CLEVELAND -- Preseason is preseason. At the end of the day, these games mean nothing. In a couple of weeks, every team's slate will be wiped clean, and the real season will begin.
It's also impossible to know how teams will prepare. Will your opponent play their top guys? Will they be going all-out? Are they hiding strategies until the regular season? It's the land of the unknown.
"But the beauty of that is that's what happens during the season," Celtics (one-time) head coach Tony Dobbins said pre-game on Thursday night. "Whether it's a back-to-back, whether it's three in five, five in seven, teams have injuries. You could prepare and expect that you're going to play a certain team, or a guy could be out the lineup, and that's the game he comes back. So, yes, you're right, but the beauty of that is you will be in those situations during the season. So, that's where you have the opportunity to carry it over, whether it's the preseason or not."
In a way, Dobbins is right. The season brings randomness. Injuries. Unforeseen lineups. Unlikely challenges that cannot be prepared for. So, in a way, the preseason is a chance to prepare for that puddle of pure chance.
The Cleveland Cavaliers stared down that position on Thursday. The Boston Celtics rolled out a funky lineup: Mike Conley, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, and Luka Garza. Boston sat eight of its top rotation guys.
Meanwhile, the Cavs started their regulars (minus James Harden). A starting five of Donovan Mitchell, Jaylon Tyson, Peyton Watson, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. On paper, an objectively more talented starting lineup. But it didn't matter.
With Joe Mazzulla watching from the backrooms, the short-handed Celtics outhustled the Cavaliers. They beat them on the glass, they beat them on the margins, and they found a way to get the job done.
Boston just wanted it more. Garza has no reason to get this rebound. The ball was in the palm of Cleveland's hand. Yet somehow, someway, Garza got the ball.
"That's my guy," (one-time) Celtics head coach DJ MacLeay said post-game. "Just the joy that he creates with the motor that he has. I don't think you can replicate how hard he plays. It's truly a skill. It's a special ability that he has. He puts so much pressure on the defense, and with how physical he consistently is. And so, just as much as I can, I just try to encourage him with that. And it's a credit to him. It's not, you know, he just goes and goes and goes and goes, and it's great."
Garza's motor never lets up. He finished the game with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Four of his boards came on the offensive glass, and almost all of them looked exactly like that.
"It's something I just learned when I was young. I'm a guy who wants a ball in my hands, and when I was younger, no one would throw it to me, so I had to go get it off the glass," Garza said with a smile. A"nd that's what started it. And since then, it's just become who I am as a basketball player.
I know the more often I go, the more chances I get at getting it, and it's good for our team to create second chances, not only for myself, but it brings guys to box me out, then someone else can get a rebound. So, it's something I know I can control. Something I know I can do every single game, and I just try to be as consistent as possible."
If he wanted the ball, he had to go get it himself. "I wasn't that good when I was younger," Garza said. "I had good touch, but I was a little bit slow and uncoordinated, and all of that. It took me a while."
For a while, Thursday night belonged to Garza. Nobody on the court worked as hard as he did. Well, except maybe Scheierman and Devin Carter, both of whom enjoyed impressive nights.
The Celtics finished the night with 21 offensive rebounds, tallying 27 second-chance points. Their work on the glass helped them dominate the shot margin.
Boston paid a hefty price to bring Mitchell Robinson to town this summer. It dominated the glass with one of the best offensive rebounders in the NBA wearing street clothes on the bench. And then there's Neemias Queta. He just got a shiny new extension this summer, too.
By all accounts, Garza won't have a regular place in the rotation this year. But if he plays like he did on Thursday, it's going to be hard to keep him off the floor.
© David Dermer
Luka Garza
The preseason was built for overreactions. Inherently, every thought right now is an overreaction. One game has been played. That's quite literally all there is to react to. But such is life.
Garza was a monster. But Scheierman may have been the most interesting story coming out of Thursday night. The training camp hype looks real.
"We have trust in Baylor," MacLeay said. "I think he's really good in terms of how he navigates on- and off-ball roles. I think he understands his role, and he's done a good job of kind of spinning between on-ball, off-ball, what he needs to do to be effective off the ball, and then what he needs to do to be effective on the ball, as a screener, all those things."
Scheierman put up 16 points, five rebounds, and three assists while shooting 5-of-12 from the floor and 4-of-7 from deep. But it wasn't about the counting stats. It was about the trust. The comfortability.
Boston put the ball in Scheierman's hands. He was running the offense. He was tasked with creating offense when the Celtics needed it, especially early in the game.
Throughout his first two seasons, Scheierman has shown