Despite all the last-minute jockeying between Cleveland and Boston for the No. 1 seed, it feels like the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards were always destined to play each other in the 2017 Playoffs. The bad blood started last season when Jae Crowder got into a verbal altercation with then-head coach Randy Wittman and Marcus Smart gave Bradley Beal a concussion with a shot to the head. The animosity continued in the offseason when Crowder ridiculed the idea that Al Horford would choose an inferior team like the Wizards over the Celtics.
The rivalry, if you want to call it that, continued this season when Crowder poked Wall in the face after a January 11 Celtics win, and it reached a crescendo on January 24 with the infamous “Funeral Game” where Wizards players dressed in all-black for a home game and proceeded to dismantle the visiting Celtics.