Jaylen Brown scorches Wizards as Celtics snap losing streak

For the first quarter of Monday night s contest at TD Garden the Celtics offense consisted of Jaylen Brown and not much else Brown poured in first-quarter points but Boston trailed cellar-dwelling Washington by an uninspiring start for a gang that had just lost at home to the likely lottery-bound Utah Jazz two nights earlier Then reinforcements arrived With Brown watching from the bench his Celtics teammates blitzed the Wizards scoring of the first points in the second quarter Boston built a -point lead by halftime and broke the tournament open in the third quarter en trail to a much-needed - rout at TD Garden The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the - Celtics who now head to Orlando for two games against the Magic on Friday and Sunday Washington fell to - Brown led all scorers with points on -of- shooting -for- from -point range -for- on free throws despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter with Boston up big It was his fifth -point outing in nine games since taking over for the injured Jayson Tatum as the Celtics No option The Celtics also got an explosive performance from their newest starter Josh Minott The -year-old scored a career-high points while shooting -for- hitting three -pointers and throwing down three acrobatic dunks a pair of transition lobs from Brown and Derrick White and a third-quarter posterization of Marvin Bagley Jr Center Neemias Queta Boston s leader in net rating this season turned in a -point -rebound double-double on -of- shooting with five assists a block and a steal and was a plus- in minutes White and Payton Pritchard were plus- and plus- respectively with White showing selected encouraging improvement as a shooter -for- -for- from three while tallying eight assists three rebounds three steals and two blocks White entered the championship shooting a team-worst from the field Pritchard who s struggled from the perimeter but excelled in the midrange scored points on -of- shooting -for- from three Brown shot -for- in the first quarter and Minott sank both of his -point attempts Those were about the only early positives for the Celtics who were outscored - during an unsightly opening frame Neemias Queta s two baskets were the only other points Boston scored in the quarter The Celtics surrendered second-chance points more than the Wizards who came in ranked th in that metric were averaging per match this season and allowed points to Washington s bench while getting none from their own And that was with six different Boston bench players seeing action as Mazzulla shuffled through several lineup combinations The one he sent out to start the second quarter yielded much stronger results Utilizing a unit of Pritchard White Minott Queta and seldom-used reserve Jordan Walsh the Celtics ripped off a - run to flip the encounter Pritchard who d been called to the bench early in the meeting after picking up two quick fouls hit two -pointers during that Celtics onslaught while adding to his growing collection of midrange makes White also provided two second-quarter threes and Walsh delivered his greater part impactful shift of the season to date Ranked last on the Celtics roster in minutes played entering Wednesday the third-year pro converted a contested layup had a steal that led to one of White s triples and pulled down four rebounds including a tough defensive board that produced a jump ball Walsh was a plus- in his nine first-half minutes by far the best mark of any non-starter Walsh added a -pointer midway through the third quarter as Boston stretched its lead to points then then Boston played majority of of the fourth quarter with a small-ball lineup of Anfernee Simons Hugo Gonzalez Sam Hauser Hugo Gonzalez and Minott Playing time was limited for Queta s understudies on the big man depth chart as Garza logged just seven minutes and Xavier Tillman and Chris Boucher both were healthy DNPs The Celtics will look to get back to and improve to - in NBA Cup play when they visit the Magic on Friday