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Emotional Matchup Could Spark C's Physicality

Marc D'Amico
Team Reporter and Analyst

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WALTHAM, Mass. – Brad Stevens has called upon his team to play a more physical brand of basketball.

His call may have sounded at just the right time.

Boston traveled to the nation’s capital Monday afternoon ahead of Tuesday’s matchup with the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center, a matchup that is sure to breed plenty of physicality.

As Jae Crowder stated following Monday’s practice, “It’s going to be a physical game. Those guys are probably going to be geared up for it. We’ve got to answer the bell.”

What an ironic choice of words, as this game may wind up being akin to 12 rounds in the ring.

These two teams hold a growing distaste for one another. They have played two games against each other this season, and during both contests, tempers flared in dramatic fashion.

First, amid a blowout win by the Wizards on Nov. 9 in Washington, John Wall was ejected from the game after committing a Flagrant 2 foul against Marcus Smart midway through the fourth quarter. Smart took exception to the play, leading to a slight confrontation between the two players on the court, and Smart stated after the game that Wall may have been frustrated by Smart’s ability to post Wall up.

Bad blood continued to pump more than two months later on Jan. 11, on a night during which the Celtics downed the Wizards 117-108 at TD Garden. That contest featured plenty of trash talk and multiple flare-ups. Bradley Beal was assessed a technical early in the third quarter after he and Smart tumbled to the floor along the baseline, a play which caused a snowball effect of emotions the remainder of the night.

“They talk a little more. They say a little more disrespectful things than other teams, so that’s what escalated things,” Crowder said of the Wizards before alluding to that confrontation between Smart and Beal.

Boston pulled ahead by 12 points during the final minutes of that game and cruised to an easy victory. However, tempers continued to flare following the final buzzer.

Crowder and Wall were caught jawing, nose to nose, in front of the Wizards bench following the game. Crowder famously put hit finger in Wall’s face, Wall responded with a slap in Crowder’s direction, and then a sizable scuffle broke out with each team’s staffs holding its players back.

The confrontation continued to spill over into the back hallways, requiring police officers to be stationed between the two locker rooms. Crowder and Wall were each fined by the league as a result of the incident.

Following the game, Washington’s Otto Porter said that the Celtics “try to play dirty,” which the C’s still take exception to.

“It went through this ear and out the other,” Isaiah Thomas said of Porter’s comments, “because we don’t play dirty. We know that. I think a lot of teams around this league know that we don’t play dirty. We just play very hard.”

Asked if Porter’s comment offends him, Thomas replied, “It does, because that’s not the truth. We don’t have those type of guys on this team that play dirty and we’re far from that.”

Washington would likely make a similar claim about itself. Both of these teams believe that they’re currently top-five seeds in the East because they play hard and they play the right way. When two such teams collide in a competitive atmosphere, emotions tend to run high.

Stevens wants his players to control their emotions Tuesday night. His message: play physical, but play smart.

“The one thing that you can’t misconstrue toughness for is fighting or physical for dirty play,” he stated. “The bottom line is you have to be appropriately physical to be a good team.”

There will surely be plenty of appropriate physicality during Tuesday night’s game. There’s also sure to be a few testy moments throughout the night.

For a Celtics team that has failed to meet Stevens’ demands of physical play, this type of game might be exactly what the doctor ordered. This type of game could very well wake the Celtics up.