The Boston Celtics hosted the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday evening at the TD garden, winning the game 106-114 for their first victory of the exhibition series.

The Celtics started the game using a double-big lineup, deploying Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis. Head coach Joe Mazzulla hasn’t solidified what the starting lineup will be for the regular season, but it’s worth mentioning the closing lineup featured Jrue Holiday with White, Brown, Tatum, and Porzingis (which I believe will be the starting lineup.).

About 20 seconds into his Celtics debut, Porzingis made the first basket of the game, which was a 3-pointer from an outlet pass at the top of the key from Tatum. Porzinigis finished the game with 17-points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field (71%) and connected on 2-of-3 from behind the arc. He also added five rebounds and one assist.

The thing I noticed the most about Porzingis on offense is that he wasn’t in the paint as much as I had expected him to be. A lot of that is due to Tatum running the high pick-and-roll which slides Porzinigis into the wing and he showed to just shoot over the top of people. It’s only one preseason game, but I was expecting to see more work in the paint than we saw.

“I think it’s a big problem for the other teams to guard me in pick-and-rolls with those guys, pick-and-pop, play off of each other, hand-offs, back-doors, all that kind of stuff. So I think it’s really really hard to defend. And a lot of those times… they draw so much attention that it opens the game up for myself and the more time we get together playing, the better reads we’ll make off of each other.”

Porzingis postgame press conference

Al Horford looked great and it was truly impressive to see. He opened the game with a huge blocked shot and made his presence felt on the defensive end of the court. There were multiple occasions where both Horford and Porzinigis were double-teaming the rim protection duties, blocking multiple shots together. It showed that it’s not going to be easy to score in the paint with Porzingis and Horford are on the court together.

Tatum finished with a double-double despite struggling offensively in this game. He scored 13-points on 3-of-13 shooting from the floor and made 7-of-9 from the free throw line while not connecting on any of his 3-point attempts (0-of-4). He led the team in rebounding with 10 total, eight of which came on the defensive end. I think he’s probably going to do that for the second season in a row for this team and finished the season averaging a double-double for the first time in his career.

Brown had a solid game. He finished with 19-points on 7-of-10 shooting and made a 3-pointer. What I noticed the most with him on the court is recognizing screen opportunities when Tatum has the ball, which is something they worked on this summer with Drew Hanlen. So I’m looking forward to seeing Brown and Tatum work off each other more than ever this season.

Payton Pritchard was given a contract extension Sunday afternoon and he put on a show in his first game since getting paid. He scored a game-high 26-points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 6-of-11 from behind the arc. He also tallied four assists and two rebounds. He was the Player of the Game and proved why Boston gave him a four-year, $30 million contract extension.

“It’s only going to make me work harder, so the work only continues now… I kind of took a step away this summer, went back to work, cleared my mind and I came back, and you know, I love the city of Boston, I love this organization, and this is home to me.”

When asked about the commitment from the team, Pritchard:

“That they [Celtics] believe in me, that they believe I can help this team win at the highest of levels, so I just want to prove them right.”

Jrue Holiday made his Celtics debut. He scored six-points on 2-of-10 shooting. He made both of his 3-pointers, grabbed five rebounds, and made one assist. After the game he was impressed with the Celtics crowd showing up to a preseason game, saying “that crowd was crazy.”

Sam Hauser couldn’t find his rhythm and finished the game shooting 0-of-6 from behind the arc. He held his own defensively but if he’s going to declare himself as the best shooter on the team, he needs to hit his shots. Hauser is in line to potentially be a legitimate rotation player this season but only if he makes his shots.

Luke Kornet looked lost on offense and was limited to only setting picks and attempting to set screens. He was a step behind his teammates and maneuvered himself slowly around the court. It was a surprise to see from a guy who’s supposed to be the backup center for this team.

In all, this was the first night of a back-to-back, as the Celtics are playing the New York Knicks on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

I would expect to see the players we didn’t see play on Sunday, play most of the game tonight in New York: Jordan Walsh, Neemias Queta, JD Davison, Svi Mykhailiuk, and DJ Steward.

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