BOSTON — Celtics fans saw a rare sight inside TD Garden on Sunday afternoon, Jayson Tatum sitting court-side at the end of the Celtics bench in a beige sweatshirt, hat and dark green pants. Boston took on a cotton candy-themed Wizards team in their black-and-green look while their superstar rested with an ankle ailment he suffered early last week.
Jaylen Brown took over in the lead scoring role and the Celtics nonetheless powered to another 10-point lead, their 17th this season, and a 17-point advantage at halftime before winning 130-121. Brown scored 36, but played ahead of the defense and close to the rim as Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon and Derrick White took on a larger share of ball-handling.
“It’s important that we just put our guys in the best position to execute on the offensive end,” Joe Mazzulla said pre-game. “Jaylen’s done a great job making reads in the pick-and-roll, had two assists in the fourth quarter last night in the pick-and-roll, Smart’s done a great job, Malcolm, it’s just a matter of continuing to execute.”
Brown started with a pair of makes in the lane as the Celtics and Wizards worked back from down 8-2 to take a brief lead midway through the first. Grant Williams and Marcus Smart erased it with baskets at the rim after Smart, switching often onto Kristaps Porzingis in the post caught a few bumps and drew an offensive foul after the crowd let out an — ooohhhh!
Mazzulla kept his bench rotation intact with Malcolm Brogdon, Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet checking in after their turnaround performance to beat the Kings on Friday. Kornet laid in a put back to put Boston ahead 22-19, forced a Jordan Goodwin miss with his patent pending short contest, finished in the pick-and-roll, then dished an assist to Grant early in the second quarter. His missed from the right corner, however, ended a 16-for-16 shooting streak.
Payton Pritchard checked in an immediately drilled a three and Hauser watched his own try from the left corner bounce high off the rim and in. Kornet’s free throws gave the Celtics their first double-digit lead of the night, and Smart fed Brown for a low-post look as the Wizards started 5-for-19 from deep. Another Kornet contest, this time on Anthony Gill, worked again, and Smart seemed to try his own version of it running to the left corner later.
Brown and the Celtics worked in-between too, shooting 14-for-22 from mid range through three quarters and 10-for-11 at the rim playing up-tempo. All…
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