The second of the two NBA play-in games in the Eastern Conference took place Tuesday night in Boston when the Wizards took on the Celtics. Early on and throughout the first-half, the Wizards were having their way with Boston, but in the third quarter, Jayson Tatum took over this game for Boston and the Celtics never looked back! 

Tatum scored 23 of his 50 total points in the third quarter alone and accounted for 60.5% of the Celtics total scoring output for the third quarter. The 23-year-old forward obviously had another remarkable game, and we will touch on his performance shotly, but overall, the Celtics barely escaped with a victory in this one.

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They did win by 18 points, which makes things seem like a blowout, but they did not really blow out the Wizards when you look at this game from a big picture. Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker combined for 79 total points in this one and outside of them, the rest of the Celtics’ team was pretty much non-existent. 

Russell Westbrook did not have a great game by his standards and Bradley Beal was visibly in a lot of discomfort due to a hamstring injury he had been dealing with. Not to mention, the Wizards really struggled to find production all game long, which can be directly correlated to the Celtics’ defensive gameplan. 

Overall, the Celtics won and they will move on to play the Nets in the first-round of the playoffs, but the Wizards will have to fight for their playoff lives in a “winner takes all” game against the Indiana Pacers for the rights to the 8-seed in the Eastern Conference. With that said, let’s take a look at three takeaways from Tuesday night’s Wizards-Celtics game and how this game affects both teams moving forward.