Wizards toss Celtics to the ground, win Game 3 116-89

Wizards toss Celtics to the ground, win Game 3 116-89

Wizards toss Celtics to the ground, win Game 3 116-89
NBA

Wizards toss Celtics to the ground, win Game 3 116-89

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The Washington Wizards demolished the Celtics inside to take their first win of the series 116-89.

In the first round, it wasn’t a series until the road team won. In the second round, the opposite is holding true. The Wizards returned to their dominant Verizon Center form to humiliate the Celtics 116-89 and narrow the series to a 2-1 Celtics lead.

The Wizards took advantage of Celtics mismatches in the paint and completely destroyed them, targeting the Isaiah Thomas mismatch on Otto Porter, Jr. to basically walk into a 25-point lead. The Wizards went on a 22-0 run in the first quarter to establish a blowout and hung tight the rest of the way. Porter hit his first seven field goals, taking Thomas onto the block and hitting fading jumpers from the middle of the paint effortlessly.

The Wizards ended up destroying the Celtics in the paint 56-28, with an impressive 82.2 defensive rebound and 30.2 offensive rebound percentage.

The tension that built in the first two games boiled over Thursday, starting with Kelly Oubre losing his mind and shoving Kelly Olynyk through a separation by ref Monty McCutchen, earning a flagrant two ejection and a possible suspension for Game 4.

Then in the fourth quarter, Brandon Jennings and Terry Rozier got frisky for a few plays, eventually ending in multiple technical and bizarre ejections for both players.

Even Brad Stevens was hit with a rare technical.

There was also some basketball played in between the eight technicals called in Game 3. The Celtics put Thomas on Porter and that didn’t work out quite well. The Wizards tried using Thomas’ man as a screener in the first two games and that didn’t work frequently enough. They tried occasionally setting up high post-ups and that had diminishing returns.

But Game 3 saw Washington using creative slip screens and other maneuvers to post Porter on the low block on Thomas. Thomas is strong enough to prevent many players from backing him down too far, but that has no effect when he’s already in the paint. Porter would work a dribble to the middle and hit fadeaway after fadeaway to expand the Washington lead. By the time Stevens made adjustments, it was too late.

This game had everything, from mismatch post-ups to multiple ejections to legendary flops committed by human beings not named Marcus Smart.

It’s a game that will put the Celtics’ backs against the wall, even if they maintain the series lead. They are up 2-1, but the Wizards reminded Boston that while they had a mediocre road record, they dominate at home, with the second biggest win differential between home and the road in the NBA this year.