John Wall, Wizards use two staggering runs to climb back in series

Markieff Morris has thoughts. In the midst of Washington’s 26-0 run Sunday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, this is what came to mind:

“Blow them the [expletive] out,” Morris said. “Just keep pressing them. Go up by 50, if we can. That’s the mindset I feel like all of us had.”

Washington put together a 22-0 run in the first quarter of Game 3. That was superseded in might and awe by Sunday’s 26-0 run that lasted more than half of the third quarter in Game 4. Afterward, Boston coach Brad Stevens said those two stretches ruined the Celtics’ trip to Washington. He also suggested Boston would be better off “drop-kicking” the ball into the stands when they turned it over as opposed to allowing a scramble that resulted in a John Wall-led fastbreak.

The surges made Washington the first team to have two games with a run of 20-plus points in one postseason since the 2011 Spurs.

Two games, two series-altering outbursts by the Wizards. Let’s take a closer look at them:

On the floor for the Celtics:

22-0 run: Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Gerald Green, Jae Crowder, Al Horford (subs during run: Marcus Smart for Thomas six points in, Jaylen Brown for Green six points in, Terry Rozier for Crowder 10 points in, Thomas returns and replaces Horford 17 points in, Kelly Olynyk for Bradley 17 points in, Jonas Jerebko for Brown 20 points in). In all, the Celtics tried 10 players to stop the blitz.

26-0 run: Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Amir Johnson, Al Horford (subs during run: Marcus Smart for Johnson 11 points in, Kelly Olynyk for Crowder 21 points in, Gerald Green for Bradley 22 points in). Boston used eight players during this stretch. Horford and Thomas never left the floor.

On the floor for the Wizards:

22-0 run: John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, Markieff Morris, Marcin Gortat (subs during run: Bojan Bogdanovic for Morris six points in, Brandon Jennings for Beal 10 points in, Kelly Oubre Jr. for Porter 17 points in, Ian Mahinmi for Gortat 17 points in).

26-0 run: John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, Markieff Morris, Marcin Gortat (subs during run: None).

Time of runs from Wizards first basket to Celtics score to end them:

22-0 run: 4:56.

26-0 run: 5:59.

First points in each run: Markieff Morris free throws.

Boston turnovers during 22-0 run: 5 (Smart with three)

Boston turnovers during 26-0: 8 (Thomas with four)

Washington shooting percentage during runs:

22-0 run: 75 percent

26-0 run: 83.3 percent

Percentage of time in the two home games Washington was on a 48-0 run: 11.4

Percentage of Washington’s points in the series scored in those runs: 10.3

Percentage of Washington’s points in the two home games scored in those runs: 20.3

Scorers during the runs: John Wall, 12 points; Otto Porter, 11 points; Markieff Morris, nine points; Bradley Beal, eight points; Bojan Bogdanovic, six points, Marcin Gortat, two points

Stevens’ thoughts: “One of the things [is] if you turn the ball over against these guys you prefer to drop-kick it into the stands so that at least you can set your defense. Their attack in transition killed us. In each of these two games, I think that our offense and our turnovers in that run separated the game — [Game 4] it was in the first quarter, [Sunday] it was on the third quarter. They made us pay for it.”