Anton Watson Shines and Jaelen House Closes Celtics Win vs Hornets

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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