C’s reserves fall late
With most regulars on the bench or at home for a combination of rest and COVID19 reasons, Ime Udoka gave his reserves — and deep bench — the greatest opportunity of the exhibition season Wednesday night in Orlando.
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
Though Payton Pritchard was a first-half casualty because of a nose injury, fellow summer league stars Aaron Nesmith (23 points, 8-for-16, four 3s) and Romeo Langford (12 points) led the Celtics prior to a late slide by the reserves in a 103-102 loss to the Magic.
Udoka later said that Pritchard is being examined for a “likely broken nose,” and will fly back to Boston instead of joining the Celtics for Friday’s exhibition finale in Miami. Orlando’s Jeff Dowtin won the game off a mid-range jumper with 0.2 seconds left. The Celtics are now 2-1 in the exhibition season.
Of those on the deep bench looking for a chance, Jabari Parker (10 points, 2-for-3 from 3) provided a particularly hot spark. Theo Pinson closed strong with an 11-point, 4-for-7, three-assist performance.
Udoka envisions his rotation going from 10 to 12 players deep, and admits that the battle for those deep spots has been intense.
“It’s been great since Day 1 of camp,” the Celtics coach said of the competition. “Tonight maybe you see them in a different role than the first or second game when they were playing with a lot of starting guys out there. We went a little bit deeper tonight with the guys resting and out, and saw some good things. Good to see Romeo, Aaron, Payton when he played in a different role. Things happen during the season, we see them playing those minutes and how we can use them if need be.”
Horford questionable for season opener
So much for a regular dress rehearsal.
With Al Horford joining Jaylen Brown in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 this week, the exhibition season is over for both Celtics. They missed Wednesday night’s exhibition game in Orlando, will also miss the practice finale in Miami on Friday, and there’s no guarantee about the Oct. 20 season opener in New York.
Though he expressed confidence that Brown will be ready for the Knicks, Udoka isn’t so sure that Horford will emerge on time from his minimum of 10 days in isolation.
“Obviously, it’s a 10-day timeline off the top and then it’s going to be close based on the amount of days it’s been since he tested positive,” said the Celtics coach. “And then from there, you’ve got to have your two (negative) results, a similar situation that I went through before training camp. Timeline-wise, it’s going to be very close. We’ll see what happens with that, but we should definitely have Jaylen back by then.
“Al’s doing OK. Obviously, nobody wants to be in this situation, so there’s no real positive about it. But healthwise overall, he’s doing okay,” he said. “As far as the time when we find out is when it was reported, so it was right before we left on the trip, a day or so before. Talked about it the next day, obviously, it came out with the media. But we found out the prior day he wasn’t coming down to Orlando.”
Developing the bench
Though the team’s COVID situation may have boosted the prospect of Wednesday night’s lineup against Orlando— Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Dennis Schroder with a knee contusion and Josh Richardson were all given the night off — Udoka said he had planned to give his major players a break.
As a result, the Celtics once again put their super summer team on the floor with Pritchard, Nesmith, Langford, Robert Williams and Grant Williams on the floor. All have logged significant preseason time.
Said dress rehearsal, obviously minus Brown and Horford, will take place in Miami.
“This was the game I targeted to rest guys,” said Udoka.
“Obviously with those two starting guys, key pieces missing, it felt right to rest the rest of our veterans as well. But I did target a specific game and this would have probably been it regardless. As far as them staying involved, coaches are still talking to them. Obviously, we’re taking this slow with what we’re implementing with those guys gone. They have access to the practices and obviously, we can get them game film.”
Minutes available
The Orlando game was expected to be the perfect stage for some of those who haven’t played as much, like Enes Kanter, Bruno Fernando, Juancho Hernangomez and Parker, to get more minutes.
“We’ve talked about it quite a bit lately. Tonight is a unique situation obviously with the guys we have missing,” said Udoka. “We do need some extra bodies and guys will get opportunities tonight, especially with sitting Josh, Dennis, and some of the veterans. We needed the bodies with Al and Jaylen going down, in general, practice and game-wise. We may keep guys a little bit longer because of that. But we also have a surplus of guys that can come off the bench. And the young guys, as I mentioned before, really get an opportunity. So we want to see them in extended minutes but we also have that second and third team ready to go.”