Everything you need to know about the Celtics preseason win over the New York Knicks, in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis
IN A NUTSHELL
The Celtics started out hot from 3, bombing away and putting up 41 first-quarter points. But turnovers and second-chance points kept New York, which was resting its regulars, close with 30 points. Boston’s second quarter was dominant, and they built a lead as high as 27 before an end-of-second run by New York that spilled into most of the third quarter. Boston recovered late in the game and the bench carried the ball over the goal line.
Overall, they showed their best, they sort of reverted back to their worst, but then they pulled out of it.
Let’s do this a little differently today since Joe Mazzulla kept things to a shorter rotation for when it mattered.
Things I liked:
The ball movement, especially in the second quarter: The offense in the first half, and the second quarter in particular, was a tantalizing glimpse into what might be for these guys offensively this season. They moved the ball well, caused poor defenders to make decisions, and then took advantage of whatever they saw. They generated so many wide-open looks, and they cashed in on most of them.
The overall defense: Again, this is first half only, but I thought the Celtics were generally pretty good in the halfcourt. New York shot 44.9% overall and turned it over eight times for 14 Celtics points. Jayson Tatum did a decent job at the four to start the game next to Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White were swarming, and the Celtics were able to force a fair share of misses.
Porzingis doing his thing: I’m eagerly anticipating the regular season so we can see this battle station fully operational. He just adds so much and his scoring was, once again, incredibly easy.
Tatum hitting 3-pointers (and a little of everything): Tatum is a notoriously slow starter from deep so seeing him hitting shots right now is very welcome. I also saw him seemingly making a conscious effort to play off two feet? I’ll have to watch again to make sure. It was good to see him distributing and rebounding, too.
Al Horford defying his age: If this is the Al Horford the Celtics will get off the bench, then I'm sure they’ll sign up for that every night. He was pushing the pace like a 25-year-old. You’ll see the word “spry” used a lot with him.
JUMP ON BOARD OUR CELTICS COVERAGE: CODE CELTICS23 FOR 20% OFF ANNUAL PLAN
Things I didn’t like:
The end of second quarter/most of third quarter swoon: Mazzulla has talked a lot about mindset all preseason, and the Celtics certainly let it slip for a little too long. But Mazzulla says he was encouraged by the team pulling out of it.
“I think we're still learning about each other,” He said. “It was the first time our guys really played significant minutes together and there's just a feeling out process there. So I liked our approach even when it wasn't going our way. I think that's gonna happen. And can we maintain a level -- like I still thought we were playing physical basketball, we just weren't executing on both ends of the floor? … I like where they're at as far as wanting to connect with each other, wanting to communicate, and we'll see.”
Jaylen Brown’s turnovers: He had a decent game overall, and his six assists are also something I liked, but his four turnovers in 29:37 are less than ideal. The Celtics were up 28, they won by 13, and Brown was a -1. To be fair, so was Derrick White.
Still no real clarity: On a night where I was excited to see everyone play together, New York sat all their regulars so I’m still left wondering what they really have defensively. I liked Boston’s defense, but was that them or was that the Knicks G Leaguers missing? I want answers, dammit! We’re just going to have to wait until the regular season to figure out how Mazzulla is really going to manage these games and what these guys really have.
Rebounding: Mazzulla and I had a fun little exchange about the rebound where he started out saying positive things and then after a little back and forth he said “it’s definitely something we’re going to continue to talk about. You have to be good at it. It’s funny, I thought we didn’t stress it as much a ton last year and we were really good at it for the most part. This year we’re really hammering it, and it’s not that good.”
It might have something to do with personnel. The Celtics need to have everyone on board with the blocking out or else it’s not going to work.
Things that made me go hmmm:
First half bench: Horford, Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, and just a little Luke Kornet. Horford is obvious. Pritchard and Hauser seem to have the inside track on minutes (and both were pretty good tonight), but it was a little weird to see Oshae Brissett stuck to the bench. And what about Neemias Queta or Wenyan Gabriel as other options at the backup big?
Maybe we’ll see it Thursday. I don’t want to read too much into it now. But I felt this was an opportunity to see some of it, so it's interesting that Mazzulla passed on it.
A lot of 3-pointers: The teams shot 100 combined, 52 from Boston and 48 from New York. That was less “hmmm” and more “hahahaha” because of course they did.
Next up: The Celtics are off tomorrow and then they wrap up preseason Thursday night in Charlotte.
