1. It wasn’t a perfect start to the 2022-23 Boston Celtics season, but it was plenty good enough. On a night where Boston celebrated the life and legacy of Bill Russell, the Celtics flashed the dominant play that they showed in the second half of last season.
Boston managed to keep control of the ball, with slightly better than 2-to-1 assist to turnover ratio. They pushed pace. The defense was a little inconsistent, but that’s to be expected, especially while working in several new faces. And Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were superstars and made plays whenever Boston needed them.
Overall, it was a good win to open a long campaign. And getting it over another top Eastern Conference team in the Philadelphia 76ers doesn’t hurt at all either.
2. Jayson Tatum might make an MVP leap this season. He drew nine free throw attempts. He flashed a couple of new moves. And he continued to show the world he’s a terrific defender too.
Tatum started the night by making a nice defensive play against the speedy Tyrese Maxey:
This offseason, Tatum worked on his floater. That’s a shot he can get to a lot, but hasn’t made very often in his first five years. So far, so good on the effort he’s put in:
The Celtics made a major effort to push the ball (more on that later!) throughout the game. If you don’t get matched up correctly, or you’re sloppy with your switches, Tatum is going to get you:
In certain circles (this space included), we’ve been begging for Tatum and Jaylen Brown to do more off-ball cutting. Boston has the passers to get them easy offense. This is a classic Princeton backdoor cut by Tatum here for the easy layup:
3. Jaylen Brown was every bit Jayson Tatum’s equal in carrying the Celtics to the win. If Boston can keep up the fast-paced offense, Brown is going to be a real weapon. He’s uniquely suited to take advantage of that style of play. But more on that to come!
Brown was plenty good in the halfcourt too. A handful of times, he showed a tightened-up dribble. That allowed Brown to attack slower players and get to his spots, like he did here on the floater:
A handful of times in the preseason Brown showed off a new hesitation dribble when going to his left. In those moments, he generally pulled up for a jumper. On this play, Brown uses the hesi, but takes his full space all the way to the rim:
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