The Boston Celtics are allowing 31.4 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 39 rebounds per game.
"You guys were good", Brooks said in the huddle as shown on TNT. "I think especially in that third quarter I might have hit the ground five or six straight times". Washington ignited into a five-minute mushroom cloud of threes, three-point plays and fastbreak wizardry.
If those numbers don't properly convey how dominant was in the series, Raptors' All-Star swingman DeMar DeRozan illustrated just how valuable James remains. John Wall was scoreless until midway through the second quarter, and had it not been for timely Otto Porter shooting, Boston may have run away with it.
The Wizards have made it a point to make Isaiah Thomas work more on defense, but that hasn't been the main issue.
Boston has a lot on their plate between now and tip-off of Game 5, where they will try to go up 3-2 on the series. He also surrendered a pair of offensive rebounds to Marcin Gortat and was getting overwhelmed in the paint. When the Celtics play well, it coincides with Washington breakdowns, and the Celtics have had to overcome large deficits just to win at the end. Bradley Beal agreed with Brooks' claim, and added some more insight into how the 26-0 run happened: defense. He attempted to warm up before Game 3 on Friday before the determination was made that he could not play. To avenge Oubre, who was punished for charging into Boston's Kelly Olynyk, the crowd lustily booed Olynyk every time he touched the ball. He had a awful 0-for-8 first-half performance, but he put in a game's worth of perfection in the third quarter, including one of the best passes in the playoffs this season.
With John Wall and Beal wearing him out defensively, Thomas played only 2:42 in the fourth quarter.
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22-0 run: Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Gerald Green, Jae Crowder, Al Horford (subs during run: Marcus Smart for Thomas six points in, Jaylen Brown for Green six points in, Terry Rozier for Crowder 10 points in, Thomas returns and replaces Horford 17 points in, Kelly Olynyk for Bradley 17 points in, Jonas Jerebko for Brown 20 points in).
Thomas acknowledged that the Wizards' 26-0 third-quarter run was the reason for the result, not the officiating. Despite blowing early leads during Games 1 and 2, the Wizards finally held on through the finish.
The Washington Wizards hope to tie up this series before heading back to Boston for game five. The margin reached 12, but Wall roared from there with all 14 of his first-half points coming in the second quarter. Johnson's three from the right corner with 11:10 left in the third would be the last meaningful Celtics field goal of the game. The Wizards have two chances to snag a game on the road. And while Game Four ended - just as Game Three did - with them having crafted a blowout, it featured more spirited competition in the first half. This was supposed to be different this year, and if the Celtics are going to move on to the eastern conference finals, they need to make some serious adjustments.
After the Celtics jumped out to a 2-0 series lead, there were talks of Boston rolling to a long-awaited Eastern Conference Finals clash with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Celtics do have home court advantage in this series, which is now a best-of-3.
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