Short Celtics burned by Heat
Robert Williams (knee tendinitis) was a late scratch, and faced with Miami’s full starting lineup, the Celtics went into their exhibition finale in a familiar state — with one starter available.
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
Jayson Tatum, making only his second appearance of the practice season, and blitzed to distraction, shot 8-for-19 for his 23 points, but reached his minutes allotment (31) not long before the Celtics expired in a 121100 loss to Miami. The Celtics simply didn’t have enough to counter a hot 29point, five-trey night from the Heat’s Tyler Herro.
Romeo Langford, perhaps the Celtics’ biggest training camp success story, turned in another strong performance with 18 points on 7-for-9 shooting, including four 3-pointers.
But overall, in a number of areas, Ime Udoka wanted to see major improvement from his players, including where their composure was concerned. When Miami pulled ahead in the second quarter, it coincided — or perhaps not — with a stretch of Celtics complaining to officials, notably including Tatum and Grant Williams.
“It’s a common theme with us, and I want us to improve vastly in that area,” said the Celtics coach. “When things started going bad in the second quarter, we didn’t get a few foul calls, we lost composure on the other end, and started crying to the refs a little too much to get out in transition. We lost our focus on shooters, and I felt that was because of some of the foul calls. Just keep attacking the basket. Fouls are going to even out. But gotta keep our composure there. Say one thing and get back if you have to, but we want to keep technicals back and for the most part stay mentally tougher than we have been so far.”
To wit, Udoka admitted he benched Grant Williams after the latter, in the midst of arguing with an official, gave up a dunk and foul to Bam Adebayo.
“Two reasons. Him complaining, but also I think he picked up his fourth foul on that play if I remember correctly, but yeah,” said Udoka. “The main thing, I’m telling him to get back and stop worrying about the referee — your guy is bringing it right behind you. So that was part of it, but I think he did have his fourth foul as well. Just a learning moment. You can’t get caught up in that. You have to play through it just like they did. They played with pace. When we cried about calls, they were running out and got too many easy looks. So something like I said we talked about early in camp. It’s something I’m going to keep hammering away on until we get where we want to be.”
Time (Off) Lord likely to play opener
Udoka said he was being cautious by holding Rob Williams out of the game due to some late soreness in his knee.
“He just had some soreness (Thursday) and early (Wednesday) morning,” said Udoka. “Tested it at shoot around, tested it before then game and he felt a little soreness. So we just were on the safe side, and obviously a preseason game. We still want to get a look at certain guys, and he’s played quite a few minutes in all three games, so we took the safe approach. He’ll be ready to go against New York.”
Schroder gets extended time
After sitting out the Celtics’ second exhibition game with a bruised left knee, and getting a rest along with most of the other regulars Wednesday night in Orlando, Dennis Schroder was ready for a much larger role Friday night in Miami.
The veteran guard started alongside Jayson Tatum, Jabari Parker, Grant Williams and Romeo Langford in the Celtics’ preseason finale against the Heat. Al Horford and Jaylen Brown, both still waiting to exit health and safety protocols, and Marcus Smart, serving a one-game suspension for breaking team rules, supplied the one-night opportunity for the bench players, including Schroder.
“Dennis is fine. It was just some soreness. He took the bump on the fall so we held him out of one game and a practice,” said Ime Udoka. “He’s been working out, getting his individual work in, got a lot of treatment in, and he’s good to go. He’s fine.”
Udoka planned to increase the minutes load of his starters against the Heat, and especially where Schroder is concerned,
“He will get a little bit of a longer run because he didn’t play against Orlando and he’s been out for a few practices,” said Udoka.
“We’re also going to be smart with it. It’s the last preseason game and we have the next game coming up in the next three or four days so we’ll smart with that. Get him some run and conditioning and continuity but be smart to not try to overdo it.
“The starting guys we know are out there, we’ll ramp them up a little more, but we’re also being cautious with the guys missing — Al, Marcus tonight and Jaylen,” he said. “We don’t want to overload them as guys have been missing in the preseason so far. But we do want to build on that 24, 28 minutes in the second game, and try to get them up a little bit higher. But at the same time be cautious and smart, especially in the last game of the preseason with the guys already out.”
Pritchard has nose reset
Payton Pritchard, who flew back to Boston for treatment after breaking his nose Wednesday night in Orlando, will be limited to noncontact drills leading up to Wednesday night’s season opener in New York. He’ll also play with a mask. If he can tolerate the discomfort or pain, he’ll play against the Knicks.
“He was looked at. He can get back on pretty quickly with non-contact since it’s a pain tolerance thing, and once we have our practices before the New York game, we’re hoping he’s good to go there,” said Udoka. “So obviously he’ll have to wear a mask, this is a pain tolerance thing, but will have him for the last few practices before the season opener.”
Horford and Brown returns uncertain
There is no official word on the progress of Horford and Brown, with both facing a series of steps before they can return, including two negative COVID tests.
“We’ll know when they’re healthy and ready to go with the tests and everything,” said Udoka. “They have protocols and mandates they have to pass, so that’s a dayby-day thing.”