Celtics Pull Away from Wizards in Game 1, 123-111

The Boston Celtics defeated the Washington Wizards, 123-111, at TD Garden on
Sunday afternoon in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Celtics
lead the series, 1-0. There’s likely been few starts to a game more deceiving
than Sunday’s series-opening tilt, with the Wizards (0-1) looking like they were
playing against air in building a 16-0 lead over the first 3:57. Their edge even
got slightly larger when John Wall’s two-point shot at the 7:11 mark of the
first gave Washington a 20-3 advantage. However, once the Celtics got the
wake-up call, they became nearly impossible to stop. The comeback began during
the remainder of the first period, although Boston still faced a 38-24 deficit
entering the second. They then proceeded to outscore Washington by a 71-42
margin from that point until the end of the third quarter, with Isaiah Thomas,
Jae Crowder and Al Horford making a majority of the contributions. Although
in-game history repeated itself to start the fourth — with the home team
failing to score over the opening 4:06 — the Celtics turned it back on to still
tally a 28-point period to close out the win. Both teams shot well, but it was
Boston’s excellent 48.7 percent success rate from long range, which consisted of
a franchise playoff record-tying 19 threes, that was key to their early comeback
and victory. Bradley Beal led the way for the Wizards with 27 points, four
assists, one rebound, one steal and one block. John Wall was next with 20
points, 16 assists, four rebounds, two blocks and one steal, but also committed
a game-high eight turnovers. Marcin Gortat and Otto Porter, Jr. provided
matching 16-point tallies, with the former adding 13 rebounds, four assists, one
steal and one block, and Porter posting 11 rebounds, two steals and one assist.
Kelly Oubre, Jr. led the bench with 12 points, which he supplemented with one
rebound and two blocks. Bojan Bogdanovic was productive on the second unit as
well with 10 points, three boards, one assist and one steal. Thomas paced the
Celtics with 33 points, which he complemented with nine assists, one rebound and
one block. Crowder supplied a surprising 24 points, along with six rebounds, one
assist and one steal, including a team-best 6-for-8 tally from three-point
range. Horford had a near triple-double of 21 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds
and one block. Kelly Olynyk led the bench with 12 points, four boards and two
assists. Gerald Green got the start at small forward once again but produced no
stats over a scant seven minutes. The two teams reconvene for Game 2 on Tuesday
night at TD Garden.