Bradley Beal: Final seconds’ loss to Celtics was’ the most beautiful s — ‘

Bradley Beal and the Washington Wizards took part in the game against the Boston Celtics winners of seven of their last eight on Sunday and looked to the world as if they would leave the game winners of eight out of their last nine.

Instead, the Wizards paraded Jayson Tatum to the edge in the last minute, and Beal slipped and fell with 12 seconds left – stepped outside the bounds and returned the ball to the Celtics. Tatum’s fourth basket in the final two minutes left the Celtics on one, and Boston chased Beal into the corner, trapping him in final possession. Beal forced a hard shot, and the Celtics escaped with a wild victory.

“It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Beal said after the game. “Slipped out of bounds and gave up three layups at the end of the game.”

Beal had reason to be steamy. He threw in 46 points on 29 shots and helped the Wizards build up a five-point lead with just 45 seconds left. Even with Tatum’s lineup, Washington could have forced the Celtics to fire three-pointers by simply making free throws if Beal had not slipped off limits.

“We have to win that game, man,” Beal said. “We did everything we could possibly do to enable us to win. We have to win.

‘We’re 7-2 in our last nine. This is wonderful. We need to be 8-1. ”

The Celtics obviously saw things a little differently. Boston overcame the absence of Jaylen Brown, who was sidelined with arthritis, while Daniel Theis threw in 20 points and Kemba Walker scored 21 points and eight key assistants. More importantly, a struggling team has found a way to win a type of game they have mostly lost recently.

‘It’s going to be a very tough game, especially the way they play and they’m pretty full – without Ish [Smith]”But otherwise pretty full,” Stevens said. “I’m very happy with our guys because there were a lot of opportunities to fold there and they just stuck with it.”

And of course, Tatum gave the lead. His late burst shot his points total to 31 on 12-for-22. Beal, who is a few years older than Tatum in St. Louis grew up and close friends with him fraudulently offered some appreciation.

“He’s a special talent,” Beal said. “Everyone knows our relationship. Everyone knows we compete, but we pull for each other. So, listen, he’s an All-Star for a reason. He is a special talent. I’m pissed he should actually go against us. He struggled a few times to take part in the match tonight. But he always picks up his energy when he plays me, so in that regard I was happy for him, just out of a fan aspect to get himself going and out of his little slump or whatever, but I hated it against us. ”

For his part, Tatum said he hopes he and Beal are in the same team when this year’s All-Star captains split the teams next weekend.

“I have never played in organized basketball in the same team with him,” said Tatum. ‘So it will be special for us if we can. I mean it’s going to be our first All Star game together, but hopefully we’ll be in the same team. ”

Get the browser alerts from Boston.com:

Turn on news reports directly in your web browser.

Turn on notifications

Okay, you’re logged in!

Source