44:10 minutes of playing time. After Morris, you had guys like Rozier scoring 21 points and Tatum scoring 19. It was a team effort though with Greg Monroe, Shane Larkin, and Nader all scoring 10+ points off of the bench for Brad Stevens.
One of the go-to players late in the game was Tatum who at 19-years-old was asked to make a lot of big shots. The rookie wing had a chance to win it all for Boston at the end of the first overtime but missed a game-winning free throw that forced the game to go into double overtime.
Tatum also took the last shot of the game missing a three on a decent look. You can’t get too upset with Tatum because despite his shortcomings he made a lot of big plays for a rookie and was a huge playmaker for a team that was down multiple all-stars.
The C’s made their fair share of mistakes including one at the end of regulation when Morris have just let Otto Porter lay it in. This shortcoming was one that Steven’s acknowledged post-game but admitted the Celtics wouldn’t have even come close without Marcus Morris and his play.
“We wouldn’t have been there without him.”
Boston looks to get Horford back for Friday’s game and Irving back for Sunday’s game. So hopefully going forward the team won’t have to rely on bench players to step up. But for one night to keep it as close as they did with the Wizards was sort of impressive.
