BOSTON — The Washington Wizards are who they are. And the Boston Celtics are the better basketball team. But still, Saturday night gave Boston a perfect chance to hit the reset button after a disappointing two-game losing streak against the best of the West.
Saturday started with Neemias Queta, continued with Jayson Tatum, and ended with a scare. But Boston hung on to earn a 111-100 victory at TD Garden.
So, how did it all go down?
1. Neemias Queta’s first half
The first half was all about Queta. He could do no wrong.
Queta had eight points in the first three minutes of the game. Boston’s ball-handlers consistently found him rolling to the rim, largely because the Wizards just didn’t guard him.
Washington clearly wanted to pressure the Celtics’ stars. They threw multiple bodies at Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and even Derrick White. Whoever had the ball in their hands was going to see two Wizards jerseys coming at them, and Alex Sarr was almost always the one doubling.
That left Queta room to work.
But he still had to make the play. Here, the Wizards doubled Tatum, so Queta gets the ball in the paint. Washington gave him the space, but Queta still makes a pretty floater in the lane.
Then, on this play, the Celtics run Spain pick-and-roll, with Sam Hauser as the back screener. Hauser screens Sarr, but Trae Young follows him up the floor.
As a result, there are three Wizards players guarding two Celtics on the wing. Brown dumps the ball into Queta, who makes a tough catch and finishes the shot at the basket.
“Just taking what the defense gives you,” said Tatum. “Neemi played exceptional in that first half, and it was kind of evident that they were more focused on the ball-handler and our shooters. And Neem getting behind the defense and getting offensive rebounds and just presenting himself, they had to make adjustments. And we just played off that.”
Queta’s hot start was a product of Washington’s defensive choices, but he made the most of his opportunities. And when the time came for him to make a play, he did it.
On this play, Queta runs the floor and gets the ball with only one man left to beat: Sarr.
He fakes the shot, gets Sarr in the air, and then finishes a tough floater over the outstretched hand of the Wizards center. It was a beautiful move.
It was a near-perfect half of basketball from the Celtics big man. He finished the first half with 22 points (his most ever in a half) and six rebounds on 10-of-12 shooting from the field.
2. Neemias Queta’s second half
After scoring 22 points on 12 shots in the first half, Queta took just one shot in the second half. He made it, but the contrast between halves was stark. And it was a testament to Queta’s (and the Celtics’) ability to read the game.
The very first play of the second half was a perfect indicator. Tatum and Queta run the pick-and-roll, but instead of helping up, Sarr stays back. He sticks to Queta like glue, giving Tatum a one-on-one at the rim, which he finishes.
Boston’s second bucket of the third quarter was more of the same.
This time, it was Brown and Queta in the pick-and-roll. In the first half, Sarr was pressed up in the action, pressuring the ball handler. Here, he drops back, and Brown is able to pull up for an open mid-range bucket.
“It’s a league about adjustments,” Queta said. “I think they started being more- Overhelping. I felt like I could get guys open, whether [it was with] kick-out, whether it’s just offensive rebounds, figuring out how to get them open with the ball screens, too. With the gravity I was having. It was just like finding a good balance, and picking and choosing when to attack. And it was a pretty good job of that.”
Queta didn’t need to shoot in the second half. He did his job. Washington adjusted to his first-half successes, and the Celtics benefited.
3. Jayson Tatum’s third quarter
Tatum didn’t score the ball well in the first quarter. He went 0-of-4 from the field (though he did dish out two assists, as the Wizards were pressuring him on offense).
But the third quarter was a different story. Partially thanks to Washington’s switch-up in defensive coverage, Tatum was able to find a rhythm. And he showed out.
He started the frame with two buckets at the rim and then moved to the three-point line. Boston set up in Spain PnR on this play, with Hauser as the back screener once again, but the Wizards were slow to react.
Sarr recognizes the play and sticks with Hauser so he can stay by the rim. But since Queta is setting his screen so far up the floor, Young doesn’t react quickly enough. So, Tatum is able to step into a wide-open three in rhythm.
It was a great quarter of scoring for Tatum, and he capped it off with a slick Euro step in transition for a dunk.
Tatum finished the third quarter with 11 points, six rebounds, and two assists while shooting 5-of-9 from the field.
But perhaps most impressively, Tatum played all 12 third-quarter minutes. And he even played in the third, surpassing the 27-minute restriction he had been playing with up to that point.
He ended the night having played 32:12. It’s all part of the next step in his progression.
“The full quarter wasn’t part of the plans,” Tatum said. “I knew that my minutes would go up a little bit this week, and that’s just kind of the progression. I was playing 27 minutes [in] the first three games, they go up a little bit for a week or so, see how you respond. But obviously, I’ve been responding really well, and feeling great the next day and after the games, and we just go from there.”
4. Wizards’ late-game run
With 4:09 to go in the third quarter, the Celtics were up 85-55. A 30-point lead. Obviously, they only won by 11 points. So, what happened?
Well, 25 of Washington’s 59 points in the second half were fastbreak points. They got out and ran after Boston’s turnovers and even found some success capitalizing on the Celtics’ stagnant offensive possessions.
“Credit to them, their pressure picked up a little bit,” Joe Mazzulla said. “So, I think that’s something, again, regardless of the game, you have those 10, 15 possessions you got to get better at offensively. It’s like, ‘Hey, we got to win our space better in the offensive end and not give some of those up.’ Some of them were in transition on some tough reads, and some of them were just some plays there.”
Six of Boston’s nine second-half turnovers were live-ball turnovers, which Mazzulla emphasizes constantly. And all five of the turnovers they committed in the fourth were live-ball.
Jamir Watkins did a great job of getting up into Brown’s space here.
Boston’s offensive clunkiness put them in danger late in this one, but their cushion was too much for Washington to overcome.
5. Derrick White’s defense
The whole concept of ‘not-in-the-box-score’ impact is still somehow underrated. And White was a perfect example of that on Saturday night.
He didn’t score the ball super well, shooting just 3-of-11 from the field (including 3-of-8 from deep). He finished the game with only 15 points, six rebounds, and five assists.
But his defensive impact was loud, especially in the first half.
Watch this play closely. White begins the play guarding Tre Johnson, but when Brown collapses to cover the drive, he immediately sprints out to Bilal Coulibaly to contest his three-point attempt.
Then, obviously, this play was the most noticeable. White seamlessly slides over to help on Tristan Vukcevic’s drive and ends up recording the block.
“I think it just comes down to versatility, right? I mean, we can change roles defensively because of our versatility,” Mazzulla said. “Sam started on Trae Young tonight. I thought he did a great job on him. Baylor [Scheierman], Payton [Pritchard], and Hugo [Gonzalez] had time on him. Derrick was on Johnson and some of their shooters. So, I think it just speaks to the versatility that we can have defensively.
“You saw the block shot that Derrick had coming out of shifts. So, when you have a guy that can just play different ways defensively, it just allows us to be more versatile.”
6. Preventing Wizards layups
Layups and threes are the most valuable shots in basketball. Threes, because they were worth more points. Layups, because they’re so easy to make.
Mazzulla was thrilled with Boston’s ability to prevent Wizards layups.
“I think at one point, they didn’t shoot a ton of layups in the beginning, so I thought we defended pretty good to compensate for some of the turnover that we had,” he said.
The Celtics’ paint defense allowed the Wizards only three paint shots in the first quarter, and they went 0-for-3.
And in the first half, the Wizards only took three shots in the restricted area, shooting 1-of-3. For comparison, the Celtics shot 11-of-16 in the restricted area in the first half.
It gave Boston a huge advantage.
