Jordan Walsh breaks out of slump as Celtics wrap up summer league with loss to Sixers

The Celtics summer league ended on Sunday with a 103-98 loss to the Sixers. They were led by Jordan Walsh’s 18 points while getting 17 from Jaelen House, 16 from Tyler Cook, and 15 from Anton Watson. Walsh and Baylor Scheierman led Boston with seven rebounds and House was the Celtics’ high assist man with six. 

Jaden Springer, Neemias Queta, JD Davison, Jahmi’us Ramsey, and Ron Harper Jr. did not play. 

Here are some final thoughts from the game and summer league:

Anton Watson: I’m hooked. I’m not sure what he’ll ultimately become as a player, but I think he will at least become useful off the bench at some point. 

His shot looks pretty good, and he’s been taking and making them with confidence. As I’ve been saying throughout this summer league, he generally knows where to be to give himself a chance to make a play. 

He finished with 16 points on 50% shooting (40% from 3), four rebounds, three assists and no turnovers. 

Watson is a solid player. I’m looking forward to training camp and preseason games because I want to see how much of this translates right away and where he stands against more NBA-level game speed. 

It’s entirely possible it’s a mirage, but I think he’s been impressive in a way that can carry over. 

One side note: He’s still not signed. I expect him to be on a two-way deal, but I wonder if Watson’s camp might be pushing for that open roster spot considering how he played.

They won’t get it, but I’m curious to see how talks go.

Jordan Walsh: Without a doubt his best game of the summer. He hit his first 3-pointers of the summer, going 4-9 from 3, and it started with a confident, open, catch-and-shoot 3 that he stepped into. That seemed to set the tone for his day.

It wasn’t perfect. He was still a little out of control at times, but he definitely played within himself a little more. He didn’t force things as much as he had in his first four games, but he did still have six turnovers (and it easily could have been a couple of more). 

During an in-game interview, he admitted he needed to play within the system a little bit more. He said something similar a week ago, which just confirms my thinking that he’s been trying to do too much. It was easy to see him playing a little more settled early in this game and a little more hectic later on. 

Still, 18 points, seven rebounds (four offensive), two assists, and two blocks, is a nice finish to a frustrating couple of weeks in Vegas. 

One thing that stood out over his summer league was his lefty drives. He seemed very comfortable going to his left. Some of his best finishes of the summer league were left-handed drives. 

Baylor Scheierman: It felt like he was coasting or tired through the first 35 minutes of the game. He did not look like he wanted to be there and it showed. Then he started playing hard and he began hitting shots and making plays. 

I don’t know what was up with him at the beginning of the game, but it didn’t look great. He could have just been tired and frustrated with his tough shooting and then he dug deep for something when the Celtics were within striking distance of a win. I hope that's all it was. 

He finished with 13 points on 4-13 shooting, 2-7 from 3, seven rebounds, four assists, a steal, and four turnovers. He was also bad defensively.

Scheierman doesn’t seem to be afraid of the moment, hitting some clutch shots along the way during summer league. He also struggled to shoot in general. His form on misses looks a little wonky but it looks fine on makes. I don’t like that. 

Generally speaking, your form is your form. Maybe there are little variations during cold stretches, but the shots mostly look the same at the point of release. What I saw from Scheierman was a wobbly form that looked obviously off when he missed.

This could just be an aberration, but there's something about his shot that I just don’t like. Maybe that will change over time, but I’m not thrilled with what I saw there over these five games. 

Jaelen House: He's a lot of fun and a big-time energy guy. I hope he ends up in Maine. He’ll be fun there. He’s done nothing to make me think he’s an NBA player right now, though. 

As for the rest of the guys who didn’t play today, I’m still not sold on Davison, though it was nice to see him hit some shots. I want to see that carry through this upcoming season in Maine and maybe my mind will change some. 

Queta is the same guy we just saw. And in a way, the deep playoff run and then summer league run was unfair to him. I would have rather seen him get some mandates from the team (hone his dribble handoffs, work on screening, make reads off the short roll, develop a 15-foot jumper) and spend all summer trying to perfect those things. He hasn’t had time to work on any of that stuff, really, so I’m not sure what he got out of being in Vegas. 

Of everyone on the roster, Springer is the most likely to crack the top 10 this season. He has the defensive skills and if his shooting can follow, he’ll have a chance at some spot minutes, especially in defensive situations. It would be nice to be able to throw him on the floor with a 10-point lead and four minutes to go and watch him lock up perimeter players while hitting a couple of open shots.