5 Lessons from Celtics Summer League win over Lakers

The Boston Celtics are 1-1 in their opening two Summer League games. On Monday, they faced off against Bronny James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Boston looked a step ahead of their rivals on both sides of the ball.

Jaden Springer wasn’t part of the rotation following his excellent showing against the Miami Heat over the weekend. You’ve got to wonder if the coaching staff have seen enough and have shut him down or if he will be back for the game against the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.

Fortunately, we did get another look at Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson. JD Davison and Neemias Queta also shone. And there were some strong performances from elsewhere within the rotation.

Here are five lessons we learned from Monday’s game.

1. Watson can be a playmaking hub

There were multiple offensive possessions where I thought Watson did a great job of positioning himself as an offensive hub for the Celtics. He found ways to keep the offense ticking over when in the delay (a fancy way of saying a big having the ball above the perimeter in a five-out alignment,) and also when working on the elbows.

I liked this action so much that I posted it on socials earlier today. It starts off with a flex screen to empty the strong side corner. Watson then flows into a dribble hand-off before rolling to the basket, making use of the spacing the earlier flex screen provided. He doesn’t get the shot to fall, but he does draw a foul.

Neither naming the play nor the outcome of the action are important here. The clip above illustrates Watson's encouraging level of patience. He received the ball on the perimeter and waited for the action to unfold. He relocated toward the elbow to provide a better angle for the ball-handler to turn the corner and timed his roll toward the dunker spot well.

Here’s another example. Watson is in the slot. He protects the ball by angling his body. He waits for the flare screen to spring Baylor Scheierman free. He times his pass to ensure Scheierman gets the ball before his defender can recover over the screen. As the shot goes up, Watson cuts toward the rim to provide pressure on a potential rebound.

Final example. This time, Watson is working around the nail, offering an outlet pass to the on-ball pressure around the perimeter. He doesn’t create the best angle for himself when trying to work on his man in the mid-post, but he does flash some encouraging passing ability and court recognition to find Jahmi’us Ramsey open on the weakside wing.

Having a front-court player who can initiate some offense, generate good looks via DHOs or patience on the perimeter, and knock down some threes is essential for a modern NBA team. Luke Kornet has carved out a role within Joe Mazzulla’s rotation by being a reliable screener, DHO creator and intelligent roll man. Watson showed signs of being capable of mimicking Kornet’s approach within Boston’s system as he continues to develop his perimeter jumper.

While it’s doubtful he gets afforded much playing time (if any) next season, he is showing that his skillset — at least on offense — is somewhat translatable to how Boston approaches their half-court offense.

Watson ended the game with 7 points, seven rebounds, one block, one assist and one steal.

2. A better night for Jordan Walsh

Walsh bounced back from his rough outing against the Heat with a strong performance for the Celtics. He showcased his defensive ability, was more aggressive on the offensive end, and put some work in on the glass. Although, I’m sure he would have liked to see one or two of his threes fall throughout the night.

This play is a great showcase of what Walsh brings to the table. The Lakers are running a three-man action on the wing.

Watch how Walsh handles the situation. He starts off by guarding the screener before switching to the screen receiver. As the DHO occurs, Walsh switches onto the roll man, tagging high and killing any advantage. Once Watson recovers to his man, Walsh picks up the ball-handler on the perimeter, taking away his driving lane, controlling his path and getting the block at the end of the possession.

Walsh is positionally versatile on defense. His wingspan, lateral quickness and core strength make him a tough opponent to beat — both off the dribble and via contact. If he can bring this level of defense on a consistent basis, the Miami game will be flushed out of our memories within the week.

Walsh also shone in when guarding straight up. Take the above possession against Dalton Knecht, where Walsh absorbs the contact, stays glued to his man and uses Knecht’s momentum against him to generate the steam before pushing the pace up the floor.

“I’m not judged based on how many shots I make or miss. I’m judged off of the way I affect the game defensively, which is how I’m going to play with the Celtics,” Walsh told CelticsBlog’s Jack Simone. “So, listening to that, I knew I had to change my mindset. And so, now I’m going into the next game being the defender I want to be, crashing the boards and stuff like that.”

It would be nice to see some more offensive production out of Walsh, especially as he’s a second-year guy. However, he’s clearly taken the coach’s advice on board and came out with a specific mentality against the Lakers. It was a much stronger performance and showcased why he’s viewed as a potential defensive specialist in the future.

3. Boston ran NBA-level sets for Baylor Scheierman

A common action the Celtics run for their shooters/slashers is a wide-pin down where the screener either cuts to the wing or curls over the screen and receives the ball around the elbow.

Here’s how it looks with the curl.

And here’s how it looks when the shooter/slasher pops to the wing.

And here’s how it looked for Scheierman on Monday.

Ideally, you would want Neemias Queta’s screen to be lower down the floor, but on the whole, it’s clear the Celtics are getting their 30th pick accustomed to some of the sets he will be tasked with running if/when he gets his name called during the regular season.

Scheierman is a good fit for this wide-pin down the action. It’s simple yet effective, and it’s a typical play within Mazzulla’s offense. Most importantly, Scheierman has the catch-and-shoot ability to drain movement threes when curling off the screen, and he has the ball-handling skill to curl toward the elbow and attack off the dribble. He also has some passing ability, which could allow him to provide some secondary creation as/when the defense rotates over to attack his drive.

What I didn’t expect to see was that Scheierman also has some self-creation skills off the dribble.

Scheierman also flashed some upside on defense, too, containing dribble-drive penetration and even recording a block. This was another strong showing from the polished rookie.

2. A strong night for JD Davison

Fair warning: I don’t have any clips from JD’s performance — at least, nothing that specifically showcases what he did well. So, I’ll keep this brief — and my apologies on that.

Davison has looked good in the opening two games of Summer League. As a third-year pro, he’s doing what he’s supposed to: looking better than pretty much everyone else on the floor. Davison has become adept at controlling his pace, making high-level reads, and, most importantly, has added multiple layers to his scoring ability.

Throughout the night, Davison hit floaters, catch-and-shoot jumpers, pull-ups, and even got to the rim. He has become reliable at using his ability to penetrate off the bounce to generate easy kick-outs or lob passes, and his defense is better than this time last year.

However, he still got beat by a couple of slip screens, which, as I said over the weekend, the coaching staff will likely want him to correct.

With Springer sitting out, Davison had additional on-ball reps to work with, and he made solid use of the opportunity. He ended the night with 9 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block. He went 2-of-5 from deep, too.

I would like to see some more aggression from him when driving the lane, especially in terms of getting to the rim and exploding for his finishes. He’s too athletic to be passive when there’s an opportunity for him to get downhill and score.

1. Neemy came up big

The Celtics came into their game against the Lakers with a clear plan: Utilize Neemias Queta’s size around the rim. Multiple lobs pass found the impressive rim-runner.

He was also used as a screen and roll man on the perimeter. He consistently battled for rebounds on both sides of the floor, and he made his presence known whenever he was in the game.

The battle between Moses Brown ( a former Celtic) and Queta was also interesting to watch. It gave us an insight into how Queta could handle going up against other mobile bigs around the rim. He also displayed some improvements on his patience, fouling considerably less than what we’re used to seeing from him.

The above clip is an excellent example of his growing positional and spatial awareness, along with his timing of when to jump and when to rotate. You can see he slightly loaded up before contesting the shot, which was likely to give himself the extra half second so that he could contest without fouling or being beaten with an extra step.

Queta came away from the game with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. His size was a significant factor on both sides of the ball as the Lakers struggled to find answers for him, especially when he got into the paint or was hovering around the dunker spot.

I was also a big fan of Queta’s overall activity. If you look through some of the clips above, you will see that his movements played a significant role in the fluidity of Boston’s overall approach.

Queta signed a multi-year deal to remain with the Celtics earlier this summer. He’s grown on both sides of the ball since joining the team as a two-way player last year. I’m not sure how much legitimate playing time he will get in the upcoming season, but it’s clear that he’s still evolving his game and has something to offer.

Of course, as we all know, translating Summer League success into the NBA is rare — we all fall into that trap every year. However, we’ve seen Queta make an impact during the regular season, so there’s no reason not to think he could do it again.

Still, I have him behind Kornet on the depth chart. Maybe with Kristaps Porzingis set to miss time at the start of the season, Queta will get a fair chance to stake his claim.

Only time will tell.

Final Thoughts

We’re two games into the Celtics Summer League season. We’ve seen some strong performances from multiple members of the rotation. I really enjoyed getting a better look at Watson against the Lakers. His skillset intrigues me.

Let me know what you thought of this game, and Boston’s overall production over the opening two outings!