BOSTON -- There was no all-black funeral attire this time when the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards met, but there was a grim reaper. In a black-hooded robe with a patient female companion alongside, the reaper sat about 20 rows behind one of the baskets at TD Garden, a cardboard-and-duct tape scythe in tow. Throughout much of the fourth quarter, the reaper walked down to floor level with the goal of distracting Wizards free throw shooters.
The cardboard gravestone he carried indicated in scribbled marker that the reaper had collected the egos of John Wall and Bradley Beal and suggested the Celtics and Wizards' rivalry was the "most manufactured in sport.