Second pre-season game for the Celtics, second also for the Raptors, but already the difference in freshness was felt last night, introducing what could be the season of the two franchises. Nah we’re kidding, it means absolutely nothing, but right now we’re trying to work on our introductions.
The stats of this Eastern Conference classic are right here
So far, the Celtics’ preseason had been limited to a big slap in the face to the Hornets 48 hours ago, while the Raptors’ preseason had focused solely on a game against BC Jazz and listening to the last CD 2 titles of Drake, how that the CD 2 titles do not exist any more. In any case, the 2022 finalists and the 2019 champions were meeting at the TD Garden tonight to fight it out, so to speak, and if the Raptors ended up winning in overtime thanks to Josh Jackson and Khem Birch, my god what a sentence, it was Sam Hauser who burst the screen on the Boston side, that one is not bad either.
But who are you Sam Mozer? A young-old man of 25, with a 26-game NBA experience with the Celtics last season and already glimpsed during the last Summer League, during which he had already revealed some facilities to take (and to put) shots from the parking lot. Tonight and after an already successful first game against the Hornets? Sammy did it again and he perfectly supported the two leaders of his team who followed in the first half the usual pattern in Boston: Jaylen Brown puts in the first 15 points for the team and Jayson Tatum puts in the next 15, roughly. Celtics who are racing in the lead even if everyone doesn’t care, the opportunity all the same to find on the North side a Pascal Siakam in legs, a Scottie Barnes in legs but clumsy, or even a Precious Achiuwa already at 200 % off the bench and a Juancho Hernangomez not fucking putting a shot if the match is neither on Netflix nor against France.
But if the pre-season is a great opportunity to discover some players in their new tunic (Malcolm Brogdon, still interesting with nine caviars), it is also often the scene of beautiful and funny stories like that of Sam Hauser therefore, sprung from the bench last night to stick 22 to the Canadian defense, 8/12 in shooting including 5/8 from the car park in Virginia, a university also once attended by… Malcolm Brogdon. A big heatstroke welcome at this time of year, since the new parachuted coach Joe Mazzulla will quickly have to make choices to decide who will be the fifteen soldiers who will attack the regular. Spoiler, Sam Hauser will be there and our sentence is therefore useless, but let’s say that this kind of performance declined at the start of the season against real defenses and when it really counts… could well make Sammy climb a small step in the rotation green.
That’s it, Sam Hauser is our hero of the night and this sentence could almost be enough to define what pre-season is in the NBA. The following ? Not much, but know that we are currently in our underwear in front of the Austin Reaves hustle.