Things did not end well for the Boston Celtics in Las Vegas. After four games as the dominant team of the summer, the Celtics got trounced by the Sacramento Kings 100-67. They stormed out to a 15-4 lead off their defense, but Sacramento responded with a vicious defensive effort that completely flustered the Celtics. Davion Mitchell lived up to his “off-night” nickname, given to him based on his opponents’ performances when guarded by him. Payton Pritchard, Mitchell’s primary assignment, finished with six points on 3-9 shooting and 6 turnovers. Boston finished the game with 28 turnovers.
Yikes.
Here are a few thoughts from the summer league finale (forget high points and low points. There are no high points).
PAYTON PRITCHARD
Whew, talk about landing with a thud. After dominating summer league with his shooting — and then missing a game to drop 92 points in a pro-am game (really) — Pritchard was shut down by Mitchell.
Pritchard couldn’t do much of anything (0-6 from deep). He was rushed and flustered the minute Mitchell put the clamps on.
“That was on me, and I told him that during the game,” summer league head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “I could have put him in better spots vs. the blitz for him to make the right read, and Davion’s a great defender, Payton’s a great player, and it’s just two good teams going at it. I think they got the best of us, I don’t think there’s much more than that. He’s a tough kid and that’s it.”
OK, maybe some of that is on the coach, but a bulk of it is on Pritchard. Just a rough game.
AARON NESMITH
Another summer standout who had an abnormally bad summer league game. He finished 4-10 from the field (2-8 3pt), scoring 12 points but committing 6 turnovers himself.
“It's a humbling experience,” he said. “We played really well the first four games. Kind of blew teams out and then to come into this game and kind of be on the other end of the story, you know, it hurts, it sucks. It's just motivation to get right back to the drawing board tomorrow morning and get right back to work."
Pritchard and Nesmith both showed a lot heading into this game, so there’s still a lot more positive for them this summer league than negative. We can also say that the dose of reality isn’t a bad thing for the both of them. A bunch of good stuff tempered by a humbling loss helps keep the ego in check a little while still being able to look back on things positively.
ROMEO LANGFORD
I can already hear your groans as I type this: Langford missed the game with a right wrist strain. According to a source, this is not related to the right wrist injury that required surgery. According to Mazzulla, it was a game-time decision so it does not appear to be serious.
Still, this is the biggest disappointment of all. Not that Langford would have changed things, but him missing any games due to injury at this point is just a bit frustrating for him, and for fans.
CARSEN EDWARDS
He seemed to be the only guy able to get through the Kings' defense and get to the rim, but the rest of his game was as off as everyone else’s.
“They had active hands, great ball pressure,” Mazzulla said of the Kings defense. “I thought coming into the game we were pretty much the same exact team as far as physicality and the way they ran in transition. They pretty much beat us at our own game today.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
This serves as a dose of reality. This Kings team was connected and played stronger defense than expected in summer league. It’s hard to believe the Celtics actually had an offensive possession like this:
that ball movement 😍 pic.twitter.com/B8k1phtIHI
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) August 18, 2021
In the end, this summer league is about development of skills, and failure is part of that development. Scientists accept failure as concrete results that steer them in the right direction, and so should we.
Pritchard and Nesmith have shown they could be contributors this upcoming season, but they won’t be world-beaters. Playing off Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown will help them quite a bit, but playing against high-level defenses will make everything harder.
"They sped us up," Nesmith said. "So the next step is take this, learn from it, learn to not let people speed you up, learn to always play at your own pace, always run your offense the way you want it, and dictate the game your way. So that's the next step for us. That's the next step for me and hopefully going into training camp, we will get that down pat.”
They’ve shown themselves to be worthy of more opportunity in the preseason. Langford, meanwhile, remains a bit enigmatic at this point. This summer league didn’t answer much about what he can be; he certainly requires more patience.
We’ll see where they land in a couple months. Training camp is a month-and-a-half away. We’re going to find out how much this all translates very quickly. Whatever flaws these guys have figured out this past week-and-a-half, they need to fix them quickly. They get right back to work in a hurry.
