The Boston Celtics win their second game in a row with a 112-98 victory over the Washington Wizards in the nation’s capital.
Boston got off to a strong start taking an 11-point lead into the second quarter thanks to Jayson Tatum’s 11-point quarter to give Boston a 34-23 lead.
Kristaps Porzings was back in the starting lineup and he was another player who was aggressive to start the game scoring seven points on 3-of-4 shooting and dishing out two assists.
Unfortunately for Porzingis, he exited the game in the second quarter and did not return. Porzinigs finished the game with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting against his former team. The health report stated it was right heel pain. Hopefully, the injury isn’t a long-term one.
Boston extended its lead to 15 after another 30+ point quarter, scoring 33 points to lead Washington 67-52.
Jayson Tatum played as if he knew he was the best player on the court. Finishing with 28 points and 12 rebounds making it his fourth straight game with a double-double.
Jayson Tatum tallies his 4th consecutive double-double to lead the @celtics to their 5th win in 6 games!
Payton Pritchard: 15 PTS, 11 REB, 6 AST, 5 3PM
Derrick White: 15 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST, 2 STL, 2 BLK pic.twitter.com/kpSDqd56FW— NBA (@NBA) December 16, 2024
The Wizards didn’t win a single quarter Sunday evening in a game that saw seven different Celtics players score 10+ points.
Payton Pritchard continued to rain in threes as the leading candidate for sixth man of the year poured in 15 points with all of them coming behind the arc. Pritchard played the most minutes on the team (34) and had a +/- of +17.
Pritchard made history during the game as he connected on his 100th three of the season. He broke Kemba Walker’s record as the fastest Celtic to reach 100 threes in a season. Kemba’s record was 27 games during the 2019-2020 season.
Payton Pritchard has reached 100 3-pointers faster than any player in Celtics history to start a season, reaching that mark in 26 games.
Just broke Kemba Walker’s record of 100 3s in the first 27 games of the 19-20 season.
One major difference: PP’s done it all off the bench. pic.twitter.com/lsIkgXOuvc
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) December 16, 2024
As Taylor Snow pointed out in his tweet, Pritchard has come off the bench this season which is impressive considering most bench players do not have the luxury to shoot as much as Pritchard does. Pritchard this season is shooting 43.2% from deep.
Sam Hauser was another player who scored all of his points from the three-point line as the former Virginia Cavalier made four of his 10 attempted threes.
The second half was more of the same for Boston as the Wizards couldn’t stop them.
Jaylen Brown had a quiet night going 4-for-14 from the floor for just 11 points, but he did have three steals as he was active on the defensive end. Brown said during Media Day this season that the Celtics against lower opposition teams (he specifically referenced the Pistons) can allow their bench guys like Pritchard to run the offense and play through them, and besides Tatum, that’s what Boston did.
The win moves Boston to 21-5 on the season, while the Wizards crash to just 3-21. the Celtics will have another break as they don’t hit the courts until Thursday when they take on the Bulls.
