The Boston Celtics hosted the Toronto Raptors for their second of four preseason exhibition games on Wednesday night, the last home tilt in the slate of friendlies ahead of the Celtics’ 2022-23 campaign.
Boston jumped out to an early lead, but the Raptors fought back, clawing back into striking range by the time the Celtics sold their starters, forcing overtime and ultimately beating Boston 125-119 in overtime. Despite the poor showing from several deep rotation players, Jaylen Brown (23 points) led all scorers, and Sam Hauser continued lighting up the league from deep off the bench with 22 points on 5-of-8 shooting from deep.
Let’s take a look at what NBA and Celtics Twitter had to say about the exhibition loss.
Boston has retired 24 jersey numbers – these are the players so honored https://t.co/hxXsv4sl1U
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) October 5, 2022
Welp, confirmed Blake Griffin will not play tonight. He just came out to the bench dressed in sweats.
— Marc D’Amico (@Marc_DAmico) October 5, 2022
So the Celtics bench always stands until their first basket, but the refs just held up play to tell all of them to sit down and get out of the way lol
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) October 5, 2022
Defense may win chips, but it can also make for some ugly basketball in the preseason.
– Dr. Justin Quinn (@justinquinnn) October 5, 2022
Crisp 7-of-25 combined shooting for the Celtics and Raptors tonight.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 5, 2022
Sam Hauser shot up to 83 percent from 3-point range this preseason.
— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) October 6, 2022
You just knew Hauser was making that
— Jack Simone (@JackSimoneNBA) October 6, 2022
Malcolm Brogdon made that Hauser 3 happen not just by assisting on it, but by directing him on the play to make sure he was in the right spot. Not bad for the new guy here
— John Karalis 🇬🇷 🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) October 6, 2022
Seats on the Noah Vonleh, rotation player bandwagon are filling up folks
— Greg Brueck-Cassoli (@GregCassoli) October 6, 2022
Grant Williams fast break hesitation drive and layup. Bench enjoyed.
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) October 6, 2022
If Hauser demands a defender, then that completely opens up the #Celtics offense. BOS learned lesson from letting Max Strus walk.
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) October 6, 2022
That’s some really good ball movement to get Brown the open corner three.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 6, 2022
It’s kind of wild how smooth everything looks with Brogdon already.
— Tom Westerholm (@Tom_NBA) October 6, 2022
Celtics are up 62-46 at the half against an actual NBA team that appears to be trying. More importantly, Sam Hauser has 9 points in 5 minutes and is burying contested jumpers over guys who can block 3s like Chris Boucher.
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) October 6, 2022
I’ve seen enough. Probably time to bubble wrap starters for the rest of the preseason.
— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) October 6, 2022
The preseason Celtics have certainly resembled the post-January 2022 Celtics.
Through 6.5 quarters they’ve now outscored opponents by 60 total points.— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) October 6, 2022
Dub-dub for Tatum midway through the 3Q: 18 points, 10 rebounds (and four assists).
— Marc D’Amico (@Marc_DAmico) October 6, 2022
This game had an intensity level above most preseason games until about three minutes ago where the intensity level dropped to “bronze medal game at Summer League”
— Ryan Bernardoni (@dangercart) October 6, 2022
Jaylen Brown literally just looks like a continuation of himself from the NBA Finals. And I absolutely love it. #BleedGreen
— Amina Smith (@aminajadeTV) October 6, 2022
Sam Hauser has made two more 3-pointers (five) than Toronto’s entire team (three). He’s 5-for-6 from long distance.
— Marc D’Amico (@Marc_DAmico) October 6, 2022
That makes 9 assists for Malcolm Brogdon matching his total from Sunday.
— Abby Chin (@tvabby) October 6, 2022
Derrick White is pretty easily the worst shooter of the Celtics regulars and he’s supposed to put a ton of work in on his jumper this summer. This team has really legit spacing now.
Never would have guessed that after that disaster game against the Clippers last season.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 6, 2022
Grant Williams walked down to the end of the bench and talked to the trainers through the timeout, but did not get any treatment after he came up hobbling on his right leg.
He stays out of the game, but is up and yelling at the refs, so it doesn’t seem to be too bad.
— Abby Chin (@tvabby) October 6, 2022
Celtics challenging the charge call. Joe Mazzulla getting put to the test here in this high stakes spot.
— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) October 6, 2022
Joe Mazzulla wins his challenge to completely swing this for some reason intense crunch time, already making him the most successful challenger in Celtics coaching history.
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) October 6, 2022
Overtime in preseason. 🫠😵💫
— Brad Hampton (@bredhampton) October 6, 2022
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