The Rafters Pod Ep. 75: Preseason Overview
The Rafters Pod is back with last episode of the preseason! Justin and Liam give their overview of game 2 vs. the Raptors and the close loss to the Magic in game 3. Outcomes aren’t the most important thing when the preseason rolls around. What the guys at The Rafters want to see is team cohesion. The Celtics had underwhelming second units in the recent past contributing to their lack of success. In this early view of the “new-look Celtics”, players are transcending roles we expected and contributing to team basketball. Particularly the young guys like Aaron Neismith and Romeo Langford. Coach Udoka is looking to build a whole new team to his liking putting young guys approaching a contract year on the hot seat. They need to develop as players or will soon find themselves shipping out of Boston.
Luckily, just about everyone wearing green and white played up to potential and give us reasons to be optimistic. A 113-111 win over Toronto showed off the fire power this team is working with. A Jaylen Brown-less team was able to play great team basketball and come out with the close win after a Romeo Langford go-ahead three pointer with time running out.
Five days later, the tables turn as the Orlando Magic hit a shot with 2 seconds left on the clock to give them a 103-102 win over Boston. A messier game team wise lead to this defeat. Players were careless with their passes turning the ball over 12 times. 5 of those coming in the 4th quarter. In classic Celtics fashion, many players were out of the lineup. Smart was suspended for missing a team flight, Brown was still out with a lingering injury, Robert Williams had tendonitis, and Payton Pritchard broke his nose. Year in and year out Boston seems to have terrible injury luck that leads to problems in the season. Hopefully this year breaks that trend and all the injuries are over with early in the year.
Wednesday, October 20th marks the season opener against some familiar faces and the New York Knicks.