The kids are alright: making sense of a sloppy Celtics preseason debut

The Boston Celtics dropped their preseason opener to the Philadelphia 76ers 108 to 99, but as odd as it might sound to some, winning the game was not a priority.

The friendly bout was plenty competitive, but the Sixers elected to play their starters 106 minutes to Boston’s 99 minutes, the Celtics using up most of their floor time to test players in larger roles than they’ve had with the team in the past. And in the case of rookies Aaron Nesmith and Payton Pritchard, entirely new roles as NBA players with expectations of playing time ahead of them — and the pair did not disappoint.

Pritchard in particular stood out with poise and surprisingly good defense for a rookie in his first NBA minutes. He found center Robert Williams III for a nasty oop and hit point guard Jeff Teague for an open 3, and generally was the pest he'd been advertised as. Nesmith saw a little less floor time, and seemed a little gassed for his later minutes. To his credit, he never let up much when he was on the floor. And while you don't want a self-proclaimed sniper shooting 1-of-5 from 3-point range, he drilled the first -- and most of the other misses were still good shots. The Oregon product scored a very healthy 16 points as Boston's second-highest scorer, and the former Commodore added 8 points and 5 boards, who showed off some heartening versatility with defensive hustle and a surprising putback dunk. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1339053644893794306?s=20

Javonte Green got a surprise start and did some good things with it, including a timely trey early and a filthy dunk that showed off his athleticism, and Robert Williams III showed off his new core strength in the post against Sixers center Joel Embiid -- though he continues to make silly mistakes. New floor general Teague led all Celtics with 18 points, going a sizzling 7-of-9 from the floor and 4-of-4 from deep, a promising stat line moving forward. Two way center Tacko Fall showed some increased mobility and defensive awareness, turning the ball over only twice and not fouling at all -- even stealing the ball (though he promptly turned it over trying to dribble). His two way teammate Tremont Waters displayed the same steady hand and solid court vision with improved decision-making, though his shot did not fall that game, going 1-of-4 from the floor. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1339032014662606848?s=20

End-of-bench players like Semi Ojeleye and Carsen Edwards did little to make their case to remain Celtics with 7 points and 4 rebounds between them; not a big deal just yet, but these players have a limited number of bad games left before the team will likely move on. The other starters more or less looked themselves, save for a god-awful shooting night for Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, who combined to shoot just 6-of-28 overall. As far as preseason contests go, this was a very valuable exercise despite the L. It showed a few players who Boston will lean on are looking up to the task, a few others who we're holding out hope for need to find their way in a hurry, and that this team -- even with some key players out -- still has a lot of work to do if it wants to contend this season. [jwplayer mIalzt0N-z6KDnl0B] [lawrence-related id=44392,44382,44378,44375] [listicle id=44238]