WASHINGTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum had 25 points and 11 rebounds in 29 minutes, and the Boston Celtics cruised to a 122-102 victory over the Washington Wizards on Thursday night.
Jaylen Brown scored 27 points in the Celtics' first road game of the season. Derrick White had 19 and Payton Pritchard added 15 as the defending NBA champions extended their winning streak against Washington to five games.
Jordan Poole scored 20 of his 26 points before halftime in the rebuilding Wizards' season opener, and Jonas Valanciunas added 18 in his Washington debut.
After taking their first double-digit lead just before halftime, the Celtics outscored the Wizards 34-19 in the third quarter put the game out of reach.
Takeaways
Celtics: Two games into its title defense, Boston has yet to be seriously pushed in a pair of wins. Tatum didn't play in the fourth quarter Thursday. Brown and White were the last starters to depart with 8:04 left.
Wizards: With rookies Alex Sarr and Bub Carrington in an extremely young starting lineup, the first half was mostly an encouraging performance. But Washington's third-quarter struggles echoed a recurring problem from last season. Carrington's night ended with a potential injury following an awkward fourth-quarter fall.
Key moment
Boston closed the first half on a 10-1 run to build its largest lead to that point. Tatum hit a pair of 3-pointers, one from each wing, then fed Brown on the second of back-to-back running layups to stake Boston to a 64-54 advantage.
Key stat
Washington’s starting lineup had an average age of 22.72 years old. According to Elias Sports Bureau, that is the youngest in the NBA so far this season, and the franchise's youngest since the league began tracking starters in 1970.
Up next
Both play again Saturday, with Boston traveling to Detroit and the Wizards hosting Cleveland.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Ian Nicholas Quillen, The Associated Press
