Boston Celtics Find Their Form Against Washington

The Boston Celtics had an unexpectedly underwhelming start to the season. A win against the Philadelphia 76ers was nothing to get excited about and then three straight losses had many people wondering whether or not Brad Stevens would be able to recapture the late season magic from a year ago.

With Marcus Smart sidelined with an injury the Celtics finally had their coming out party as they put out an offensive onslaught against the Washington Wizards. The Celtics scored 118 points and that was with a measly 18 fourth quarter points when the game was out of reach. The Celtics had 40, 32 and 28 points in the first three quarters as everything was going right for the Celtics.

The best part may be that the Celtics did this with Isaiah Thomas missing 10 shots. The Celtics finally created offense as a team and did not depend entirely on the production of Thomas. Of course, Thomas remained the top play maker as he put in 16 points and 8 assists.

After opening up the season shooting well under 30% from three, the Celtics were scorching from range, hitting 40% of their threes against the Wizards. The Celtics had 6 different players hit a three and more than one player finally broke out of their slump. Jared Sullinger finished 3-4 from three, Kelly Olynyk fished 3-5 and Evan Turner finished 2-4. None of those players have had a impact shooting the three ball yet this season and they finally showed the league what they are capable of.

The big story of the game is Jared Sullinger. After beginning the season coming off the bench it is hard to imagine Stevens putting him back on the second unit. The demise of Tyler Zeller and David Lee continues as Sullinger has been the best big man on the Celtics this season. After starting Sullinger for the second straight game, Sullinger’s 22 minutes were significantly more than Lee’s 13 and Zeller’s 5.

Oct 23, 2015; Manchester, NH, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jared Sullinger (7) reacts after scoring against the Philadelphia 76ers during the second half at Verizon Wireless Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

Even with Smart out of the lineup and Sullinger and Thomas in the starting unit the Celtics still got 58 points from their bench. Both Olynyk and Turner had their best offensive games of the season and the team’s depth finally paid off on the scoreboard.

This is exactly how the Celtics have hoped to play offensively. Not only did they shoot the ball well and get contributions from all kinds of different options, but they also had a 24-17 assist to turnover ratio. 17 Turnovers may be a but concerning but they made up for it by getting 24 takeaways from the Wizards.

Offense was certainly the highlight of the game but the defense should not go unnoticed. The Celtics have been playing solid defense all year and now that they finally had offense to go along with it they got a commanding victory.

The 24 forced turnovers are what is expected of the Celtics now but they continue to be stronger than expected on the boards. The Celtics managed to out rebound the Wizards 53-45. The Celtics were finally the team some people were predicting 50 wins for and if they can continue to play at this level they will be even better when Smart is back in the lineup.

The Celtics knew that they would have chemistry issues to work through and after the change from Lee and Zeller to Johnson and Sullinger the Celtics may be getting beyond those chemistry issues. Stevens is starting to find the lineups that work and he continues to get phenomenal bench production.

The Celtics need to look at this Wizards game as a standard for them in the future. The Celtics need to be playing at that level each night and then they can start making some noise in the eastern conference. Consistency is going to be the biggest question remaining. The Celtics have finally proven that they are capable of beating strong teams, they just have to prove that this one game was not a fluke.

The Celtics have three more games against tough eastern conference opponents before they face off against two tough western conference opponents and they need to bring themselves back above .500. The Orlando Magic did the Celtics a favour by finally taking down the Raptors but the Celtics still have a long ways to go before they reach the Raptors’ level.

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It was refreshing to finally see the Celtics play a good game but with the three terrible games that came before it, the team has to prove that they can maintain their level of play over an extended period of time.

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