We’re one-half of the way through the Boston Celtics’ preseason opener against the Denver Nuggets and things are going alright. Denver leads 63-56, but it’s simply exciting to be watching Boston play basketball again.
After a long summer of nothingness, get ready for some halftime hot takes, buddy.
First and foremost, the new NBC Sports Boston scorebug is absolutely hideous. I have a feeling that there is still some work to be done on the design, but as it stands — YEESH.
Just to pile on the broadcast a bit more, I did not encounter this, but many people seemed to be experiencing an audio delay during the first half.
Rough start.
The Celtics clearly operate on Eastern Time no matter where they’re playing.
We’re not long removed from the days when the Cs were seemingly coming out flat every time they played a game while the sun was out. With today’s noontime Eastern tip, it looks like they’re back to their old tricks.
Boston scored just nine points before the first TV timeout on Friday and some of their misses were ROUGH. On top of that, they gave up a few possessions with three early turnovers.
They did, however, respond well after a quick breather, capturing a 21-20 lead ahead of the second timeout.
Unfortunately, they’d score just four more points for the entire quarter, trailing 32-25 by the buzzer.
Hot Wings clearly had no effect on Jaylen Brown
My goodness, Jaylen Brown hasn’t stopped winning since June when he captured a pair of series MVP awards. This week, he picked up right where he left off in the spring. He graced the cover of “Time” magazine, then made quite the impression during an appearance on “Hot Ones” Today, despite the team’s slower start, he looked as sharp as ever in the first quarter. JB quickly piled up seven points, including a loud slam through traffic. His defense was just as vociferous, as he rudely pinned a Vlatko Cancar layup to the glass.
That success didn’t come without a price, though. Brown appeared to hurt his hand or wrist (maybe his “groin”) towards the end of the first, but did wind up returning to the floor before halftime.
‘Preseason P’ is the most certain thing about this Celtics team
After averaging 15.6 points per game in the preseason last year, Payton Pritchard is once again making his presence known. Someone in our “How ‘Bout Them Celtics” pregame stream chat said that the line on PP to drop 30 was like +875.
That might wind up being FREE.
The newly-married man exploded for 14 points in the opening 24 minutes. It might be time for all of us to start talking about “husband strength” the way that we talk about “dad strength.”
Notable Absences
So far today, we haven’t gotten to see any of Boston’s new faces take the floor just yet. Both rookies, Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson, as well as late-summer signee, Lonnie Walker IV, were all glued to the bench in the first half.
There was plenty of buzz surrounding all three men, but I’ll have to hold off on any hot takes for now.
Also missing were Al Horford (presumably rest) and Neemias Queta. Queta is a bit of a surprising snub, considering that he should be in the running for some extra minutes in the early stretch of the season with Kristaps Porzingis sidelined.
Notable Appearances
On a more positive note, we’ve gotten to get a look at Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, and second-year wing Jordan Walsh. Kornet started at center with Horford out, which may say something about his standing with Joe Mazzula.
Both Tillman and Walsh played a healthy dose of bench minutes. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that as soon as X checked into the game Boston ran a play to get him an open three. As for Walshy, he looked far more comfortable than he did in Summer League, specifically on defense. He had a few good stands against the Nuggets, including a block on a fastbreak.
Also, Kevin Garnett and Steve Harvey are in the house!
