Two days after celebrating Banner 18 with a dominant victory over the New York Knicks, the Boston Celtics left the ring ceremony behind them on Thursday night in Washington and began the search for Banner 19 in earnest against the Wizards. Although they struggled on the defensive court in the first half, they made the necessary adjustments to shut down Washington in the second half, securing a 122-102 win and moving to 2-0 on the year.

Jayson Tatum continued his excellent start to the season with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists. He might have been able to compete for a triple-double if his services had been needed in the fourth quarter. In support, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White combined for 46 points on 16-of-31 shooting, and Payton Pritchard made five threes off the bench. For the Wizards, Jordan Poole rode a strong first half to a 26-point performance, and Jonas Valanciunas added 18 points off the bench.

While the Celtics opened their season with a huge 43-point first quarter against the Knicks, they didn’t find nearly as much separation in the early game against Washington. The offense continued to dissect its opponents – they scored 33 points in the opening frame, with 14 points in the first quarter from Tatum – but the upstart young Wizards put Boston’s defense on their heels. Specifically, it was Poole who got into trouble early; after an uneven first season in Washington, he opened his second with a blistering 17-point quarter, shooting 5-of-6 from three-point range. The Celtics entered the second quarter with a 33-32 lead.

The scoring continued to define the night as play resumed in the second quarter. The Celtics did significant damage at the free throw line, shooting 16 times at the charity stripe to Washington’s six in the first half for 13 shots. The defense, however, was puzzlingly incompetent. The Wizards were able to push the pace and find success against the Celtics on the perimeter, including a particularly egregious sequence where Kuzma faced Horford and Neemias Queta and came up with a wide-open dunk. Washington scored a whopping 30 points in the paint in the first half.

However, led by Tatum’s continued brilliance, the Celtics found some momentum late in the first half. Fresh off a near-flawless 37-point game against the Knicks, Tatum scored 20 points in the first half against the Wizards, including cooking the rookie Sarr for a pair of pull-up three-point jumpers. Brown scored a pair of consecutive buckets late in the second quarter and the Celtics enjoyed a 10-point lead at halftime, 64-54.

An early 9-2 run for the Celtics in the early third quarter extended the change in fortunes, with the Celtics riding a 19-3 run to take a lead that looked more like what was expected of them. Boston’s offense continued to generate and convert quality looks, but more importantly, the defense shut down Washington’s scoring attack. The Wizards scored just six points in as many minutes to open the second half, and the Celtics expanded to a 25-point lead entering the final quarter, 98-73 – a lead that could have been even bigger if Pritchard had unleashed a successful goal. end of quarter swell just a few fractions of a second earlier.

If there was any potential for drama in the fourth quarter, it was quickly quashed by a red-hot Brown. Boston’s star wing celebrated his 28th birthday by drilling consecutive threes when play resumed, pushing the Celtics’ lead to 29 points and effectively putting the Wizards on ice. The Boston lead was 30 points and the core rotation hit the bench not long after. As the Celtics ran down the clock near the end of regulation, rookie Baylor Scheierman checked in for the first time this season and recorded the first points of his NBA career. Scheierman converted on a layup and cashed in a pair of free throws to finish with four points in his first NBA action.

Next, the Celtics will look to extend their early win streak in Detroit, where they will take on the youthful Pistons at 7:00 PM EST on NBC Sports Boston.