Celtics basketball is back and the Celtics faced off against Philly and, in familiar fashion, take them down once again 114-106. I say this every year but scores and shooting percentages don't matter during preseason. The only thing that you should be focusing on is the quality of shots we're taking, defensive schemes we're running and the cohesion between the guys out there. One thing that caught me by surprise in this one was the starting lineup featuring Horford instead of Jrue Holiday. I can't imagine that stays very long but that lineup did pretty well. Initial thoughts on both of our big additions this offseason are incredible. Porzingis dominated this game early scoring 7 very fast points on his way to a 17pt 5reb game. Jrue Holiday, while he only shot 2-10 from the field was a menace on the defensive end contributing 2 steals.

While all eyes were on the starting unit and Jrue Holiday, it was Payton Pritchard that shined the brightest. He ended the night with 26pts 2reb and 4ast on 6-11 from deep and 9-14 from the field. He was super solid all night long on both sides of the ball. I love that Pritchard can shoot but the part of his game that I love the most is his ability to push the pace and get out in transition. I know this is preseason but with the departure of Smart and Brogdon, our depth at PG certainly did shrink opening up the possibility of Pritchard stepping into a rotational player role. Tatum struggled creating his own shot tonight BUT you could certainly tell that he put on muscle because he was very aggressive down low and it showed with his 9FT attempts. JB continued to show out in transition and ended the night 19pts on 7-10 from the field. Overall, this team looked great and we are in for a fun year.