John Wall led the way with 24 points, Otto Porter Jr. and Bojan Bogdanovic both had 19, and the wizards cruised to a 116 to 89 victory in game three of the second round. Al Horford led the Celtics with 16 points, Jae Crowder had 14, and Isaiah Thomas had 13 points in the loss. Marcin Gortat showed up in the game, scoring 13 points and adding in a dominant 16 rebounds.
The Wizards dominated the first quarter with a 22 to 0 run, but that didn't highlight the evening.
Ejections
There's no question these two teams dislike each other. It was going on in the regular season, and it only continued in game three Thursday night.
Both Scott Brooks and Brad Stevens were handed technical fouls, Terry Rozier, Brandon Jennings, and Kelly Oubre Jr. were ejected.
Kelly Olynyk went to set a screen onto Oubre in what seemed like he hit his head and fell to the ground. Oubre got up and went on a dead sprint and speared Olynyk to the ground. It resulted in an ejection and almost for sure a suspension for their next game.
Wizards defense
The Washington Wizards' defense was much improved in game three. They held Isaiah Thomas to just 13 points on 3 of 8 shooting. The Wizards held the Boston Celtics as a team to 35 percent shooting from the floor and 31 percent from three. In case the percent doesn't explain enough, they made just 27 out of their 77 shots for the night.
The Wizards locked in on that end of the floor, and it showed.
The game got very chippy, and it helped the Wizards. Washington seems like the scrappy team in this series, and they took advantage of that vibe of the game. The more this series' get's into a dogfight, the better it gets for Washington.
Boston isn't a team that will lay down for you, but they are a team about execution.
If you get them out of their game and in their head, their execution will go down dramatically. Washington is the opposite, if you spark some fire into them, they'll go straight into your chest and dominate you.
This is a moment in the series that could go one of two ways. Either Boston rises and commands a 3-1 lead, or Washington ultimately turns the page and dominates, tying the series up at 2.
From what we saw in game three, it looks like it could be a turning point in the series, but we've all seen how Isaiah Thomas gets when he's challenged. This man steps up to the plate and delivers. The Celtics need that badly for game four.
Game four is scheduled for Sunday, May 7th. The game will be played at 6:30 PM EST, on TNT.
