Celtics beat Charlotte, 107-106, in preseason opener
That fresh start everyone is yearning for will take a little preseason work, as evidenced by the Celtics’ dependence on the end of their bench to come back in last night’s 107-106 win against Charlotte in their exhibition season opener at the Garden.
Jayson Tatum did as expected, finishing with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting after a particularly hot 14-point, 6-for-9 first half. Kemba Walker scored 12 points against his former team and on the other side, Terry Rozier did just about everything for Charlotte with nine points and nine assists in his now-former home.
But the youngsters arguably made the biggest impression Sunday night, led by rookie Carsen Edwards’ three-trey, 11-point performance, another 15 from Javonte Green, and a crowd-pleasing two-dunk, two-block night from Tacko Fall. Grant Williams (four points, eight rebounds) drew a charge with 41.3 seconds left and the Celtics leading by a basket, only to pick up a charge 18 seconds later. But Green drew a charge with 8.8 seconds left on P.J. Washington, allowing Tremont Waters to ice the game with a free throw, followed by another by Williams off an offensive rebound.
After giving up the first 12 points of the third quarter, and falling into a 17-point hole, before Edwards gunned them back into it, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers. The Celtics were fortunate to trail by a point (79-78) by the end of the third quarter.
With the starters retired for the night, the end of the bench made inroads, with fan favorite Fall, after much lobbying from the crowd, checking in with 9:15 left and immediately contributing a dunk followed by a house-razing block of Bismack Biyombo.
Green got into the act with a pair of tough slashes to the rim and a back-cut for a dunk, helping Celtics Youth to put this one away.
Home improvements
The black/graphite seats that have replaced the yellow-and-black scheme in the Garden was distracting for all walking in for their first Celtics game of the year last night. But the players will take it, thanks to new construction that led to a larger, crescent-shaped home locker room
The old domain was smaller than many road locker rooms across the league. The now former space took Marcus Smart back to his childhood.
“It was crowded,” he said. “It was kind of like living with your siblings again and fighting with each other for which room was gonna be which. Who was gonna be where. But it’s a good look.
“This nice, we’re excited to be in the new locker room, excited to get the new season started, and what better way than with a new locker room.”
Gone, at least for now, was the long Celtics/Bruins photo mural that ran the length of the players’ hallway.
Gregg Popovich, who always conducted his pregame media scrums beneath a photo of John Havlicek, may not know where to set up now.
For starters
As always, Brad Stevens stresses not to read too much into his starting lineups – and especially this season, when the Celtics coach may do more mixing and matching than he has in several seasons.
But for what it’s worth, he started Jaylen Brown, Walker, Tatum, Gordon Hayward and Robert Williams in the preseason opener.
“I know everybody always wants to talk about the starting lineups. It’s kind of what people have always done,” the Celtics coach said. “But over 70 percent of our play last year was not with our starting lineup on the court. We’re a lot more concerned about what happens over the course of the game.”
Stevens’ concern last night was far more elemental.
“Play well together,” he said. “We’re not going to be perfect for 48 minutes, but we’ll have stretches we can build off of – have a lot of film we can teach off of. Tomorrow we’ll take very light and not even practice, give everyone a day off. But the more information we can take from tonight the better.”
That said, Williams’ move into the starting lineup, even for an exhibition game, is a reward for the maturing young big man.
“He’s done a good job,” Stevens said earlier this week. “The biggest thing was obviously not his vertical ability at the rim. He’s as good as it comes when you throw it up there. It’s getting there quicker, it’s knowing when to set a screen and roll, it’s knowing when to slip out of a screen, it’s knowing who you’re screening for and what the covering is most likely to be on that person you’re screening for.
“It’s advanced and hard to pick up on the fly and it takes bigs a while sometimes,” Stevens said. “I think the European big guys often come in ahead of the game in that regard, but I think Rob’s really gotten better in the past year and we’re looking forward to it. He’s going to impact us.” …
Romeo Langford’s introduction to live competition will come on another day, or night. The Celtics rookie, who strained his groin early in training camp, sat out last night’s game. …
Daniel Theis, suffering from a strained adductor, was also held out. Stevens said that had last night been a regular season game, the German power forward likely would have been able to play.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2njtpea
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