Seven Thoughts After Boston Celtics G Leaguers Beat Philadelphia 76ers to end Preseason

The Boston Celtics … well, the half of the team that made the trip for the preseason finale … and they kept their perfect preseason intact with a 125-120 win over the Sixers. Most of Boston’s regulars stayed home, but the guys in green who made the trip played hard for acting head coach Sam Cassell. 

Here are seven quick thoughts from a nice finish to the preseason. 

Great Opportunity

The Celtics started Gabe McGlothan, Tucker DeVries, Milos Uzan, Hayden Gray, and Chris Cenac Jr. against Philly’s (mostly) regular starters (VJ Edgecombe sat out). This made for an amazing opportunity for these guys to be on the floor and competing against some of the league’s biggest starts. 

Aside from Cenac Jr., all of these guys are destined for the G League this season, so opportunities like this rarely come around. They made the most of it, taking an early lead and keeping the game close. 

After the game, Cassell said the reason for the starting lineup was to reward that group for pushing the regulars in practice, which is pretty nice, actually. 

Inverted substitutions

It was really interesting to see Sam Cassell, who coached this game instead of Joe Mazzulla by design, start that lineup but then go full hockey subs to bring in Luka Garza, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, and Ron Harper Jr. It’s like Cassell leaned into the try-hard, soon-to-be-cut guys to play hard against a disinterested Sixers team and then bring in a second group that could compete against Philly’s bench. 

Defense still getting turnovers

Even with the second and third units out there, the Celtics defense was getting steals. They got 13 of them, in fact, on their way to 22 points off turnovers, which counteracted their own sloppiness (24 turnovers for 27 Sixers points). 

Offensive rebounding monsters

The Celtics crushed the Sixers with 18 offensive rebounds and a 20 point advantage in second chance points. It’s the number one reason this game was close. 

This Celtics system allows for crashes from the wings and the players are taking full advantage. Gabe McGlothan had five of them. Of course, Luka Garza had four. 

Hugo Gonzalez Hype Train Rolls On

Hugo Gonzalez led the Celtics with 21 points in 20 minutes. Most impressively, he was 3-7 from three. Gonzalez was able to drive effectively and spot up. He also made some nice defensive plays, including pouncing on Jaylen Brown for an easy steal and dunk.

We’ll let the travel slide there.

Rookie flashes

Cenac Jr. isn’t ready for regular NBA minutes yet, but he showed some real flashes. His passing really stood out, but he did a little bit of everything in spots. He also fouled out, so there's that as well, but he had 12 points and 8 rebounds. 

No Juice From Jaylen Brown

Some of the NBA shows were trying to hype this game up, but with no C’s regulars playing, any thirst Brown might have had to stick it to his former team went away. Brown did drop 20 and he had one loud highlight dunk in transition, but we’ll have to wait for the regular season to get some real hype behind this matchup.