Montrezl Harrell scored 25 points and 11 rebounds, Spencer Dinwiddie added 22 points and the Washington Wizards held off the host Boston Celtics for a 116-107 win on Wednesday night.
Boston grabbed an 89-87 lead early in the fourth quarter and was within 95-94 after Jaylen Brown’s reverse lay-up with 7:38 remaining before Washington used a 13-4 surge to open up a double-digit lead with 3:23 to go.
Back-to-back layups from Al Horford and a 3-pointer by Dennis Schroder cut the Wizards’ lead to 108-105 with two minutes left. Bradley Beal’s floater at the 1:23 mark put the Wizards back up by five before Brown made a layup 14 seconds later.
Dinwiddie’s layup with 48.8 seconds to go made it 112-107 and he sealed the game with four free throws in the final 27.1 of play.
Beal had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Kyle Kuzma scored 12 with eight boards and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 11 for Washington, which was won three of four to open the 2021-22 season.
Jayson Tatum had 23 points and seven rebounds and Schroder scored 22 with six assists to lead the Celtics. Horford totaled 16 points and 11 rebounds, Robert Williams III had 13 points and 11 boards and Brown added 13 points for Boston.
The Celtics had their two-game winning streak snapped and fell to 0-2 at home after a 115-83 blowout loss versus Toronto last Friday.
Washington held a 62-52 advantage at halftime after leading by as many as 14 in the second quarter. Horford’s layup with 4:08 left in the first quarter gave Boston a six-point lead before the Wizards closed on a 14-3 run to go up 24-19 after one.
Wizards center Daniel Gafford suffered a right quad contusion in the first half and was helped back to the locker room. He would not return and finished with three points and four rebounds in just over seven minutes.
The Wizards and Celtics meet again Saturday night in Washington. Prior to that, the Wizards host the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday night.
–Field Level Media