Anton Watson Shines and Jaelen House Closes Celtics Win vs Hornets
Anton Watson Shines and Jaelen House Closes Celtics Win vs Hornets
Anton Watson and Jahmi’us Ramsey scored 15
points each as the Celtics came back from
double-digits in the second half to win 89-84.
LAS VEGAS — A spot start was given to Anton
Watson. Crunch time was played by Jaelen
House. As the Celtics started to consider the end
of their summer bench, Neemias Queta, Jaden
Springer, and Drew Peterson all sat. Tyler Cook,
Tristan Enaruna, and House all played their first
meaningful minutes in Las Vegas against a
Hornets club headed by Nick Smith Jr., James
Banks III, and Zavier Simpson. The players and
House had a startling finale to the evening.
Something that DJ MacLeay thought his group
should take note of. He declared, “It was
awesome.” “One of the things we try to preach
constantly is staying in the fight, continuing to
work, having that mindset, and I thought Jaelen
House, Tristan, and Tyler Cook came in and they
were great in terms of providing energy. We’ve
been talking about finding joy, and that game
wasn’t going our way for long stretches of time.”
Boston won 89-84 after Watson’s game-tying
baseline jumper, House’s four clutch free throws,
and Jahmi’us Ramsey’s pull-up three with 1:07
remaining in the fourth quarter turned around a
close game in favor of the team from Boston.
With five rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a
block, Watson finished with 15 points. They lead
all Celtics scorers with 15 additional points from
Ramsey. In the beginning, JD Davison, Jordan
Walsh, and Baylor Scheierman led the Celtics’
offensive attack in the absence of Queta,
Springer, and Peterson. Watson and Killian Tillie
entered the starting lineup in the front court. On
offensively, Boston’s younger players continued
to have inconsistent outcomes. Walsh failed to
convert any of his first four free throw attempts,
turned the ball over twice (including a
spectacular dunk try over Brandon Slater that
resulted in an offensive foul), and failed to hit a
field goal in the opening minutes of the game. He
scored two points and missed all five of his shots.
According to MacLeay, “the most important thing
for him is keeping up a level of competition and
trying to compete on every possession.” In
general, I believe that while he, Springer, and
Peterson were not present
trying to do that. Maybe his shot hasn’t been
where we expected it to be over the first three
days, but just in general, I think maintaining a
mindset of working and getting better each day.”
Watson built on his more subtle success from
his first two games of Summer League, which
featured 6-for-10 shooting from the field with
only two three-point attempts. He took one on
the first shot of the game Wednesday following
a Davison kick-out, draining it. Davison set up a
pair of Killie threes and hit a posting hook in the
lane himself to give Boston an early 8-4 lead. The
Hornets tied the game at 19 by the end of the
first, running in transition and getting to the free
throw line. Scheierman started slow, missing a
pair of threes and free throws.
In the second, Ron Harper Jr., Davison and Walsh
scored to keep pace with Charlotte’s continued
transition attack. Smith hit three shots from deep
for the Hornets, though giving Charlotte a 39-32
lead into the second half. Watson scored five
straight into the third to cut the deficit to one, but
the Hornets answered with a 9-0 run to go ahead
by double digits. Davison scored twice,
Scheierman added another basket and bench
scoring from Ramsey and Harper gave Boston a
chance into the fourth. They took the game
there, as House and other Celtics jarred with
Hornets players, Cook, Enaruna, Ramsey and
Tillie all scored to keep Boston within one point.
Cook put back a third-chance dunk with five
minutes left to tie the game at 68, then Ramsey’s
three and a baseline Watson jumper tied
it at 77 with three left. “He’s already an NBA level
defender,” MacLeay said of Watson. “He has
things that he’s gotta work on on that side of the
floor that we’re trying to help him with, but if he
can prove that he can knock downs those shots
and shows an awareness to take them without a
hesitation, he’s gonna be a really good player for
us and he provides a lot of versatility because of
his switchability and his ability to guard the
basketball. In general, we’re really trying to build
those habits in him and trying to encourage him.
As you saw today, he made a couple. It looks
good. I think that he can really shoot it and he
needs to continue to believe that and shoot every
time he gets an opportunity.”
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