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Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Washington Wizards Are A Disgrace


I only listened to the first half of the Celtics-Wizards game on the radio this afternoon as I drove back from Rhode Island and then I periodically checked my phone for the score during breaks in the Patriots-Ravens game (don't ask me why).

Still, I'm not afraid to say that Washington (2-14) is a disgrace since they lost to Boston (6-9) 100-94 at the Verizon Center.

Rajon Rondo missed his second straight game with a wrist injury while Keyon Dooling (5th straight) and Chris Wilcox (6th straight) were also out resting their old bones. To make matters worse for the Celtics, Ray Allen sprained his ankle in the second quarter and never returned. Luckily for the Green, they were playing what I'm comfortable in labeling the worst team in the NBA.

If you're keeping score at home, half of Boston's wins so far this season are against Washington. What's more, the C's only have two road victories and would you believe that they were both in our nation's capital?

The Avery Bradley magical mystery tour continued as he got his third career NBA start. In 41 minutes, he put up a truly unique stat line: three points (on 1 of 8 shooting), seven assists, six rebounds and six turnovers.

WEEI's Sean Grande (Celtics radio play-by-play guy) brought up something that I never knew: Bradley was the top recruit in the high school class of 2009, ahead of No. 2 John Wall. Speaking of Wall, he led the Wizards with 27 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Unless Bradley's mom, dad or another close relative was in charge of those rankings, I'll never get that designation (not that it matters).

Paul Pierce had an outstanding game, he nearly put up a triple-double with 34 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds and three steals. It was the fifth 30-point, 10-assist performance of his career (tying Antoine Walker's franchise record for the past 20 years) and first time he'd done it in almost six years. He's also only the third guy in the NBA (joining LeBron and Russell Westbrook) to have 34-10-8.

Kevin Garnett (17 points) was the only other Celtics starter in double-figures. Mickael Pietrus (14 points) and Brandon Bass (13 points, 9 assists) continued to be pseudo-starters off the bench.

Nick Young had 19 points for the Wizards while JaVale McGee scored 13 points and Jordan Crawford had 12 off the bench.

It's a shame that these teams only meet once more (March 25 in Boston) this season since it is one of the only guaranteed victories for the Celts these days.

Things will be much different tomorrow night as the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard come to Boston for the first of two meetings this week. Boston has no answer for Howard (not that many do) so expect him to put up monster numbers and for his team to roll since it's a back-to-back, the Celtics are short-handed and they're playing a good opponent.





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