Balanced attack vs. Wizards leads to Celtics’ ninth straight win

The Boston Celtics are now 9-1 after defeating the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.

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The Boston Celtics shared the ball, took advantage of turnovers, were efficient and looked like the team to beat in the East on their way to their 10th consecutive victory, defeating the Washington Wizards 140-133 and overcoming a 44-point effort from star guard Bradley Beal.

Jayson Tatum took over in the first quarter, Carsen Edwards played well in the second quarter, Jaylen Brown dominated in the second half and Kemba Walker made his impact felt offensively throughout the game as the quarter combined to score 88 points, with each of Tatum, Brown and Walker breaking the 20-point  mark.

Staying true to the players they’ve been this season, Tatum focused on scoring outside the lane while Brown attacked the rim and Walker let loose from outside. In fact, Walker knocked down 6-12 threes on Wednesday after entering the game shooting a career-high 43.7% from three, his efficiency from outside only matched by Edwards (4-5 from three) and Marcus Smart (4-8 from three) on the Celtics’ side.

Edwards’ career-high 18 points was nice to see, as he went scoreless last game and entered the contest averaging just 4.0 points per game. For a player who torched opponents to the tune of 24.3 points per game at Purdue in his third and final season before averaging 15.3 points per game in the preseason, his performance through the season has been underwhelming.

However, Edwards played light a bolt of lightning against Washington, racing down the court and making play after play.

The Celtics were unable to bottle up Beal, rookie forward Rui Hachimura (21 points on 9-12 shooting) or even Isaiah Thomas (18 points on 7-14), the latter of which who hit a three before the half to cut Boston’s lead down to two.

A game that plenty of runs, the game wasn’t out of reach for the Wizards until the final seconds, with Walker hitting a clutch three to put the Celtics up 140-133.

Jayson Tatum has historically bad shooting night in win over Mavs

Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum had an unexpectedly poor shooting performance against the Dallas Mavericks.

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After going 1-18 from the field against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, obviously unable to get anything going no matter the difficulty or distance of the shot, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum turned in one of the worst shooting nights in both team and league history in what will be a forgettable night for the rising star.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, it was the second-worst shooting performance for a Celtics player since 1954 and the second-worst shooting performance by any player in a win in the last 65 years as well. Tatum, who was averaging a career-high 21.3 points per game entering Monday’s game against the Mavericks, finished the game with just five points.

Considering he’s had far more success shooting from behind the arc than any other spot on the floor outside of the lane, perhaps Tatum should have put his three-point mark of 44.4% to the test against the Mavs rather than his midrange game.

For the season, Tatum has only made 25% of his midrange attempts, per NBA.com.

However, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens is unconcerned about Tatum’s woeful night from the field, saying that he doesn’t lose sleep over poor shooting nights. No one else should lose sleep over Tatum’s poor shooting night either, as he’s long proven he’s one of the most skilled scorers in the league.