Preseason game # 3 Magic edge Celtics 103-102

The Celtics dropped a one point game to the Magic in Orlando, 103-102.  None of our regular starters played except for Rob Williams.

The depth on this team is really starting to come into focus as several young guys look comfortable and are making noticeable contributions.

Aaron Nesmith led the team with 23 points.  

During the 3 preseason games Nesmith, Langford and Pritchard have shot the ball very well.  Even Grant Williams has shot the 3 ball well.

Nesmith  14-25 FG 56%,   7-14 3P 50%     12.6 PPG average
Langford  12-25 FG 48%,  5-9   3P 55.5%    10.6 PPG average
Pritchard  11-25 FG 44%,  8-18 3P 44.4%  10.0 PPG average
G Will         6-15  FG 40%,  4-7   3P  57.1%   6.3  PPG average

Collectively these 4 guys have gone 24-48 from deep or 50%.

The Celtics continue to move the ball on offense and this bodes well when you have a lot of guys that can knock down open looks.

A ton of  guys played tonight.  I think Parker moved well and shot the ball well.  I think Parker will stick as will Fernando.  The other camp invitees probably have one more game in Green.

We do not have a great BU PF but I still think we have enough at that position with Al playing some 4 and Grant Williams making open looks.

As of today I see Aaron as the best of that group of 4 and I think he is top 8 but also a real option to start.

Tatum, Brown, Smart, R Williams, Horford, Schroder, Nesmith, Richardson.

My 9-12 include Pritchard, G Williams, Kanter and Parker.  PP would be in my top eight if we did not have Schroder.  Wait until next year.

My preferred starting 5  is Jaylen, Jayson, Smart, RW and Nesmith

My next 5  Horford, Schroder, Richardson, Pritchard and Grant Williams

I watched the first half from Istanbul, like Berlin does, and then went to sleep.

After an extremely icy cold start we started to hit.  Our energy level and effort was there on both ends right from the beginning but the shots weren't dropping initially.  Pritchard hit a couple of 30'ers to blow the lid off for us finally.

My first half observations are similar to DBoss'.

Dboss now not only has Grant Williams on the team, he has him in his top 10 rotation.




The same player, some advancements in his shot perhaps, but used differently. Brad used Grant as a small ball 5, which meant he had to be 15# heavier. Bad experiment. Grant Williams as a 4, the position he played in college? Maybe a different story. Avery Bradley as a point guard and Avery Bradley as a 2. Same player, even in the same system with Doc, just used differently made all the difference.


Bob


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John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
yesterday
Ime Udoka says Payton Pritchard's nose is probably broken. He's flying back to Boston to get it evaluated and will miss the Miami game
MY NOTE:  Yeah, I'm sure dramatic changes in altitude is great for broken blood vessels.  Don't they have hospitals in Orlando?  Mickey never gets hurt?  I'll guarantee Goofy does, that's why he's goofy.


Jay King
Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Ime Udoka: “We know what we have with Jabari.”
MY NOTE:  We think we do too, but is it good or bad?  He's a very skilled scorer but, of our three PFs (Grant, Gomez and Parker), the only one who seems to play defense every possession is Grant.  He's not an elite defender, he's a high IQ defender, but he is locked in and works hard every possession and that's Step 1 for playing defense.  Effort for the entire 24, every 24.



John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
yesterday
Sam Hauser is a photoshop of Domantas Sabonis' face on Gordon Hayward's body
MY NOTE:  Too bad it's not the other way around.  I'd much rather have Hayward's face on Sabonis' body on this team.



Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
yesterday
it’s still insane how quickly rob williams can see a player open on the other side of the court and rifle the pass to him basically while he is in the process of getting his eyes on the target. just so rare to see a non-post up center be able to move the ball that swiftly.




Boston Celtics
@celtics
logo pritchard
https://twitter.com/i/status/1448429448240381952


Bob


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Boxscore Nuggets:

Ime was without 6 of his top 8 players:  Smart, Tatum, Brown, Schroder, Horford and Richardson.  Only RWill and Pritchard would make the top 8 of those who played (if you put Nesmith ahead of Pritchard, fine, but it's still Ime's top 8 players.  The 8th player is just different).  Orlando was missing some of their key players too (Isaacs and Fultz for "veterans", Okeke and Suggs for talented rookies) but I don't think you can compare our losses to theirs.  We're missing All-Stars, plural, and elite defenders, plural.  

Grant and Aaron tying for team high 4 assists.  They did it in 28 and 27 minutes respectively.  Pritchard only had 2 assists but also only played 16 minutes.

Grant with a game high 3 steals.  RWill had 2 steals, 4 Magic players had 2 steals but nobody besides Grant had 3.  I only watched the first half, so I didn't see all 3, but one of them Grant had read right from the start.  He saw it coming and made an easy intercept.  High BBIQ, and more mobility with his new body, paying off there.

Sam "Doogie" Hauser 3-5, 2-3 from 3, in just 13 minutes. Continuing with his red hot shooting from Summer League.

Theo Pinson, the other likely candidate for the 2nd two-way contract, had 11 points on 4-7 in 16 minutes.

Only 12 turnovers.  Ime must be very happy with that, especially after last game.

23 assists on 39 fgm, 59%.  Ime must be pretty happy about that too, especially given the talent and experience level available to him.  Playing that deep into his bench almost guaranteed more sloppiness or, at least, it should have.  Job well done by the kids staying within themselves and within Ime's system as a team.

RWill with 8 points on 4-5, 7 rebounds, 2 offensive, in 23 minutes.  Kanter with 6 points on 3-5, 5 rebounds, 2 offensive, in 14 minutes.  Similar boxscores, there, with Kanter playing only 2/3 of RWill's minutes.  But RWill also had 2 assists and 2 blocks.  There's the difference.  Defense and a more well-rounded offensive contribution.  It's hard to read too much into this, this is after all not just a preseason game it's also vs a poor team, but both of these players are looking like locks to be double-double machines with 20mpg or more and that can take strain off of any thinness at 4.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401365941


Bob


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Was a little po'ed we lost the game on a last second shot, but overall a very entertaining game. I'm getting my money's worth from LP already.

Nice balance in the assists column. Everyone's sharing and getting the ball to each other in a place where they can shoot and score consistently.

Clearly Nesmith gets the game ball. He also glides like Romeo. Nice, quick, dead-eye release. Very well done.

Jabari definitely made a case for himself. His play is a little quirky but effective.

Pinson with a quiet 11. Might have won himself a seat at the table.

I might get my wrist slapped for saying this but Pritchard looks a lot like Cousy dribbling all over the place like a speeding bullet and close to the ground. It creates havoc for the competition. Keep it up.

While most all the +'s of +/- came from the starters and the -'s came from the bench, everything looked very good in a pretty tight game. If we had all our guys this would have been a no-contest. But again, Ime is very good with picking his battles and knowing who to go to war with and when. He's also giving these guys confidence. Like I've said in another thread, the bench won't be a problem this year. Just don't see it. Lot's of young, hungry dudes out there playing very confidently and relaxed.

So that puts the spotlight back on the starting 5 and how much the bar gets raised. It's going to be very disappointing if this team goes .500 or anything near that this year. I don't see that happening since so much is at stake and the clock is ticking on the dynamic duo.

So that puts us in the mix for the race for the top as far as I'm concerned. At least 3rd. Add the Knicks and ATL into the mix and there's not a lot of room for injuries and off nights.

MIL, BKN, ATL, NYK, BOS, some version of PHI, MIA all have a legit shot. Plus someone from beneath will make an appearance and someone from the list above won't...I'm all in on BKN fulfilling that one.

Not sure we can take a baby step and come in the 45-49 wins category either. It's going to have to be a big step, hence why I come in at 3rd. That would put us at 53-56+ wins. We'll see.

db

Bobh

Grant is on the team.

He did not play particularly well last night.  He is shooting better, he is a tick quicker and is still getting taken off the bounce.  I watched the game twice.

I could have easily put Hernangomez in the top 10 so don't read too much into that.