BOSTON — Ime Udoka, ever on the alert for slippage, was alarmed by the return of some bad habits over the three preceding games, including Friday night’s win over Indiana.
Another high-scoring opponent checked in Sunday — the Wizards have increased their scoring since the arrival of Kristaps Porzingis at the trade deadline — but as the Celtics discovered, the other end of the floor was wide open. They broke the 30-point barrier in all four quarters.
The Celtics took their second straight with a 144-102 win over the light-defending Wizards. Jaylen Brown scored an easy 32 on 12-for-17 shooting, with six other Celtics also reaching double figures, including 22 from Jayson Tatum.
The Celtics strung together quarters of 35, 35 and 34 points on their way to a 104-79 lead while shooting at a 60.3% clip. If the gap wasn’t wide enough already, the Celtics blew it open thereafter by opening the fourth with a 20-2 run that included two 3-pointers each from Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard, another from Derrick White, and a three-point play from Brown.
Brown checked out for good at that stage, with the game in hand.
The Celtics built a 70-59 halftime lead, with Brown’s 19-point half leading both sides, shooting 63.6% on the way to their 11-point lead, and boosted the margin early in the third with a 10-0 run for their first 20-point lead at 80-60.
The flow continued, through 3-pointers from Horford, Brown, Tatum and White, the last for a 95-72 edge with 3:03 left in the third quarter. Horford buried another bomb for a 100-76 edge, on the way to a 104-79 lead by the end of the quarter.
Brown’s 13-point first quarter — he’s back to getting this team off to fast starts — got the Celtics on their way to a rather effortless 35-22 first quarter lead.
Longtime Celtics killer Ish Smith checked in with his usual scoring mayhem, but with the Celtics scoring at a 65% clip, the Wizards had trouble breaking inside a 10-point margin.
Williams’ second three of the day triggered a 13-4 run for a 63-47 lead, on the way to the 70-59 halftime edge.
