Jayson Tatum was so disappointed in his last game that he went to the team’s practice facility later that night to work on his shooting.
The Boston Celtics forward could go straight home on Wednesday.
Tatum followed up his historically bad shooting performance by scoring 23 points and Kemba Walker had 25 to help the Celtics overcome 44 points from Bradley Beal and beat Washington 140-133 for Boston’s ninth straight victory.
Tatum was one for 18 in the victory over Dallas on Monday and then posted on Instagram a video of himself back at the team’s practice facility, saying: “1-18 gotta be able to laugh at ya self sometime.”
On Wednesday, he was nine for 20, going one for five from three-point range.
Jaylen Brown scored 22, while Enes Kanter had 13 points and nine rebounds for the Celtics, who have not lost since the season opener at Philadelphia. It is their longest streak since winning 16 in a row in the 2017-2018 season.
Boston had their highest point total since 1992, but also allowed 18 more points than in any other game this season.
“It was ugly, and we got it done,” Brown said. “But we’ve got to play Celtic basketball.”
Rui Hachimura scored 21 points, while Davis Bertans had nine points and 10 rebounds for the Wizards, who lost their third straight game and for the sixth time in seven games.
Former Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas, who led Boston to the 2017 Eastern Conference finals, scored 18 and had seven assists.
Boston led by two at the half and made it a six-point game after three quarters. After Bertans hit a trey to open the fourth and make it 102-99, the Celtics ran off the next 10 points.
Boston led by 16 points, 137-121, with 3 minutes, 39 seconds left in the game before the Wizards ran off 12 in a row. Walker hit a three-pointer with just more than a minute left to preserve the victory and Hachimura missed a trey at the other end.
“When you score 133 points, that should win games,” Beal said. “Especially on the road.”
In other results, it was:
‧ Rockets 102, Clippers 93
‧ Timberwolves 129, Spurs 114
‧ Magic 112, 76ers 97
‧ Grizzlies 119, Hornets 117
‧ Lakers 120, Warriors 94
‧ Raptors 114, Trail Blazers 106
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