Post Game - Preseason vs Philly - Sunday, October 8 (W)

Celtics-76ers takeaways: Porzingis, Pritchard star in preseason opener

Justin Leger
Sun, Oct 8, 2023, 9:12 PM EDT·4 min read

The Boston Celtics returned to action Sunday night with a thrilling 114-106 victory in their preseason opener vs. the Philadelphia 76ers.

It was an eventful exhibition as Boston's starters played the first three quarters. We got a good look at prized offseason additions Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, who finished with 17 and six points respectively.

Payton Pritchard, who agreed to a four-year extension earlier in the day, put on a show in front of the TD Garden crowd with a game-high 26 points. Jaylen Brown had himself a night as well with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting.



On the Sixers' side, Tyrese Maxey took over with 24 points (19 in first half) on 9-of-17 shooting. Jaden Springer added 14 points off the bench for Philly.

Boston's next preseason tilt is set for 7:30 p.m. ET Monday against the New York Knicks. First, here are our takeaways from Sunday's opener.

First look at the new guys

Kristaps Porzingis wasted no time making his presence felt at TD Garden. The 7-foot-3 big man opened the scoring with a 3-pointer and didn't stop there.

Not long after the 3, Porzingis put an ankle-breaking move on his defender and finished strong at the rim for a dunk. A minute later, he threw down an alley-oop from Derrick White.



Porzingis added another 3 in the third quarter and also made an impact defensively with several shot contests that don't show up in the stat sheet. He finished with 17 points (5-7 FG), five rebounds, one assist, and a block in 25 minutes.

Jrue Holiday also made his unofficial C's debut and while his performance wasn't as loud as Porzingis', he had a couple of highlight-worthy moments. He notched six points on 2-of-10 shooting with both of his made shots coming from 3-point range.





Holiday also recorded five rebounds and showed his All-Defensive talent with three steals in 22 minutes.

Three more newcomers also made an impact off the bench Sunday. Oshae Brissett had a solid C's debut with seven points (3-6 FG) and four boards. Lamar Stevens had five points and three rebounds in five minutes. Dalano Banton chipped in five points and three rebounds of his own in 13 minutes.

A day to remember for Payton Pritchard

Pritchard's day started with a four-year contract extension and ended with a superb showing in Boston's preseason opener.

The fourth-year point guard finished the first quarter with a bang. He drilled an and-one, buzzer-beating 3-pointer from halfcourt.



He stayed hot in the second quarter with a pair of 3s, then picked up where he left off in the fourth quarter with three more long-range buckets, including this deep one for the dagger.



Pritchard paced both teams in scoring with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting (6-11 3-PT) to go with his four assists. He'll resume his reserve duties this season, but he'll be a key contributor off of a Boston bench that lost some of its depth over the summer.

Jayson Tatum shaking off the rust

Tatum still finds a way to stuff the stat sheet on his off days, and that's exactly what happened in this one.

The four-time All-Star looked rusty as he shot just 3-of-13 from the floor (0-for-4 from 3). Still, he managed to record a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. He also dished five assists and added a steal in his 27 minutes.

With the Celtics playing the second night of a back-to-back on Monday, we may not see much of Tatum against New York. But the next time he takes the court, it's safe to assume he'll be more efficient than he was on Sunday.

Al Horford still looks spry

Horford continues to show that age is just a number.

The 37-year-old center did a little bit of everything during his 21 minutes in the preseason opener, with 17 of those minutes coming in the first half. He tallied five points with his one make coming from beyond the arc. He also shined defensively with four rebounds and two blocks.

With Robert Williams off to Portland, Horford will be counted on to give the C's much-needed frontcourt depth behind the oft-injured Porzingis. Sunday's performance was a reminder that he's up for the task.

Hi,
Finally. Basketball is back.
The first game had its bright and dark spots.
Unfortunately, Ebiid didn't play - we couldn't see how the Celtics are going to handle him (and the likes).
I still think Brad should get rid of Luke - there are a few centers available that would do the job better.
Jrue looked really "quiet" - he will need some time to get fully integrated.
KP, on the other hand, was really "loud" - showed a few things he's capable of.
The Js seemed to pick up where they left off in the spring.
The garbage time crew (Banton, Brisset and Stevens) was really unimpressive.
And, of course, the star of the game - PP.

Today is part 2. I guess, Joe will put the small line in action. AH is off. So it's going to be DW and Jrue, the Js and KP.

AK

Keeping in mind these thoughts are about last night's game only and don't necessarily mean a single thing, especially given that Embiid and Harden didn't play at all.  Hardly a measuring stick game.

Tatum 3-13, 0-4 from 3.  I'm not going to get crazy about this, but that wasn't pretty.

Al rotated well on defense, got 2 blocks.  That's spry?  He did ok.  How will he look after game 75?

Z looked very good.  I thought he looked a tad slow on defense, but that might be completely understandable given he's brand new to Joe's system.  Nevertheless he changed a lot of shots just by his presence.  He's just not a leaper.  He'll block shots but he's not going to jump out of the arena like RWill did, and we just have to adjust to our rim protector being effective because he's tall and not because he's uber-athletic.  Offensively he was all we could ask for.  Overall he did quite well.  Looking forward I expect him to get even better as he integrates with his teammates and Joe's system.




Derrick forgot there was a game.  not-worried.

Jaylen started off a little weak, I thought he was a step behind on defense, which got my attention given he was talking about focusing on his defense. He scored 9 points in a row and coasted to the bench.  7-10 is impressive, especially when 7 of those 10 fgas were in the paint.

The first Payton Pritchard Podium Game.  If 7-10 from Jaylen, with 7 from the paint, is impressive then how about Payton's 9-14 with 6-11 from 3?  That's 3-3 from 2, and that's really impressive for a 6'1" guard.  26 points in 23 minutes, 4 assists and 2 turnovers.  16 4th quarter points for Pritchard, going 6-8.  Everybody has been gushing about how Payton showed up for workouts before camp started and was just tearing it up, and how impressive he has been after camp began.  Sam said Payton was "out for blood".  Man.  If this is more like Payton's new norm we're in pretty good shape.




Speaking of Sam, an underwhelming 0-6 night.  He was the only Celtic who didn't score, and 12 Celtics played.

Oshae showing a lot of aggressiveness on the boards.  He got called for an over-the-back offensive rebounding foul that I thought was a little ticky-tack, but I'll take it.  Be aggressive on the offensive boards.  Make them worry about securing the ball.  A solid start for Brissett.

Lamar Stevens is a very physical player.  You can see he's not going to try and finesse anybody.  That works for me too.

Jrue was effective on defense, not on offense.  I'm not worried about either.

Banton looks like still pretty raw.  He dribbles too high, not surprising given he's billed as a 6'7" point guard, the ball doesn't look like it's on a string with him, but he attacked last night even without the ball.  I think both of his 2 offensive rebounds came after 2 missed fgas by him.  That's why he was 2-6, he missed some in close shots but recovered.  If there was any question who was going to be higher up on the depth chart, Banton or Pritchard, last night blew away some of the smoke.  Pritchard looked like he was a killa and Banton looked like a labrador retriever.

Overall I thought the bench looked very out of sync early in the 4th but pulled themselves together and got the win.  They were helped a lot, of course, by Payton's 16 4th quarter but they all did pretty well.

The Js dribbled too much.  Deja vu all over again.

Nobody got hurt, everybody had fun, that's all I'm asking for at this time.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401591874

Nice to see Celtic basketball again!!!

Although just a meaningless pre season game got to like PP. He looks great. As I have said before his only liability is his size. If used correctly he can really help us. I like what I saw of Brissett, he plays hard and doesn't back down. If he can shoot the three with some success, he's definitely a rotation player. I thought Stevens also looked good in limited minutes. However, we are back to Luke. Again, it's only one game, but he looked terrible. We need that backup 5 to be effective in limited minutes, but I'm not sure he's the answer. I hope we have some alternatives because our defensive rebounding is suspect. As for the starters, they looked out of synch, but they will be fine. The Zinger looks like a good fit. Once he and J's get onto the same page with their pick and roll game it should be fun to watch.

After a miserable day of watching the Bills and Orioles rip my heart out of my chest, watching the Celtics pre-season recording gave me a little glimmer of hope again.

I was surprised at the minutes given to the first unit, but there is a need to build chemistry. That happens more so in games, so it's understandable. I don't think we'll see Jrue come off the bench once everything gets put in order. He's going to need to be on the floor from the opening tip for big minutes as the primary playmaker. I think we'll see White and Horford alternately fill that sixth man role. Horford brought some early energy and the two Jays mostly looked like the cornerstones they should be, although Tatum showed some rust. The two can do everything one needs to do except put it on the floor, and I think we can do fine without them handling the ball for extended periods if Holiday, White and Pritchard can do their thing.

Porzingis looked like we all hoped he would. Seeing him close out and block a couple was reassuring. Pritchard may be seeing more minutes than many of us thought. He can score and is probably the team's best playmaker behind Holiday and ahead of White. Stevens showed he needs more than 5 minutes; there's your tough-as-nails defender. Not much to say for the rest of the bench, but it's early and, again, the starting 6 occupied a lot of minutes for a pre-season game 1 against a short-handed opponent. Banton at least appeared to be more capable than I would have guessed. He displayed determination and some hustle if nothing else. Brissett looked underwhelming and lost on both ends at times, but managed a highlight or two. Kornet and Hauser... well, we'll see with a little more pre-season work.

Overall I think the team is in pretty good shape. Not very deep, but no one else is these days, either. I'm looking forward to seeing players gel with some more playing time. The coaching staff that has been put together seems well rounded.

Can't add much here as we all seemed to see the same thing.  Not worried about the score, just the play of the players.  Although sans Embiid and Hard Head, we should have lapped them.  But we had lots of new faces and adjustments to make.  And I think we did an excellent job of handling all that.

Clearly, P-Squared did some good, hard work on all the things he could improve on in his game sans height this summer.  Real smooth, unfettered shooting motion with laser-like precision of hitting the target.  Really looks good.  He also wanted to show the new contract was no joke and well earned.  Only concern here is that this is the best we're going to see and it's all downhill from here.  This isn't the regular season, either.  Once the word gets out, he may return to the norm.  First thought I had, though, was EH-like.  That's all I'll say for now.  If he can come off the bench like that and tear it up night-in, night-out, the opposition is in real trouble.  

Brissell (although I can't get the Jerky Boys out of my head with his name...It's Kissell!!  The super from across the way!)  looked very good.  Again, it's preseason and everybody looks good in preseason.  Quick turnaround as we play the Knicks tonight.  We'll see.  

KP was/is as advertised.  Nice addition, Brad.  

Doogie did not look good.  Wasn't even looking for his 3-point shot or trying to take his shot and when he did, it was Bricksville.

Where was our boy Jordan Walsh?!  No PT!  Must have po'ed the coach!  Would have been nice to see him play.  Maybe we'll see him tonight.  

4th quarter looked real good for the bench.  Took them a while to get going but the more they played, the better they looked.  

Jrue did a good job of being everyman, I thought, filling in where he was needed.  For his first game and just getting accustomed to everything, he did an excellent job.  

JB having his pants on backwards and his teammates riding him was hilarious!!  That won't happen again!  Just like when your a teenage and lock all three sets of keys in the car at the same time.  I haven't done it since, although now you can't do it thanks to technology!

Anyway, good start to the 2023-24 season of great expectations!  No rest for the weary...on to NYK!

db

P.S.  If like tonight, P-squared can literally run the floor ala Rondo G6 2008 Finals, throw in 26 and dish out the assists, hold on to your seats everybody...Here comes Led Zeppelin!

dbrown4 wrote:

P.S.  If like tonight, P-squared can literally run the floor ala Rondo G6 2008 Finals, throw in 26 and dish out the assists, hold on to your seats everybody...Here comes Led Zeppelin!

dbrown,

Is this where we're going?

NYCelt,

That'll work!  Was that from Song Remains the Same and/or their lone NYC performance?  I was only 9 at that time, just slightly out of Rock & Roll cognizance!

db