“Profitable ugly” is usually a phrase used when a workforce doesn’t statistically play nicely however nonetheless manages to combat 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 sport was the polar reverse of all the things we noticed from them on Opening Night time. They lacked power, the ball didn’t transfer, they usually 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’ll thank Jayson Tatum for that, as he received off to a different scorching begin on this one with 14 first-quarter factors.
After one other interval, the Cs have been taking pictures simply 46.7% from the sector (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 a bit of little bit of a (low), simply due to coming off of such a excessive,” Joe Mazzulla stated of his workforce’s lackluster begin. “The emotion was going to take us a short time to settle in… It simply took us a short time 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 way in which as much as 32 factors.
Positive, there’s a layer to this the place Washington is simply an objectively unhealthy NBA workforce. Boston nonetheless adjusted their depth on the fly, made higher selections, and performed to their strengths.
From the highest down, the squad did an excellent 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 power off of Boston’s bench. He tallied 12 factors and 7 boards in 14 minutes.
Mazzulla credited the massive man after the win, reminding reporters that he was a key contributor in just a few totally 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 taking part in.
— Bobby Manning (@RealBobManning) October 25, 2024
Hear, this isn’t the kind of win that you simply’ll be telling your youngsters or grandkids about sometime. However, it was an excellent instance of how Boston performs and works finest as a workforce. They parlayed Queta’s hustle and nice power with higher ball motion and extra concentrated protection to vary all the course of this sport.
Boston’s star pairing of Tatum and Jaylen Brown (completely happy birthday) had their respective moments, too, however there’s something really satisfying about seeing a workforce come collectively and collectively determine to play the best approach to take management.
It was additionally a special form of particular to look at Wizards not named Jordan Poole shoot a mixed 1-25 from past the arc.
