On this day in Boston Celtics history, the storied franchise fell 96-90 to a determined Washington Wizards squad in the Disney bubble restart of 2020 hosted at the ESPN parent company’s Lake Buena Vista, Florida-located Wide World of Sports complex.
To be fair, it was not exactly the Celtics’ best players taking the floor that night with Boston choosing to rest their starters with a first-round playoff matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers already locked in place. But the Wizards big man put up 26 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 steals for a career performance with teammate Troy Brown, Jr. turning in 17 points and 8 boards of his own.
The game was hard to watch for fans of both teams with neither shooting above 40% from the floor.
The Celtics were led by guard Javonte Green’s 23 points, a season-high for the reserve wing.
“He played with great intensity on both ends of the floor, was trying to do all the right stuff, and obviously made a big impact offensively and did some really good things on the glass,” said then-head coach Brad Stevens after the game via the AP.
Forward Semi Ojeleye added 13 points and 8 rebounds, and Grant Williams provided 7 points and 8 boards off the bench.
Boston’s next game would find the Celtics taking on the Sixers in the first round of the 2020 East playoffs.
Finally, it is also the date that point guard Dennis Schroder signed a contract with the team in 2021.
The German floor general would sign what was then seen as a below-market deal after misreading the market and ending up agreeing to a mini-midlevel exception contract instead of a much larger offer he could have signed to return to the Lakers.
Schroder’s tenure in Boston was a short one — just 49 games — before he’d be dealt to the Houston Rockets along with Enes Kanter Freedom in a trade bringing back old friend Daniel Theis.
He averaged 14.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game with the team.
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