After two overtimes and several missed opportunities to seal a victory on both sides, the Wizards somehow managed to gut out a 125-124 win over the depleted Celtics on Wednesday night, led by Bradley Beal, who finished with 34 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds.
It was a game that made absolutely no sense, right from the beginning. Both teams were undermanned going in, with Washington still without their starting point guard John Wall, and Boston battling a bevy of injuries to Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart, Al Horford, and others.
Guerschon Yabusele ended up getting the start for the Celtics, and just about everyone was ready to write this one off as a loss, that is until Boston raced out to a 20-point first-half lead. But the Wizards eventually erased that in a wild fourth-quarter that featured several clutch baskets on both sides and a key defensive miscue from Marcus Morris that led to a Jodie Meeks three-pointer to send it to overtime.
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/974111978796077056
The extra period was just as wild, and a clutch layup from Jayson Tatum in the waning seconds would end up seemed to set up a Boston win as he drew contact from Marcin Gortat for an and-1 opportunity. However, Tatum missed the potential game-winning free-throw, sending the game into double overtime. He finished with 19 points, six assists, and five rebounds.
Jayson Tatum gets the bucket to force 2OT!#Celtics pic.twitter.com/EYNa5iVxOM
— NBA (@NBA) March 15, 2018
The Celtics had multiple opportunities to extend or win the game at the end of double OT, but they threw the ball away on one possession and weren’t able to get off a clean look at the end.
It gave us something of a glimpse of what could be a potential playoff preview in the East, but we can only hope both teams have full, healthy rosters by that point.
