Game Preview: Celtics v Wizards

The Boston Celtics will host the Washington Wizards in Tuesday’s Game 2 of the
Eastern Conference semifinals at TD Garden. These two teams are coming off a
very odd opening game to this series, where the Wizards (0-1) opened up the game
on a 16-0 run, but they were then outscored by the Celtics (1-0) by 31 points
over the course of the next two quarters. While Washington did manage to make
one last run to close the gap, Boston managed to hold on to win by a very
comfortable 12-point margin and get a 1-0 lead in the series. And they did so in
large part because of their fantastic three-point shooting, as the team hit 19
total threes — their highest mark of the playoffs by far — in the Game 1
victory en route to hitting an impressive 48.7 percent of their shots from
behind the arc. Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder led that onslaught from long
range, as the two combined to hit 11 threes and score 57 of the team’s 123
points in the outing. As for the Wizards, while they simply couldn’t stop
Boston’s incredibly efficient three-point shooting, they have a much bigger
problem on their hands headed into Game 2. After playing just 11 minutes in Game
1, starting power forward Markieff Morris was forced to leave the contest when
he came down awkwardly on his ankle after being fouled on a jump shot by the
Celtics’ Al Horford. While Morris has been adamant about playing, the team has
said the power forward will be a game-time decision Tuesday with head coach
Scott Brooks not appearing too confident in Morris’ status. The Wizards, even
with Morris, are very shallow in the frontcourt, so the injury would likely mean
an increased role for Kelly Oubre Jr., who would also be the most likely
candidate to start in Morris’ place, as Brooks has elected to go small plenty of
times before this season.