Final: Celtics 94, Hornets 82

BOSTON — The Celtics kicked off their preseason opener with a solid 94-82 win over the Charlotte Hornets at the TD Garden on Monday night. Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving and Al Horford all sat out the second half of the win (rest) which allowed some bench players to take charge with standout performances. Daniel Theis (12 points), Aron Baynes (10 points), and Abdel Nader (10 points) led the way against a Hornets squad that was at full strength outside of Michael Carter-Williams.

GAME COVERAGE FROM ROBB

THIRD QUARTER THOUGHTS (Celtics lead 68-62)

• Hayward, Irving and Horford all had their nights called early, so Tatum, Rozier and Yabusele started in their place


• Baynes continued his strong night and even got into it a little bit with Dwight Howard to the delight of the Garden crowd before finishing with 10 points and 5 rebounds in just 18 minutes.


• Abdel Nader, Shane Larkin and Daniel Theis also saw their first minutes of the game as well as Brad Stevens worked deep into the bench. Nader stood out with a couple nice drives to the rim while Theis attacked the offensive glass hard with an easy putback.


• Lots of midrange shooting from Tatum that isn't translating so far. He's just 1-of-7 on the night with three points and 0-for-3 from 3-point range.

• On the flip side, a rough start to the preseason for both bench bigs for Boston: Jayson Tatum and Guerschon Yabusele. They both went 0-for-4 from the field and failed to hold their own against the Hornets as the bench lineup with Kyrie Irving flopped. Yabusele moves well but he's going to have to play smarter defense to give himself a chance at rotation minutes. Meanwhile, Tatum fared a bit better defensively, even though Kemba Walker drew a foul on him on a jump shot.


• A slimmed down Marcus Smart hasn't been shy about letting it fly from 3-point range off the Celtics pine. He took eight shot attempts in the first half and seven of them were from downtown. Celtics will let that trend continue if he keeps hitting 3-of-7.


• Nice defensive moments from Terry Rozier and Jaylen Brown by forcing turnovers in the backcourt that led to easy buckets.

• Chemistry issues on the offensive end weren't a problem early. Lots of ball movement between the starters, almost too much unselfishness at times as the team turned down layups for 3s.


• Kyrie Irving had a nifty give-and-go dunk with Al Horford. Horford could have a chance to lead the Celtics this year in assists with so many offensive sharpshooters playing with him


• Nice starting stint from Aron Baynes who bodied up Dwight Howard quite well and played strong positional defense. Weird to see someone that has legitimate size down low and a good jump shot to boot.


• Early bench rotation: Smart and Tatum off the bench first, with Terry Rozier and Guerschon Yabusele as secondary subs. Irving and Hayward were staggered for the entire frame so one was on the court at all times.

• Marcus Morris remains away from the team for his assault trial but all other Celtics will be active for this one. Hayward, Irving and Horford are expected to play only the first half.


• Not much can be read into the starting lineup just yet with Morris not with the team, but Brad Stevens signaled again that he'll be tinkering with the matchups as the preseason progress. "I guess you could read in whatever you want," Stevens said of the lineup. "I’ve had discussions with a couple of different guys, like I’ve told Baynes that he could be starting against certain matchups and he could be coming off the bench. I told Marcus Smart the same thing, told Jaylen the same thing. Everyone of them, to a man, is all for whatever we need. The decision that I think we ultimately have to come to is who the other person in the backcourt is. That’s less of a -- it’s not one of those things where it’s a competition. It’s who fits best with who when. And Marcus’ experience and Marcus’ impact, I think, are going to be really needed, at least right now, off the bench, with a otherwise a pretty young unit. That’s where we are right now, but that could change Friday.


• Massachusetts native and Hornets reserve guard Michael Carter-Williams will miss tonight's contest with soreness in both of his knees. He's expected to return to action sometime next week.


• Stevens isn't concerned with the time Morris has missed at camp thus far, noting the forward has been conducting morning workouts during his trial in Arizona. "I’ve talked to him a couple of times, but I haven’t spent a lot of time talking to him," Stevens said. "I know we’re giving what we need to give from the standpoint of this is what we’re doing on the floor. But until you go out and do it with the guys, it will take time to adjust, that’s for sure."