Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving made their Celtics debuts at the TD Garden on Monday night as Boston opened the preseason with a 94-82 victory over the Charlotte Hornets. With everyone on the 15-man roster seeing action outside of Marcus Morris (not with team due to assault trial), there was plenty to digest from the victory. Here's a look at five early takeaways from the performance:
1. Al Horford, Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving might take a lot less time to mesh than anticipated: The Celtics were without one projected starter (Morris) Monday night against the Hornets, but the offensive chemistry with the starting unit was evident from the opening tip. The shots weren’t falling (8-of-22 shooting from field in first quarter) but nearly all of the attempts were high quality looks as the new-look Celtics made extra pass after extra pass.
“It was awesome, man,” Irving said after the game. “Beautiful to be a part of. It was beautiful to watch. Purposeful cuts, understanding what we were trying to do offensively and defensively, which is executing at a high level.”
Having an unselfish passing big (Horford) combined with a pair of creators in Irving and Hayward gave a disciplined Hornets team problems throughout the opening six minutes, even with a traditional big like Aron Baynes on the floor. With seven assists on eight made baskets in the opening frame, it was evident the chemistry is building quickly within the All-Star trio and that’s a good sign for a Celtics offense that should be very fun to watch this year.
2. Aron Baynes stole the show in the first half: The 30-year-old veteran (10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists in 18 minutes) has never played more than 17 minutes per game in his five NBA seasons but more opportunity should come knocking for him this year in Boston. He earned the start against Dwight Howard and immediately showed off his steady play on both ends of the floor. He played Howard solid defensively, forcing tough finishes around the basket with his contests and boxing out well on the glass.
Offensively, Baynes was the beneficiary of a steady diet of open looks from the midrange. He’s got a smooth release that was a welcome change from the likes of Amir Johnson. The 6-foot-10 center also provided a nice physical edge that the Celtics have been missing in past years. He set mean screens and got into it with Howard and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on separate occasions. Baynes won’t start every night, but he made a strong opening case that he should earn the nod on nights Celtics are facing a traditional center.
3. Jayson Tatum finds his comfort zone in the second half: It wasn’t a pretty start for the No. 3 overall pick of the 2017 NBA Draft. Tatum began 0-of-4 from the field and was taken to school by Kemba Walker on a pump fake jumper from midrange that produced an easy foul call. Despite his early struggles, Tatum remained a net positive for the remainder of the night. Outside of the Walker miscue, he held his own defensively in switches and used his length to his advantage (5 rebounds, 2 blocks). The Duke product easily played the most minutes out of any Celtic (32) and captained a strong finishing kick to the game by the second unit.
The 19-year-old scored six of his nine points in the fourth quarter (3-of-4 shooting) while also dishing out three assists. There were a few forced midrange jumpers by the rookie mixed in that Brad Stevens will try to have Tatum get out of his system, but the shifty forward looked like he belonged all night long.
4. Daniel Theis played a lot better than he did for all of training camp: The list of rookie versatile bench forwards is long after Tatum, but Theis was the last among them to see the floor on Monday night. Guerschon Yabusele saw first half minutes (and struggled for most of them) while Semi Ojeleye started the second half in place of Al Horford. When Theis finally saw the floor in the closing minutes of the third quarter, he immediately stole the show with his energy and activity on both ends. The 25-year-old piled up 12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal in just 13 minutes as he attacked the rim on the offensive glass and in the pick-and-roll.
The impressive play by the German made me wonder just exactly why Stevens waited so long to give the big man a shot, but we got that answer after the game.
“It’s a little bit faster here,” he said. “I’m shooting the ball sometimes on the first pass and I thought, ‘I’m not used to this, it’s so quick.’ In Europe it’s more like, play the system and when the shot clock is running down, just try to play a little bit faster. But I’ll get used to it.”
5. Marcus Smart still isn’t afraid to pull the trigger on the 3-ball: The slimmed-down point guard was as aggressive as ever with his 3-point shot after a summer of working on his jumper. The 23-year-old took seven 3-point shots in just 13 minutes but he was one of the few Celtics that knocked them down (3-of-7) on a subpar shooting night overall (11-of-32) for the team from downtown. The Celtics lost a lot of capable 3-point shooters this offseason (Jae Crowder, Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk) and there will be plenty of open looks beyond the arc to be had for guys playing with Horford, Hayward and Irving. For better or worse, Smart is going to be the guy taking a lot of those shots and he looked good doing it during night one of the 2017-18 preseason.
