WASHINGTON – Still in search of getting off to a better start, the Boston Celtics continue to alternate one of their starting five spots with Amir Johnson with the first unit for tonight’s Game 4 matchup against Washington.
Johnson, who made a career-high 77 starts this season, was with the first group for Game 2 while Gerald Green got the starting nod in Games 1 and 3.
Johnson joins a foursome that includes Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder and Al Horford.
“One of the things that as I’ve looked at all the starts not only from the playoffs but the regular season, I actually thought we started better than the score in Game 2,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens. “We’ll see.”
Boston trailed Washington 42-29 after the first quarter of Game 2, the closest the Celtics have been to the Wizards after the first 12 minutes of play in this series.
Washington has been about as dominant as a team can be in the first quarters of this series. They average 39.7 points per game in the first which has enabled them to lead by an average of 16.3 points – too huge a deficit for any team to consistently come back from and win.
In Johnson’s only start in this series, he played just four minutes, 31 seconds and registered one turnover and one blocked shot.