Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo both provided double-doubles as the Boston Celtics came back to beat the Washington Wizards, 100-94, on Wednesday night at the TD Garden in Boston MA.
The two squads would trade leads throughout the contest and it took overtime for the Celtics to prevail for their second-consecutive win.
Garnett continued his hot night from the first half, connecting on his first two attempts from the field to open the second half, after scoring five points and grabbing 10 boards over the first two quarters. Garnett would finish with 20 points, 13 boards, two assists, two blocks and one steal on the night.
Boston looked like a different team in the second half, functioning just fine when Garnett was forced to take a breather. The forward exited the game at the 7:43 mark with the Wizards up 46-44. Forward Chris Wilcox provided a third-quarter spark and the Celtics took a 66-58 lead into the fourth quarter– a lead Boston would not relinquish until there was less than two minutes remaining in the game.
In just his third game back from heart surgery that ended his season early last year, Wilcox scored six points, grabbed two rebounds, blocked one shot and was +8 in his four minutes on the floor.
Boston's bench came alive for the first time this year, combining for 41 points and 13 rebounds after only scoring 10 points in the first half. Jason Terry led the bench unit with 16 points over 32 minutes.
Kevin Seraphin led the Washington team in scoring yet again, finishing with 16 points and nine boards over 36 minutes. Wizards' rookie Bradley Beal had his strongest game thus far in this young season, scoring 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting.
On the night, both teams were careless with the ball, with Boston forcing 19 Wizards turnovers, while giving the ball away 16 times. Through three quarters, Washington had only attempted two free throws, while the Celtics had taken 20. The Wizards finished with seven attempts from the line, while Boston shot 34 times from the charity stripe.
The Boston point guard, Rondo, had 18 points and 14 assists on the night, moving into third all-time with 28 consecutive games of 10 assists or more. Celtics' rookie Jared Sullinger started just his second career game Wednesday.
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