Washington Wizards edge Celtics in Double Overtime
The Washington Wizards came from behind to beat the Boston Celtics in a frantic game in TD Garden on Wednesday. The Wizards eventually prevailed 125 – 124 against an injury-plagued Celtics side in double overtime.
Bradley Beal scored the winning 3 pointer in the second extra time period to seal the win for the Wizards. He finished with a game-high 34 points.
The Boston Celtics were without 6 established players including Kyrie Irving, who had a knee injury. Al Horford (illness), Jaylen Brown (concussion), Marcus Smart (thumb), Daniel Theis (knee) and Gordon Hayward (ankle) also missed the game.
In spite of this, the Boston Celtics dominated the early stages of the game. With Jason Taytum and Marcus Morris on form, they scored 37 points in the first quarter. The Washington Wizards went on a 10 – 0 run in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 7 before halftime.
Beal stepped up in the second half, scoring 28 of his 34 points to put pressure on the tiring Celtics.
The win looked  safe for Boston with 43 seconds of normal time left, thanks to Marcus Morris’ clutch 3-pointer. With five seconds on the clock and his team trailing by three, Wizards coach Scott Brooks told Otto Porter Jr to fake a two and kick it out to Jodie Meeks.
The open man scored the corner three to send the game in to overtime.
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The game was tied with 5 seconds remaining. Taytum capitalized on a Wizards turnover to score a basket and draw the foul. However, he missed the resulting foul shot, sending the game into double overtime.
In the second period, Terry Rozier scored a late three. But it wasn’t enough to cancel out Beal’s incredible reverse layup, and the Washington Wizards took the game.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens reiterated his pride for his team post-game:
‘I didn’t learn anything new from my team. It’s been that way all year. We’ve been really good in games where we’ve used just one point guard. We have always been able to battle,’ Stevens said.
‘We don’t care whose available and we put our best foot forward and expect to win. Unfortunately we didn’t do that tonight.’
