The Celtics added a lot to their offense this summer and we saw a nice glimpse of that on Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center as the visitors cruised to a 110-102 preseason win over the Sixers. Kyrie Irving (21 points) pushed the Celtics out to a big lead with a monster third quarter with a starting lineup that featured rookie Jayson Tatum. Boston's bench regulars also looked very solid for the second consecutive game in a largely sloppy affair as Marcus Smart, Aron Baynes and Terry Rozier all tallied double-digit points in under 20 minutes of action off the pine.
Full analysis of the contest will be upcoming, but the Celtics improved to 2-0 in the preseason with the win. They get a rematch back in Boston on Monday night at the TD Garden.
GAME:Preseason No. 2 of 4
WHO: Celtics (1-0) vs. Sixers (0-1)
WHEN: 7:00 EST
WHERE: Wells Fargo Center
RADIO: NONE
TV: NBC SPORTS BOSTON/NBATV
BOX SCORE: NBA.COM
The Celtics will play their first game away from the TD Garden tonight and will see a familiar foe in the Philadelphia Sixers. The Celtics have played the new-look Sixers twice in summer league, will face them twice this preseason and will also match up against them for their third game of the regular season in a couple weeks. Let's take a look at the lineups and inactives as well as some pregame notes:
Celtics
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Gordon Hayward
PF: Jayson Tatum
C: Al Horford
Inactive: Marcus Morris (rest) will wait to make his debut until next week.
Sixers
PG: Jerryd Bayless
SG: J.J. Redick
F: Ben Simmons
F: Robert Covington
C: Amir Johnson
Inactives: The Sixers will be missing Joel Embiid (knee), Markelle Fultz (shoulder) Dario Saric (rest) and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (leg)
PREGAME NOTES
- Old friend Amir Johnson will get the start at center for the Sixers. Don't expect him to last in that spot for too long though as Joel Embiid has been cleared for 5-on-5 action by the team. Johnson will be competing for backup minutes behind the seven-footer.
- Preseason experimentation continues in Game No. 2 for Brad Stevens as resting Morris gives him a ready excuse to give Tatum a whirl with the starters. In fact, I wonder if that was the thinking in resting Morris altogether. Stevens had planned on playing him yesterday after practice, but clearly thought twice about it in the last 24 hours.
- Like Brown last season, it'll be interesting to see how much better the rookie looks from an offensive standpoint when surrounded by superior talent. He'll also get a tough test early on the defensive end against Robert Covington or Ben Simmons.
- The Celtics will face off with the Sixers again at the TD Garden on Monday night.
- I'll be saving my analysis for a postgame blog post, but feel free to sound off in the comments all game long
