After early scare, Celtics demolish young Wizards for second straight win

If the Celtics needed an ego check after their season-opening beatdown of the New York Knicks, they got one from an unlikely source.

The Wizards, owners of the NBA’s second-worst record last season, wobbled the defending champions Thursday night in Washington. Fueled by 17 first-quarter points from Jordan Poole, the underdog hosts kept pace for the opening 20 minutes, leading by as many as eight against a Boston squad that lacked its usual crispness.

Eventually, though, the massive talent disparity between the two clubs took over. The Celtics pulled away late in the second quarter and dominated the second half en route to a 122-102 win at Capital One Arena.

Jayson Tatum continued his strong start to the season with 25 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and one steal for Boston, despite shooting just 3-for-11 from 3-point range. Tatum nearly matched Poole with 14 points in the first quarter and just missed a first-half double-double, notching 20 points and nine rebounds before the break.

Jaylen Brown celebrated his 28th birthday by pouring in 27 points to go along with eight rebounds, three assists and four steals. He attacked the basket with authority, showing his physicality after packing on muscle this offseason, and hit 3 of 6 threes, including two in a 21-second span to open the fourth quarter.

Derrick White played the role of third scorer well for the second straight game (19 points). So far this season, the do-it-all guard has attempted 17 threes and made 10 of them (58.8%), building on the long-range prowess he showed in last year’s playoff run.

Speaking of threes, Payton Pritchard shook off his rough shooting night in Tuesday’s opener by going 5-for-10 from deep, his 15 points carrying Boston’s bench production with Sam Hauser (lower back pain) sidelined. Pritchard also buried a heave from beyond halfcourt — his specialty, as seen in the NBA Finals — but released it just after the third-quarter buzzer.

It was an unsurprising result given where these two teams are: the Celtics gunning for their second straight championship while the Wizards look to give themselves the best odds of landing next year’s projected No. 1 overall pick, Maine-born Duke sensation Cooper Flagg.

Washington traded away most of its notable veterans last season and had two rookies in its starting lineup Thursday (Alex Sarr and Bub Carrington), plus another in their rotation (Kyshawn George).

The Celtics gave Sarr, this year’s second overall pick, a rude introduction to the NBA. Tatum hit three 3-pointers over the 7-foot Frenchman, including back-to-back makes during Boston’s second-quarter takeover, and Jrue Holiday baited him into fouls on consecutive possessions to trigger an 8-0 Celtics run.

The Wizards responded with a 12-2 spurt, capped by one of Poole’s six 3-pointers, to take a 51-49 lead just over halfway through the second quarter. But it was all Celtics from there on out. Boston scored 31 of the next 38 points, with Brown closing out the first half with a pair of slick contested layups.

Poole, who scored 26, was the lone bright spot for the Wizards, and he managed just nine points over the final three quarters. The rest of Washington’s roster went a combined 1-for-25 from 3-point range in the loss.

After Boston outscored Washington 34-19 in the third quarter, head coach Joe Mazzulla emptied his bench in the fourth, giving first-round rookie Baylor Scheierman and two-way players JD Davison and Drew Peterson their first game action of the season.

Next up for the Celtics is a trip to Detroit for a similarly lopsided Saturday night matchup. The Pistons finished with the NBA’s worst record in each of the last two seasons, including a miserable 14-win campaign a year ago.

Hauser out

Speaking with reporters pregame, Hauser said his back injury was something he “dealt with on and off throughout the summer and preseason.” The 26-year-old sharpshooter didn’t feel any pain during the Knicks game, he said, but it “flared up” Thursday morning.

“Just trying to manage it the best I can and just go from there,” Hauser told reporters, via CLNS Media.

Outside Kristaps Porzingis’ postseason layoff, the Celtics benefited from great health across the board last season, including their bench. Hauser and Pritchard, their top non-big backups, missed just three games between them.

Second-year pro Jordan Walsh projected as the next wing up after his strong preseason, but Mazzulla chose to replace Hauser with center Neemias Queta and lean more into double-big lineups involving Queta, Al Horford, Luke Kornet and Xavier Tillman. Walsh did not see the floor until two minutes into the fourth quarter with the Celtics up 31.

The Wizards were able to find some gaps in those lineups early, scoring 30 points in the paint and holding a 14-3 edge in fast-break points before halftime. Those numbers evened out in the second half, and Queta finished with 12 points and seven boards in 14 minutes.

Mazzulla said his substitution plan varies based on matchups and could change night to night. It’s unclear whether Hauser’s injury will affect his availability for Saturday.

“We have the flexibility and the depth to kind of go different routes,” Mazzulla told reporters. “So it might not necessarily be a wing (replacing him). It could be a guard; it could be a big. It just depends on what the matchups are in those second units. What the sub pattern is will change from game to game. It’ll change within the game. …

“So I have trust in whoever we call that they’ll be ready to play just because of the work that they put in and the things that they do. It’s got to be everybody by committee depending upon what the game needs at that particular time.”

Off the rim

The league on Thursday unveiled the new-look court designs for the 2024 NBA Cup, and they’re a clear improvement over last season’s eyesores, even if a few too many teams opted for gray offerings. The Celtics will be one of just two clubs (along with Minnesota) playing on a green court, with theirs featuring an oversized, 32-block parquet pattern.

First look at our NBA Cup court pic.twitter.com/tctsAg013s

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 24, 2024

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Unlike last year, teams will wear their top alternate “Statement” uniforms in home NBA Cup games rather than the “City” uniforms that rotate each season. The colors of the Celtics’ court match the black-with-green-accents unis they’ve worn since 2017-18 (and sported Thursday night in Washington). There’s no sign of the neon green that adorns their soon-to-be-released ’24-25 “City” set.

Boston opens NBA Cup pool play against the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 12 at TD Garden.