A collection of leftover thoughts and takeaways after a second look at the Celtics' opening night loss to the Sixers on Wednesday night.
Jaylen Brown and company needs to be more disciplined on defense: It’s no coincidence that the offense went cold on a night Brown was only able to spend 21 minutes on the floor due to foul trouble. The swingman performed well early on with his activity on the defensive end while also managing to hold his own against Al Horford in the post. However, failing to adjust to a game that was being called very tight from the officials cost Boston one of its top scorers for 10-plus minutes in this one.
Brown was whistled for his fourth foul early in the second quarter and followed it up with another quick one in the third quarter. Brown fell for head fakes on multiple occasions, leaving his feet and opening the door for easy calls by officials. Brown’s value to the team is too important right now to put himself in these kinds of positions. Additionally, the C’s as a team took far too many avoidable fouls early in the first half that led to the Sixers getting into the penalty quickly in the midst of their offensive rut. Physicality will be essential for this group to survive on the defensive end with their ball pressure but there is a fine line between making life tough on opponents and putting yourself at the mercy of the officials. The Celtics did that far too much in the opener and need to play smarter to maximize their chances and personnel in this game.
Gordon Hayward wasn’t shy about getting to the hoop: The swingman piled up a game-high 25 points with 21 coming in the second half as the main source of offense for the visitors. While all of his damage came inside the arc (zero 3-point attempts), Hayward seemed to gain confidence going to the rim more and more as the game wore on. He piled up 18 drives over the course of his 35 minutes, which was a sharp contrast from his average (5.7) last season. Combine that with a game-high 11 free throw attempts and this is the type of offensive player the Celtics were hoping to see this year. The burst was on display in stints but the bigger challenge now is whether Hayward can find the consistency that escaped him for much of the 2018-19 season. The minutes will be there for him consistently this time around as well as a clean slate of health so it’s hard to see the opener as anything but a confidence boost for him.
3-point shooting is an area to monitor: The Celtics shot just 26.9 percent from downtown in the opener and that number drops to 3-of-18 overall when you take out Tatum’s hot night from downtown (4-of-8). While there is no need to overreact to Kemba Walker having an off night, the biggest question about whether there is enough perimeter shooting for this team to produce sustainable offense is worth monitoring. The team lost four of its five top 3-point shooters this offseason and will need some support from the bench to help keep the floor spread. Marcus Smart (0-of-4) had a tough night while Hayward didn’t even attempt a shot from deep. Collectively, the reserves were 1-of-9 overall from downtown with Carsen Edwards drilling his only shot just seconds before the final buzzer. Brad Stevens is going to need to find some dependable scoring options outside of his primary weapons in this group since there is not going to be much interior offense to fall back on.
No one stood out on the bench unit: There was plenty of tweaking going on across the NBA last night and the Celtics were no different with their rotations. With so many fresh faces, Stevens is trying to figure out what he has up and down the roster.
“In a lot of ways, it’s information gathering,” Stevens said. “We’re going to learn a lot about ourselves, just all the way through this week, right? Three games in four days. Totally different styles every night and it’s going to be great for us to learn what we need to do to get better. And we’ll be in a position where we’ll really be tested, every single night.”
That process started Wednesday night in Philadelphia as 12 different players saw the floor including six different bench players for anywhere between 6-12 minutes. The experimentation didn’t provide many early dividends in either direction as no one really stood out from the pack to separate themselves.
Edwards suffered from perhaps some rookie jitters on a 1-of-5 night. Grant Williams and Semi Ojeleye were solid with their defensive positioning but failed to make any measure offensive impact. Rob Williams had a pair of nice finishes but also piled up four fouls in 12 minutes. It’s not going to be easy for Brad Stevens to sort through these options on a nightly basis if no one emerges from the pack. Part of me wonders whether Stevens will focus on a certain identity (i.e. defense first) with this group to offset the unpredictability of the team’s offensive contributions. The Sixers were a tough first test but the road won’t get much easier in the next week as battles with the Raptors and Bucks loom. To avoid an early hole, some surprise role pieces are going to need to step up.
