The Boston Celtics won handily in their final home of the regular season Sunday vs. the Washington Wizards.
The TD Garden crowd was treated to a 144-102 C's victory. That propels them to second place in the Eastern Conference standings with the Milwaukee Bucks falling to the Dallas Mavericks. Boston has three games remaining in the campaign and currently sits 1.5 games behind the top-seeded Miami Heat.
Forsberg: Williams confident he'll be able to impact C's playoff run
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Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum led the Celtics' strong offensive showing with 32 and 22 points, respectively. Kristaps Porzingis and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope notched 17 points apiece for Washington.
Here are three instant takeaways from the Celtics' win. They'll travel to Chicago for a Wednesday night showdown with the Bulls at 8 p.m. ET.
Big day for the Celtics bench
The Celtics' second unit was on fire throughout the blowout victory. The impressive effort was led by the trio of Derrick White, Grant Williams, and Payton Pritchard.
Boston Celtics
White, who's gone through a shooting slump over the last month, ended up leading the C's bench with 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting. He shot 3-for-3 from long range while adding five rebounds and three assists in 24 minutes.
Williams tallied 16 points while showing off the 3-point range that's made him a key offensive contributor all season long. The 23-year-old was 4-for-5 from beyond the arc.
Pritchard added 14 points while going 4-for-7 from 3.
The starters got some rest with a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter. That allowed the C's reserves, namely Aaron Nesmith, to get some playing time.
Nesmith immediately put on a shooting clinic, drilling three straight 3-pointers and finishing with 11 points in eight minutes.
Altogether, the C's bench shot 15-for-23 from long range.
Offense firing on all cylinders
The Celtics' identity is their elite defense, but it's actually been the offense that's stood out most over the last couple of weeks. Boston now ranks No. 1 in the NBA in offensive rating since Jan. 23 following Sunday's lopsided victory.
This was the C's 10th 30-point lead and third 40-point win this season. They shot a season-high 61.5% from the floor and 52.3% (23-44) from 3-point range. Seven Celtics scored in double figures.
Boston also set a season-high with a whopping 39 assists on 56 baskets while only turning the ball over seven times. Tatum and Marcus Smart dished out seven assists apiece while Al Horford tallied six and Brown added five.
The absence of Robert Williams is a tremendous blow to the defense, so the Celtics' offense playing as well as it has provides a sigh of relief heading into the playoffs.
Jaylen Brown is red-hot
It was a huge March for Jayson Tatum, who took home three Eastern Conference Player of the Week awards. But over the last week or so, no one has been hotter than Jaylen Brown.
Brown continued his trend of lighting up the scoring column in the first frame. He came out firing with three straight 3-pointers to start the game and finished with 13 points in the quarter. It's the 10th time he's scored at least 10 points in the first quarter this season.
Brown finished with 32 points (12-17 FG, 4-5 3-PT) for the second consecutive game. The 25-year-old is averaging 28.9 points over his last nine games. He's getting hot at exactly the right time with the postseason approaching.
It isn't just Brown's hot shooting making an impact. He notched five assists after logging six and seven in his previous two outings, and added seven rebounds and two steals to the stat sheet.
Tatum and Brown have scored at least 20 points in nine straight games. They'll look to extend that streak to double-digits when they visit the Bulls on Wednesday.