WASH DC – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Washington Wizards kick off their 2024-25 season Thursday night with a home game against the Boston Celtics. The Wizards finished last season 15-67 — the worst record in team history — and the rebuild is ongoing.

Washington’s offseason additions include first-round draft picks Alex Sarr (No. 2), Carlton “Bub” Carrington (No. 14) and Kyshawn George (No. 24). The Wizards also added veterans Jonas Valanciunas, former Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon and Saddiq Bey, although Bey is expected to miss much of the season while he recovers from a torn ACL.

Brogdon will also miss Thursday’s game because of a torn thumb tendon.

“If we’re really to think about it — the phases of the rebuild — there’s the deconstruction phase. There’s the laying-the-foundation phase. There’s the building it back up, and then there’s fortifying what you build,” Wizards general manager Will Dawkins said during the team’s media day. “We’re still focused on deconstructing and laying that foundation.”

Jordan Poole, who is entering his second season with the Wizards after being acquired from Golden State, is expected to play more point guard this season. Poole’s role as a ball handler increased when Brian Keefe replaced Wes Unseld Jr. as the team’s head coach last January.

“Being able to get into transition, building confidence into my teammates — it’s something I’ve always been able to do, especially with the ball,” Poole said. “Guys are open, just get them the ball and try to put them in situations to be successful.”

Defending NBA champion Boston opened its season Tuesday with a 132-109 victory over the visiting New York Knicks. The Celtics tied an NBA record by making 29 3-pointers in the win.

Al Horford made the 29th 3-pointer with 8:54 to play, but Boston missed its next 13 shots from behind the arc to end the game. Boston tied the record set by the Milwaukee Bucks against the Miami Heat in 2020.

“It’s almost like we got jinxed or something,” Boston’s Jaylen Brown said. “When we were just playing, having fun, playing our style of basketball, everything was going in. And then once the crowd got into it and we started hunting them, we couldn’t even hit the broad side of the barn. Everything was off. We got a bunch of great looks and it was like a lid on the basket.”

Jayson Tatum made eight 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 37 points. Boston also received multiple 3-pointers from Derrick White (six), Brown (five), Jrue Holiday (four), Horford (three) and Sam Hauser (two). Payton Pritchard connected on the other 3-pointer.

“The biggest thing I’m proud of us is the mindset of the guys,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We weren’t stuck in the past. … We were physical on defense and were together on offense. It’s a great start.”

Washington hasn’t won 50 games in a season since 1979, which was the last time the franchise advanced to the NBA Finals.

“This is the best team I’ve been around in terms of chemistry, camaraderie and character since I’ve been in Washington,” Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma said.

–Field Level Media

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WASH DC – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Teams at opposite ends of the NBA standings will meet Sunday evening when the Boston Celtics visit the Washington Wizards. Then, add to that equation with the fact it’s not a great idea to schedule a game against the Celtics on St. Patrick’s Day.

Boston (52-14) will look to improve on the league’s best record. The Celtics extended their winning streak to four games by beating the visiting Phoenix Suns 127-112 on Thursday.

The Wizards (11-56) have lost three in a row, 19 of their past 21 and own the worst record in the NBA.

For the Celtics, Jaylen Brown remained hot by scoring a game-high 37 points in Thursday’s victory over the Suns. Brown is averaging 28.9 points per game since the All-Star break.

“We’re all in this together, from the organization to the coaches to the players,” Brown said. “I think that’s what creates the environment is the respect level. There’s no hierarchies. We all come together and come to work, and everybody comes to do their job.

“Joe (Boston coach Joe Mazzulla) sets the tone just being prepared, first. He’s diligent. And then he allows us to be who we are. We’ve been very well-coached, we’ve been disciplined, and we haven’t had so many lapses this season.”

Boston tied its season-high by making 25 3-pointers against the Suns. Al Horford was 6 of 10 on 3-point attempts and finished with a season-high 24 points.

“I think we did a good job reading the game quickly, and then also our guys getting to the paint, and then the rest of us kind of benefited from that,” Horford said. “So they were attacking at the paint, and then once the defense converges, they’re kicking the ball out, and we continued to do that time in and time out. It seemed like we made the right play for most of the night.”

The Wizards are coming off Saturday’s 127-98 setback at Chicago, which dropped Washington’s record to 4-20 under interim head coach Brian Keefe. Corey Kispert led Washington with 16 points and Bilal Coulibaly added 15.

Washington’s Deni Avdija was a late scratch and didn’t play against the Bulls because of a right knee contusion. Kispert replaced Avdija in the starting lineup.

“He (Avdija) warmed up, but he couldn’t go by the end,” Keefe said.

Washington also was without Tyus Jones, who missed his first game of the season with a back injury.

“They hurt us deep in the paint,” Keefe said. “They were able to get the ball in the paint, score in the paint (and) offensive rebound in the paint. We probably didn’t do enough with resistance early in the game, but as the game grew, our fight actually got better. I was pleased with that.”

Boston has been without center Kristaps Porzingis for its past four games. Porzingis is dealing with a strained right hamstring, and Mazzulla said his status is day-to-day.

“Regardless of who’s in, who’s out, I think what you’ve seen is we’ve played a certain level of basketball, and that’s the most important thing,” Mazzulla said. “You create an environment in the locker room where guys are out, but you can maintain your level of physicality and your level of play on both sides of the ball. It’s the most important thing.”

Sunday’s game will be the third meeting between the teams this season. Boston prevailed 126-107 at Washington on Oct. 30, plus 133-129 in Boston on Feb. 9. The teams will play their final game of the season on April 14 in Boston.

–Field Level Media

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PHOENIX – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – You take my problem and I’ll take yours.

The Phoenix Suns are finalizing a deal to acquire All-Star shooting guard Bradley Beal from the Washington Wizards in exchange for veteran point guard Chris Paul, shooting guard Landry Shamet and multiple second-round draft picks and pick swaps, The Athletic and ESPN reported Sunday.

The Suns — who had no first-round picks available to move in a trade — nevertheless managed to land Beal to pair with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.

Over the weekend, reports indicated the Beal sweepstakes were down to the Suns and the Miami Heat. Beal, who’s long stood firm about wanting to make things work in Washington, has to waive the NBA’s only no-trade clause in order to approve the deal.

Paul, a 12-time All-Star and 11-time All-NBA selection, could attract an interested third party to the deal as he’s expected to ask the Wizards to move him to a contender, multiple reports said. One of Paul’s old teams, the Los Angeles Clippers, is likely to pursue a reunion with him, according to Bleacher Report.

Beal, who turns 30 this month, played in just 50 games (all starts) last season. He averaged 23.2 points, 5.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game and shot 36.5 percent from 3-point range. Injuries and multiple stays on the COVID-19 reserve list have limited Beal to just 90 games over the past two seasons.

In his 11-year career since the Wizards made him the third overall draft pick out of Florida in 2012, Beal has averaged 22.1 points, 4.3 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game over 695 games (661 starts). He was an All-Star in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21 and finished second in the NBA in scoring twice (30.5 ppg in 2019-20, 31.3 ppg in 2020-21).

Paul, 38, averaged 13.9 points, 8.9 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals across 59 starts for the Suns in 2022-23. He has career averages of 17.9 points, 9.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 steals in 1,214 games with the New Orleans Hornets (2005-11), Clippers (2011-17), Houston Rockets (2017-19), Oklahoma City Thunder (2019-20) and Suns (2020-23).

Paul led the NBA in assists just two seasons ago when he averaged 10.8 per contest in his second campaign with the Suns.

Phoenix posted a league-best 64-18 record that season after falling to the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Finals in 2021. But the Suns were knocked out of the playoffs in the second round in both 2022 and 2023. New team owner Mat Ishbia fired veteran coach Monty Williams and hired former NBA champion Frank Vogel as his replacement earlier this month.

Shamet, 26, has played in 302 games (92 starts) for four teams since the Philadelphia 76ers drafted him in the first round (No. 26 overall) in 2018. He has career averages of 8.9 points and 1.7 assists per game with a 38.8 percentage from 3-point range for the 76ers (2018-19), Clippers (2019-20), Brooklyn Nets (2020-21) and Suns.

–Field Level Media

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BOSTON – Boston’s all-star forward Jayson Tatum scored 23 of his 50 points in the third quarter and the Celtics advanced to the NBA Playoffs with a 118-100 victory over the Washington Wizards in the NBA’s new “play-in” tournament. Washington will play the Indiana Pacers (144-117 winners over Charlotte) on Thursday with the winner grabbing the final Eastern Conference playoff slot.

All-Star Kemba Walker added 29 points as Boston, which had lost five of its final six regular-season games, claimed the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference bracket. The Celtics will meet the second-seeded Brooklyn Nets in a first-round matchup, with Game 1 set for Saturday night.

Washington, which went 17-6 to finish the regular season and outscored Boston 33-25 in the second quarter of play, led 56-55 at the beginning of the third quarter before the Celtics exploded with 14 straight points as part of a 19-2 run.

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Services Reports) – The oft-injured, chemistry-challenged Boston Celtics ended the NBA regular season in a deep slump, while the surging Washington Wizards soared to the finish line. Yet, with the NBA’s new Play-In pre-playoff tournament beginning this week, the two teams will converge Tuesday night when the Celtics host the Wizards. The winner will land the No. 7 seed for the Eastern Conference Playoffs, while the loser will get another attempt to play their way in on Thursday night.

The play-in games are going to be exciting for fans and it puts an added weight and added importance,” Boston coach Brad Stevens said. “And then once you get into the playoffs and teams dial into each other and prepare for each other, you see everybody’s level rise.”

The Celtics (36-36), who finished seventh in the Eastern Conference, need to raise their level now as they struggled down the stretch with five losses in six games and nine of their past 13. In previous NBA seasons, the Celtics would be facing the No. 2 Brooklyn Nets in a first-round Best of 7 series, beginning in Brooklyn.

Regardless, the Celtics are limping into the postseason, having recently lost standout swingman Jaylen Brown (wrist) for the rest of the season. He averaged 24.7 points per game and losing Brown’s firepower hurts even more when the opponent trots out Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook as the starting backcourt.

Washington (34-38), which is in the eighth position, was red-hot down the stretch with 17 wins in its past 23 games. Westbrook went into high-level triple-double mode and finished with 38 on the season and 184 for his career, eclipsing NBA legend Oscar Robertson‘s long-held record of 181.

Beal finished second in the NBA in scoring at 31.3 points per game but is less than full strength due to a strained left hamstring that caused him to miss three games before he returned Sunday and scored 25 points in a 115-110 win over the Charlotte Hornets.

“There’s no set-backs, which is good,” Beal said. “I didn’t injure it any worse than what it was. Obviously, it still probably won’t be 100 percent. It is just a matter of managing it as best I can.”

Westbrook recorded triple-doubles in 20 of his past 24 appearances and his first season of teaming up with Beal has been a big success. He averaged a triple-double for the fourth time in the past five seasons, recording an NBA-leading 11.7 assists to go with 22.2 points and a career-high 11.5 rebounds.

After having to yield to James Harden last season with the Houston Rockets, Westbrook has been free to play the game his way under Washington coach Scott Brooks, who was previously his coach in Oklahoma City.

“You gotta give credit to our coach because he’s done an amazing job of making adjustments on the fly,” Westbrook said of Brooks. “The players always get the recognition, but Scotty has done a hell of a job of being consistent and finding ways to make us better along with the coaching staff.”

There will certainly be the eyes on the Boston coach as well as Stevens’ club took a step back this season after losing in the Eastern Conference finals in three of the past four seasons.

This time, the Celtics are still trying to make it into the field and multiple players have been ailing down the stretch, including star forward Jayson Tatum (ankle).

Tatum isn’t worried about the injury for Tuesday, but he understands his club needs to step up its performance.

“It’s been such an up-and-down season,” said Tatum, who averages 26.4 points per game. “Obviously, the last couple of games haven’t gone our way.”

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