(Picture above from CSN Wizards Twitter @CSNWizards)

Final Score: Celtics 123 – Wizards 111. This is a game Washington should have won, but Markieff Morris leaving in 2nd quarter with an injury and Celtics playing at an unsustainable level were the difference in this game. I’ll give a short recap and a long recap.

Short Recap:

The Wizards jumped out to a quick 16-0 start and the game appeared to already be over. They finished the quarter up by 14 after leading by as much as 17. In the second, Boston’s bench came in and tied the game at 42, Morris sprained his ankle and left for the remainder of the game, and Washington went into halftime up 64-59. The Celtics dominated the third, outscoring the Wiz by 20 and entered the fourth leading 95-80. A 9-0 run to start the fourth and Bojan Bogdanovic heating up gave the Wizards a chance, but in the end there was too much to overcome and the Celtics took a 1-0 lead.

Long Recap:

Washington got out to an incredible 16-0 start and were dominating on the glass, and they would have been up by 25+ in the quarter if it weren’t for Isaiah Thomas and Kelly Olynyk combining to score 22 in the first. In the second, Boston’s bench destroyed Washington’s bench and tied the game at 42. Then, something changed the game dramatically for the Wizards: Morris made an and-1, but sprained his ankle on a dirty play from Al Horford.

The Wizards went into halftime leading 64-59 in a game that featured a lot of offense and not much defense. Four Wizards were in double figures at the break and a fifth player had 9. IT and Olynyk had 19 and 12 respectively for Boston. The third quarter was the difference in this game. Washington got outscored by 20, turned the ball over 8 times, lost their big rebounding advantage without Morris in the game, and entered the fourth trailing by 15. A 9-0 Washington run to start the fourth gave Washington some life, and 10 straight points from Bogdanovic brought them to within 3, but the Celtics onslaught of 3 pointers put the game away, and Washington lost 123-111.

Stats:

In a game that featured 11 players scoring in double figures, Wall and Beal led the Wizards and Thomas, Crowder, and Horford led the Celtics.

Wall: 20 points and 16 assists

Beal: 27 points

Thomas: 33 points and 9 assists

Crowder: 24 points and 6 threes

Horford: 21 points, 10 assists, and 9 rebounds

It took the Celtics 19 threes, an Al Horford near triple-double, a Markieff Morris injury, and the Wizards shooting 59% from the foul line to win. It is safe to say all of those will not happen throughout the series. I am not worried and still predict that the Wizards will win in 7.

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