Unfortunately, Even the Celtics Can't Lose Every Game This Season

I pretty much only write about Celtics wins so needless to say, other than their two recent trades, I have been quiet lately regarding the Green and White. I had to break my silence tonight as Boston (15-29 overall, 6-17 away) held off Washington (20-21 overall, 10-11 home) 113-111 in overtime at Verizon Center.

With the rare victory, the Celts snapped a 10-game road losing streak and also won for only the third time in their last 18 games. Nothing from Boston's side can compare to this insane stat that I saw after the contest: John Wall (28 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals) has never been over .500 in his four years in the NBA. Wait, what? How is that even possible?

Playing on the road, in the second night of a back-to-back without Rajon Rondo (rest) and Avery Bradley (ankle), the C's shouldn't have been difficult at all for the Wizards to beat. So naturally, Boston got out to a 10-point lead after the first quarter (32-22) and 18-point advantage at halftime (61-43).

Clearly, Washington woke up in the second half-particularly in the third quarter when they outscored Boston 30-15. The Wizards also took the fourth quarter (26-23) and had a chance to win but Nene Hilario's (17 points, 9 reboudns) long jumper at the buzzer was a brick. Bradley Beal and Trevor Ariza both scored 14 points while Marcin Gortat added 11 points and 13 rebounds. Martell Webster scored 10 points off the bench.

Jeff Green had one of the best games of his career with a game-high 39 points (8 3-pointers!), nine rebounds and three steals. Rookie Phil Pressey had 20 points (5 3-pointers) before he fouled out in OT, Jared Sullinger put up another double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds) and Gerald Wallace (9 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals) filled the stat sheet but most importantly made the last-second driving layup to clinch it for Boston. In his second game with the C's, rookie Chris Johnson (9 points, 4 steals) showed how much he doesn't want to return to the D-League.

Boston hit eight more 3-pointers (15-7) than Washington, made five more steals (15-10) and blocked twice as many shots (8-4). They also scored seven more fast break points (21-14) and 10 more points off turnovers (20-10).

The Celtics' reward for this hard-fought win is a day off before they return to TD Garden on Friday (7:30, CSN) to host Kevin Durant-MVP, MVP-and the Thunder (33-10, 1st in Northwest Division). Durant has scored 30+ points in nine straight games which is the main reason why this is the first Celtics game all season that I've had any interest in attending.

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If Only Every Team In The NBA Were As Hopeless As The Washington Wizards

Thank God the Celtics only play the Wizards one more time this season and it's not until April 7 at that. These past two games between the teams have been so awful, for many reasons, that I'm happy to say Boston (2-2, 1-1 home) won't see Washington (0-3, 0-2 away) again for a long time.

Tonight at TD Garden, the C's followed the same pattern from Saturday's closer-than-it-should-be win in DC: they got up early then let the Wizards hang around for way too long. Luckily, since they are one of the worst teams in the NBA, Washington managed to crap its pants once again, allowing the Celts to escape with a 100-94 win in overtime.

Kevin Garnett led Boston with a game-high 20 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks, Rajon Rondo had 18 points, 14 assists and three steals while Paul Pierce had 15 points, 10 rebounds and four steals. Jason Terry finally looked like himself with 16 points off the bench and Brandon Bass added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Rookie Bradley Beal, Kevin Seraphin and Martell Webster each scored 16 points for Washington. Former UConn point guard A.J. Price had 15 points and seven assists while Chris Singelton added 14 points off the bench.

All we can hope is that once Boston starts playing some better teams, they will increase their performance level since right now through four games they've looked terrible.

Washington hit six more 3-pointers than Boston (10-4) but the Celtics prevailed because of the fact that they made 22 more free throws (28-6). The Celtics led 11-2 right away but only 21-16 after one quarter. Washington jumped ahead 42-37 at halftime. The C's got back in control with a good third quarter (29-16) yet they couldn't seal it (just like on Saturday).

The worst part is that with their last shot at the buzzer, they elected for a 3-pointer from Rondo when the score was tied at 88. You can never convince me that was the best look they could find. Bass scored five straight points in overtime, including an excellent dunk off a steal and pass by Rondo.

In a rematch of last spring's Eastern Conference semifinals (that went 7 games), the 76ers (2-2) visit Boston on Friday (7:30 p.m., CSN). They traded away Andre Iguodala to Denver and Lou Williams signed in Atlanta so Philadelphia will look much different. They have Andrew Bynum now but he has yet to play this season as he deals with his myriad injuries.

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Von Wafer helps Celtics win an actual game

If you ever thought that Von Wafer - the last man on the Boston Celtics' bench - would ever do anything that would help them win a regular season game, you're either related to him or you're a lunatic.

However, that was the story last night as Wafter brought energy off the bench and his 10 points and six rebounds were crucial as the Celts (26-7) stole a game from the Minnesota Timberwolves (9-26), 96-93 at the TD Garden.

Led by rebounding machine Kevin Love (12 points, 24 rebounds - a Garden record), the Timberwolves were in control for most of the contest but some fourth quarter heroics by Paul Pierce (23 points), Ray Allen (20 points) and Glen Davis (17 points) allowed Boston to escape with the win.

Rajon Rondo was back to his old tricks with six points and 16 assists. He actually had the two biggest baskets for the Cs as well: a floater and a jumper in the last few minutes.

Minnesota got 19 points from Michael Beasley, 15 points from Martell Webster off the bench, 14 from Darko Milicic and 13 from Luke Ridnour.

The Timberwolves led 25-17 after one quarter and 47-43 at halftime. Boston inched closer with a decent third quarter (27-26) then won it in the fourth (26-20).

For the game, the Celts shot 45.1% to Minnesota's 41.7%. Thanks to Love's prowess, the Timberwolves had 15 more rebounds (45-30) but it was the same story in the assist department thanks to Rondo (22-16). Boston also had five more blocks (7-2) since Jermaine O'Neal had four (he's still good defensively), five less turnovers (15-10) and 12 more points in the paint (38-26).

Wednesday night is one of the marquee games of the NBA regular season even though I'm sure it won't get much hype. It pits the Western Conference's best team: the San Antonio Spurs against the East's best - Boston - at the TD Garden. It's hard to get excited about a regular season game but these teams only meet once or twice a season and they always seem to be great games.