Saturday, July 20, 2024

Celtics rookies' 3-point shooting not enough to hold off Mavs in Summer League loss


The Celtics failed to win three straight with a 101-90 Summer League loss to the Dallas Mavericks Friday in Las Vegas.

Jaelen House recorded 18 points and a game-high nine assists to lead Boston -- picking up where he left from the team's 89-84 comeback win over Hornets earlier this week. C's head coach DJ McLeay was pleased with the guard's performance with the backcourt depth of JD Davison, Jaden Springer and Jahmi'us Ramsey sitting all out.
"His energy is great," said MacLeay of House. "He's awesome to have around. I think, just in general, he's really, really taken on a role of trying to pressure the ball. And then, I thought he did a good job of handling a massive load offensively today.
"Obviously, we were down a couple guards, so he was along with the ball in his hands a lot, getting us into stuff, and organizing [our offense]. I thought he did a pretty good job of that, considering he had to do all that."
Rookie Baylor Scheierman added 15 points, while Anton Watson made his second consecutive start, as Neemias Queta (DNP) missed another game, finishing with 14 points, eight rebounds and Jordan Walsh had his best game scoring wise with 12 points -- despite missing all 10 of his 3-point attempts, he also collected 11 rebounds.
"I feel like you kind of have to go in with the mentality of being better than you were before. And I guess that's kind of what slumped me in the beginning," Walsh told reporters about his Summer League showing so far. "Just kind of going in with that mentality. Not going in with the right mentality of, 'Alright, I got to go out and play as hard as I can. The results of the results.' So, now I'm trying to switch to that and let that be the main goal and see how it goes."
Boston played from behind for almost the entirety of the game, besides being shorthanded, they dropped to 2-2 and missed an opportunity to clinch a berth in the semifinals of the Summer League.

Oliver-Maxence Prosper was the lead-man for Dallas (1-3) -- netting a game-high 22 points, while A.J. Lawson scored 21 points. Jazian Gortman (seven rebounds) and Jarod Lucas each chipped in 13 points respectively to snap the Mavericks three-game skid.

The Celtics will face the Philadelphia 76ers (3-1) Sunday afternoon in a consolation game, as NBA TV has the tip-off at 5:30 pm ET.


Joel Pavón




Photo used courtesy of Getty Images

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