(John Karalis)
Jayson Tatum warms up at the TD Garden before the Boston Celtics face the Toronto Raptors on October 9, 2021.
Final: Celtics 113- Raptors 111 - C's move ball well in 2nd preseason win
The Boston Celtics plans are already shifting after Jaylen Brown’s COVID-19 diagnosis. Boston’s star win will likely miss the rest of the preseason, forcing the Celtics to change up some of their combinations.
“We know what we have with Jaylen, we know his role, overall it’s an opportunity for the guys to step in and play,” Ime Udoka said before the team’s Saturday night preseason game against the Toronto Raptors. “We were going to rest him in one of the preseason games anyway and look at some different lineups, so that doesn’t change. Just different lineups seeing players on the court who would have been on with him. But we do have time. We’ve seen it for the last week and a half and like I said we know his role. It doesn’t change at all. It’s about who else will be out there and the opportunity they get.”
That opportunity will go to Romeo Langford, who will get the start along with Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, and Robert Williams.
“We’ll look at Romeo in the starting lineup in his place. But there’s guys we were going to look at anyway with certain lineups,” Udoka said. “Instead of playing with Jaylen and Jayson in some of those smaller lineups that will starting in his place. And so that doesn’t change as far as the guys we’re going to get a look at.”
The Raptors will start Fred VanVleet, Goran Dragic, Scottie Barnes, OG Anunoby, and Precious Achiuwa. This means the double-big Horford/Williams combination will force the Raptors into interesting defensive decisions. This is a good first look at how well Udoka’s theory of Horford forcing mismatches will work.
Dennis Schröder will miss the game with a knee contusion. It does not appear to be serious and he was testing it before the game.
“He took a fall yesterday in practice,” Udoka said. “He went through shootaround fine today and wanted to pick it up and go a little more vigorously on the court pre-game, and so he’s out there now.”
The game tips at 7:00. Follow along this post for live coverage.