Boston Celtics: C’s late push falls short as Wizards win 116-107

Dennis Schroder‘s three with two minutes remaining cut the Wizards’ lead over the Boston Celtics to just three but, unfortunately, the magic was left in Charlotte, as the Cs could not make it back to back come from behind wins, falling in the end by a final score of 116-107.

Early on in this game, both teams came out struggling.

With just over six minutes remaining in the first quarter, each team was 3-11 from the field. Ultimately, the Wizards made a few more plays late in the quarter as they finished the low-scoring first with a five-point advantage (24-19).

The second quarter is where this game began to heat up, however, as Montrez Harrell (17 points in the quarter) lead the charge, guiding Washington to a lead as big as 15 points.

That said, this was not to be outdone, as Dennis Schroder decided to have his best quarter as a member of the Boston Celtics as well, nearly matching Harrell’s 17 point effort with 15 points of his own.

Add in some sound production from Al Horford as well and the Cs were lucky enough to escape the half only down ten points (62-52).

As the saying goes, basketball is a game of runs and this was on full display during the third quarter.

Washington was able to build their lead back to thirteen before Schroder and Horford helped the Boston Celtics cut it down to just three points.

Every time the shamrocks were able to cut into the lead, they seemed to forget what got them back into the game and allowed the Wizards to pull away again.

Halfway through the third, Boston was staring at another double-digit deficit in the face.

Trying to keep his team in the game, Jayson Tatum decided to put the first two quarters behind him (3-11 shooting for just seven points) and finish the third quarter on fire, as he dropped a whopping 14 points on 75 percent shooting from the field.

After being more aggressive and making a few baskets at the rim, Tatum then was able to step out and hit his first three of the game, following that up with a couple of free throws which allowed Boston to see themselves entering the fourth quarter with an 88-87 lead.

The fourth quarter was truly a back and forth effort early on, which ultimately saw the Wizards take a ten-point lead with four minutes remaining in the game.

During that final stretch, Al Horford had two put-back layups followed by Schrdoer’s late triple with two minutes remaining.

Down three after the 6-0 run was as close as the Celtics would get as Washington was able to make stops late to come away with the road victory on a night where Bradley Beal was shooting 7-25 from the field and 0-6 from 3-point range.

Boston now falls to 2-3 on the young season but, despite the loss, had a couple of bright spots.

Dennis Schroder finished with 22 points and had six assists and, at times, kept the Cs in this game.

Old man Al Horford also had himself another solid effort, finishing with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Up next for this Boston Celtics team is another matchup with this same Wizards team, Saturday night in Washington.