The Celtics picked up their first win of summer league, beating the Lakers thanks to a monster 30-17 third quarter where Boston erased a 14 point lead to take a lead of their own. They built that lead up to eight before nearly giving it back away.
The Celtics were led by 25 from Jordan Walsh, 18 by Jay Scrubb, and an 11 points/11 rebounds/6 assists night from JD Davison.
Here are a few thoughts:
- Jordan Walsh: He shook off some early shooting troubles in the first half (4-12 fg, 8 points) to put up 12 points on 4-6 shooting in the third and another 5 points on 2-2 shooting in the fourth.
He’s going to be a streaky shooter early on in his career, so we're just going to have to accept that as he tries to dial in his jump shot. After a hot start to the summer, he went ice cold in the second game and the first half of this one. Then he got going and didn’t look back after halftime.
Some of his confidence has to be coming from his defense. Walsh might spend a good chunk of his early career struggling through slumps, but if he’s defending like he did at some points against Los Angeles, then he can get himself going by being great on the other end of the floor.
defense ➡️ offense pic.twitter.com/tCd3jARrHb
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) July 13, 2023
Walsh continues to show good cutting instincts and some decent passing ability. Once again, he showed why he was able to lock up guaranteed money from the Celtics. The streakiness on offense will take some time to overcome, but it’s clear that when Walsh gets some confidence, he is capable of stringing a few plays together.
- JD Davison: A very necessary bounceback after a 10 turnover night against Washington. Davison finished with just one turnover and six assists in his best performance of the summer. He added a couple of steals and blocks and showed why the Celtics at least committed to a two-way deal.
Was he overly impressive? No, not really. But he remains an incredible athlete who does see the court in transition. Considering Boston’s potential need for more ball handling either this season or after next summer, continuing to develop Davison for one more year on a two-way, especially now that teams get three of those contracts per season, makes sense.
I’m willing to cut him plenty of slack because summer league is tough for point guards. It’s not easy trying to herd cats with their own agendas. Still, it would be nice to see him continue to keep the turnovers in check while setting up his teammates. Also, to be fair, he easily could have had a triple-double considering how many of Davison’s passes turned into misses.
- Jay Scrubb: He has been a consistent scorer in summer league for Boston. I don’t think he’s going to hook on here, but I wouldn’t be shocked if some team scooped him up with a camp invitation.
He’s a lefty who can hit shots. Who doesn’t want that? If he's not playing at the NBA level, he'll make some decent money to hit shots overseas.
Dalano Banton: Boston’s newest addition had 12 points on 19 shots, so not exactly the most efficient night for him. He’s super long, and he can sling it out there (6 assists), so he’s an interesting guy to watch. I think the initial assessment of him as an emergency guy who rounds out the bench and mostly gets garbage time minutes is going to hold.
Let’s see how he does on Friday. He’s missed half of summer league because of a finger injury, so we should call this game more of an incomplete than anything and see what he can do in his next one.
- More zone defense: They continue to use it, and I continue to say there's a reason they are. There's no reason to waste any young player’s time learning a style of defense that won’t be used in the regular season. I still believe they're going to implement more zone during the regular season.
The Celtics play what will likely be their final game of the summer league on Friday at 6:30 p.m. I think there's still an outside shot they can make a playoff, but it’s too complicated to figure out and I’m not going to bother trying when it doesn’t matter at all.
