Heat 119, Celtics 114: Springer, Scheierman, Davison show promise, but turnovers, sloppy defense fuel summer league loss

The summer Celtics lost their first game in Las Vegas, dropping a 119-114 game to the Miami Heat. Jaden Springer led the Celtics with 23 points while Boston got 20 from Neemias Queta and 19 from JD Davison. Davison had seven assists while Springer and Baylor Scheierman had six. Queta grabbed nine rebounds. The Heat were led by Jaime Jaquez Jr., who is getting some limited run with the summer Heat.

Here are some thoughts from the game. 

Jaden Springer: A pretty good overall game from Springer, who shot 50% (3-6) from deep and got two steals. He had the ball in his hands a lot, he got to the rim, and he didn’t turn the ball over. He did make mistakes, like getting blocked on a two-on-one after a great strip of Jaquez. That was a chance to make a fundamentally sound play and he tried to do it all himself. For all the good stuff he did, this is the kind of play a Celtic HAS to make. 

And I understand that if it happened in the regular season or playoffs, that strip would have led to a break with maybe Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown and the decision would be easy, but that decision shouldn’t depend on who is with him on the break. That's a decision that has to be made every time so the coaches know they can trust him to make the right play. 

But again, overall, it was a good game from Springer. Hitting 3-pointers will be important. Now he has to build on that and show he can keep hitting. 

Baylor Scheierman: His first couple of shots were really bad. His form looked gross and they missed by a mile. Then he hit a little soft jumper in the middle of the lane and it seemed to settle him down. He went on to hit his last three attempts, including a couple late to keep the Celtics in the game. 

His passing was much more impressive than his shooting in this game. He not only had six assists, he had some really sweet looks. His passing could be the story of this game for Boston, for a lot of the same reasons why I harped on the Springer play. 

If we’re judging these guys on what they can do to help the 2024-25 Celtics defend a title, then making the right plays is going to be very important.

Of course, defending is going to be very important as well, and that wasn’t the best aspect of Scheierman’s game. He finished with six fouls (you get 10 in summer league) and he was routinely lost on defense early on. It got better as the game went along, but it’s clearly the biggest point of emphasis for him after the first game. 

JD Davison: His missed floater with six seconds to go was his only miss of the night, and that included three 3-pointers. His shooting has been an issue so far in his young career, so nights like this are always encouraging. Now he just has to prove that it’s not just some streaky outlier. 

He did have four turnovers in this game because I think he tried to do too much at times, but he generally ran the team pretty well and he made a lot of the right plays. His ability to get to the rim was never in question, so if he can prove his jumper is more reliable, then the decision to give him one more two-way deal will be worth it. 

Jordan Walsh: He missed all six 3-pointers he took and most were good looks. He showed very obvious frustration with his misses, which is something he’s going to have to keep in check. I think that spilled into a lack of defensive discipline on the other end (he also had six fouls), so how he bounces back in the next game will be very important to watch. This was a rough one from him. 

Neemias Queta: Pretty standard Queta game, honestly. He had 20 points on 9-15 shooting, flashing some nifty footwork on some plays and then missing some easy looks and getting a couple of tip-in attempts on others. He does have to have better awareness of who’s open on the perimeter, though. I would have rather seen him finish with four or five assists instead of two. Those opportunities were there. 

Anton Watson: I think he has good fundamentals. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brad Stevens comes away from this game thinking a lot of positive things about Watson. He seemed to know where to be and when, his screening seemed good, and he was in the right place to grab a couple of offensive rebounds. He also had one monster blocked shot. 

He probably passed up a couple of opportunities to shoot a 3, which is something Stevens specifically mentioned after the draft. I’m betting the coaches will get that message across to him and we’ll see him shoot more than one in the next game. 

Drew Peterson: He made one great defensive play to break up a lob attempt and he finished with two steals and a block. He was 0-4 from 3, though. He has to hit shots. 

The Celtics looked pretty lost defensively in the first half, but they got a little better in the third quarter. Their transition defense looked bad, probably because most of their 11 turnovers were live-ball and that led to some pretty loud finishes on the other end. 

There was one defensive play that stood out to me when Springer’s man got by him and he was gesturing for help and a switch, but that never came. It’s impossible to expect fluidity on a team that's barely practiced together and is full of guys with different motivations, but it’s one of those things that just sticks out. 

Also, it's kind of wild that Jaquez played in this game for Miami. He was in Vegas for the USA select team, so he decided to stick around for a couple of summer league games. And that's nice and all, but why would they risk him playing in something like this? It was good for the summer C's, I think, because NBA starters don't usually play in these games. It was a good early test for them. Also, Jaquez almost set a summer league scoring record, so it was a failed test for these guys. But at least they have a taste of what's to come.

The Celtics also got some flashes of decent play from a couple of other guys, but they're not making the team so it doesn’t really matter.