“Profitable ugly” is often a phrase used when a group doesn’t statistically play nicely however nonetheless manages to battle their approach to a W anyway. The Boston Celtics’ 122-102 win over the Washington Wizards was ugly.
It was additionally a whomping.
Often, you don’t get to see each issues without delay, however I suppose that it’s #DifferentHere.
Boston’s begin to this recreation was the polar reverse of every little thing we noticed from them on Opening Evening. They lacked vitality, the ball didn’t transfer, and so they discovered themselves in a battle with the Jordan Poole-led Wizards.
Regardless of all of that, they nonetheless completed the opening body with a one-point lead over the hosts. They will thank Jayson Tatum for that, as he obtained off to a different sizzling begin on this one with 14 first-quarter factors.
After one other interval, the Cs have been taking pictures simply 46.7% from the sphere (not the worst, however not nice by their requirements) and had turned the ball over six occasions, which was double their complete on Tuesday.
“I anticipated somewhat little bit of a (low), simply due to coming off of such a excessive,” Joe Mazzulla mentioned of his group’s lackluster begin. “The emotion was going to take us a short while to settle in… It simply took us a short while to get acclimated to the pace of the sport.”
Oh yeah, and their lead was in double digits on the break.
As soon as play resumed, it continued to develop all the best way as much as 32 factors.
Certain, there’s a layer to this the place Washington is simply an objectively unhealthy NBA group. Boston nonetheless adjusted their depth on the fly, made higher selections, and performed to their strengths.
From the highest down, the squad did an important job of pounding the offensive glass, the place they completed the sport with 19 second-chance factors on 12 offensive rebounds.
4 of these got here from Neemias Queta, who introduced nice vitality off of Boston’s bench. He tallied 12 factors and 7 boards in 14 minutes.
Mazzulla credited the large man after the win, reminding reporters that he was a key contributor in a couple of completely different wins final season.
He wasn’t the one one, both. Cs guard Derrick White shouted Queta out too, saying that it felt like he grabbed “each offensive rebound.”
White says Queta “appears to get each offensive rebound.”
Noticed him considering an excessive amount of final yr and now he is simply enjoying.
— Bobby Manning (@RealBobManning) October 25, 2024
Pay attention, this isn’t the kind of win that you simply’ll be telling your children or grandkids about sometime. However, it was an important instance of how Boston performs and works finest as a group. They parlayed Queta’s hustle and nice vitality with higher ball motion and extra concentrated protection to alter your complete course of this recreation.
Boston’s star pairing of Tatum and Jaylen Brown (completely satisfied birthday) had their respective moments, too, however there’s something actually satisfying about seeing a group come collectively and collectively resolve to play the appropriate approach to take management.
It was additionally a distinct form of particular to observe Wizards not named Jordan Poole shoot a mixed 1-25 from past the arc.
