Celtics

Longtime C's assistant Alex Barlow takes us through his journey toward becoming the new head coach for the Maine Celtics.

“It’s something I’ve been looking forward to really since Brad pitched the idea back in 2017 when he wanted me to spend some time in the G League, learn the game in the G League, learn how to be a head coach. “I’ve grown in the NBA through player development whether it was here with Rob, whether it’s been in the G League running the player development program that we have in the G League, so I think the biggest focus for me is just going to be getting guys better,” said Barlow. I think as a head coach a lot of times you want to do everything, you want to do a lot, and it’s just not feasible. “There will be challenges that come with being a head coach,” said Stevens, “but that’s one of the beautiful things about the G League is that you can learn through your mistakes, right? So I think that year with him was really good, really helpful, and is going to help me for my time this year.” “I wanted to get into coaching, and I thought Brad would be someone who it’d be great to be a part of his program and learn from. He was a Bulldog both by association, and by nature, as he finished second in the Big East in steals per game in both his junior and senior seasons. After two years of grinding away in that role, Barlow was approached by Stevens with a new opportunity: an assistant position on former Maine Red Claws head coach Brandon Bailey’s staff. But he obviously has had a great track record of getting guys that he coached in college – and even here if you count Evan Turner – into coaching.” However, coaching was ultimately his calling, as was the case for several of his Butler peers. “I am very humbled and excited to be taking on the head coaching role in Maine,” Barlow stated upon his hiring. Between them both, it was the start of a longtime mentorship, colleagueship, and friendship.

The Boston Celtics will be looking for their second straight preseason win as they host the Toronto Raptors at TD Garden on Wednesday night.

Leonard looked just fine, knocking down his first shot 15 seconds into the game and scored 11 points in 16 minutes in the first half. Simmons had cited mental health reasons in seeking a trade from the 76ers following a disappointing postseason when he took a bulk of the criticism after the No. “All the guys that have been out injured and able to play again, it’s a great feeling just seeing them out there.” “So you just want to see where your legs are on the jump shot. Fully cleared now, Simmons was in the starting lineup and finished with six points, five assists and four rebounds in 19 minutes. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference was ousted by Atlanta in the second round. NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Simmons streaked behind the defense and caught a pass in transition that he dunked. “Just being out there with the guys, talking, I missed it. “So I had a lot of fun out there.” [fuboTV](https://www.fubo.tv/lp/nba/?irad=356361&irmp=1810038&subId3=xid:fr1664992681213cdc) - If you have cable and live in New England, you can use your login credentials to watch the game via [NBC Sports](http://stream.nbcsports.com/rsn/nbcs-boston). The Celtics are coming off of a blowout victory over the Hornets Sunday, the team’s first game under interim head coach Joe Mazzulla. If you don’t have cable, you can stream the game on smart TVs and streaming devices via [Sling](https://www.sling.com/) and [fuboTV](https://www.fubo.tv/lp/nba/?irad=356361&irmp=1810038&subId3=xid:fr1664992681213aib), which has a free trial.

The Celtics host division rival Toronto Raptors as both teams look to stay unbeaten in the preseason.

The Celtics should get a boost from the home crowd and hopefully they will take protecting home court seriously in the preseason and all season long. Pace and Teamwork - The Celtics played with great pace against the Hornets and they need to run on every possession and move the ball without a lot of iso play and without a lot of dribbling around once again in this game. Take Care of the Ball - The Celtics had 23 turnovers against the Hornets and they have to cut that number down. Preseason - It’s the preseason and both teams are still working on lineups and chemistry and conditioning. The Celtics looked solid on defense against the Hornets and hopefully we see another solid defensive effort in this game. Preseason gives coaches a chance to get their starters some minutes but also to evaluate the players on camp contracts and this game should be no different.

After his team blew out the Hornets with a 41-point preseason-opening win, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was excited about the test a playoff team like the ...

We’re going to be leaning on him a lot and we’re going to grow throughout the season. Williams had another solid game off the bench as the fourth-year forward looks to build on last season as he produced eight points and five rebounds. The forward played a light scrimmage at Wednesday morning’s shootaround and while Mazzulla left the door open pregame for him to make his debut, he opted to wait as Griffin continues to get acclimated within Boston’s system. “How he reads the game, how he picks and chooses his spots. We’re building in the right direction but we still have a lot of work we have to clean up as we get ready to start the season. – The season opener is still 12 days away, but Brown looks like he’s ready for the season to start now.

Pascal Siakam and Precious Achiuwa scored 13 points apiece and Toronto used an early burst in overtime to beat Boston 125-119 on Wednesday.

Terry Rozier led the Hornets with 18 points and P.J. Isaiah Jackson finished with 13 points for the Hornets, while Myles Turner and Chris Duarte contributed 12 points apiece. Jayson Tatum finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds for Boston, now 1-1 in the preseason. The Cavaliers got an optimistic glimpse of the backcourt tandem of Mitchell with Garland in the first half. Doc Rivers was absent from the game with an undisclosed illness. Josh Jackson also had 13 points for the Raptors.

Blake Griffin is already lifting the vibes in the Celtics locker room, eliciting laughs from Jayson Tatum and company with a funny gag.

Signed to a fully guaranteed one-year deal, Griffin should soak up some minutes in the frontcourt after the injuries to Danilo Gallinari and Robert Williams III. He’s battling tooth and nail just to establish himself as a rotation player, and a crucial late-game error like that surely won’t do anything to help in his quest. The Celtics found themselves in a hotly-contested preseason tilt against the Toronto Raptors.

The Celtics regulars dominated for the second straight preseason game but the team couldn't hold on in overtime against the Raptors.

Varying starting lineup looks continue for Boston: Mazzulla stuck with the same smaller starting lineup look for the second straight game, going with Derrick White in the backcourt with Marcus Smart. Look for the Celtics to keep varying these lineup looks based on matchups while Robert Williams is recovering from knee surgery. Blake Griffin still waiting to debut: The recent addition to Boston’s frontcourt was on the bench with his new teammates for the first time but remained in street clothes coming off his first two practices with the team this week. The Celtics will hit the road next and head to North Carolina for a rematch with the Hornets on Friday night. With several regulars expecting to rest for that contest, the coaching staff will get their first chance to get an extended look at the 33-year-old. Jaylen Brown stays red hot: The veteran wing said he’s entering this preseason in the best shape of his life and it’s shown out of the gate.

The core rotation looked great, but the back end of the bench fumbled away a big lead and delivered a preseason loss.

The Toronto run continued to balloon, with the Raptors going so far as to reclaim a 108-106 lead with just 1:30 remaining in regulation, and with the Celtics clutching to just a two-point lead as time expired, Toronto’s Jeff Dowtin tied the game at 110 to force an elusive preseason overtime period. Experimentation during games has its risks, of course, and as the final quarter kicked off, the Celtics’ uber-small lineup gave up a 13-3 Raptors run to cut their lead back down into the single-digits — a situation where, in a game that counted, the starters might have returned to restore order. With the lead continuing to hover in the vicinity of 20 as the clock ticked down in the third, the game shifted towards the other focus of preseason basketball: lineup experimentation. Their absent shooting made a triumphant arrival, as the Hauser threes began to multiply and the Celtics surged ahead by double-digits in the process. Both teams came out of the gates looking far out of rhythm, with the score sitting at just 8-6 in favor of the Raptors more than halfway through the opening quarter. They held the Raptors at arm’s length, maintaining a double-digit lead while the starters remained in the night’s rotation, and it wasn’t until the deep bench took the court that Toronto was able to turn the night’s proceedings around.

For the second straight preseason game, Sam Hauser showed he can be a key contributor off the Celtics bench in 2022-23. Here are our takeaways from ...

The Celtics' prized offseason addition showed for the second straight preseason game what he'll bring to the table in 2022-23. He entered the half with 19 points and finished with 23, shooting 9-for-14 from the field in 27 minutes. Through the first two preseason games, he's just 2-for-15 from long range. One area Tatum will look to work on before the Oct. Brogdon duplicated Sunday's strong outing with a game-high nine assists in 23 minutes. He shot 6-of-16 from the field and 6-of-7 from the free-throw line. Both Celtics stars appear ready for the real deal. It's easy to get caught up in the preseason hype, but Hauser's hot shooting is no fluke. The 24-year-old sharpshooter followed his 14-point preseason opener with a 22-point performance on Wednesday. They dished out 31 assists on 44 field goals and hit 16 shots from beyond the arc. Boston's reserves were unable to finish the job as Toronto stormed back to force overtime and earn a 125-119 win at TD Garden. Sam Hauser showed again that he is ready to assume that role.

In their first game under Joe Mazzulla — a preseason contest vs. Charlotte — the Celtics ran off to a 41-point win. By Chad Finn, The Boston Globe.

But they had a rather magical run before the abrupt ending two wins shy of a championship, and Udoka’s ability to get them to listen was essential. Udoka had to tell them to knock off griping at the referees after Game 3 of the Finals, a game that they won, and they never really mastered the art of protecting the basketball, committing 55 turnovers over the last three games of the Finals, all losses. Heck, the season itself was a tribute to Udoka’s resoluteness in getting his team to play the way he demanded. Thirty-three wins, 10 losses, a couple of roster tweaks, and one teamwide commitment to cohesion later, and the Celtics ended up the No. When Griffin spoke to the media Monday, he noted with a smile that he played against Mazzulla in college. 6 after blowing a 25-point lead to the Knicks — the Knicks! Williams returned for the final two games of the Celtics’ first-round sweep of the Nets and had his moments in the postseason, but he wasn’t the usual detonating dunker near the rim. Though Griffin these days can’t jump over a skateboard, let alone a Kia, he seems a good fit, a smart player with a self-deprecating sense of humor who knows who and what he is at this point in his career. While Celtics ownership and management appear to have treated the situation with proper seriousness, the specifics remain vague and the speculation rampant. Then we learned that Robert Williams III, the Celtics’ defensive fulcrum, needed further “cleanup” in his left knee, which required surgery for a torn meniscus at the end of March. Udoka’s suspension for violations of team policies after having what was reported to be “an improper consensual relationship with a female member of the organization” rattled the franchise to its core. And hey, that Sam Hauser might be able to shoot it a little.

The Boston Celtics hosted the Toronto Raptors for their second of four preseason exhibition games on Wednesday night.

This team has really legit spacing now. Not bad for the new guy here [October 6, 2022] Boston jumped out to an early lead, but the Raptors fought back, clawing back into striking range by the time the Celtics sat their starters, forcing overtime and ultimately beating Boston 125-119 on overtime. [October 5, 2022]

The Celtics rotation dominated the Raptors on Wednesday night. Then the end of the bench came in and threw a meaningless fourth quarter away.

The “Just the way that we’re moving the ball, playing with each other. [Celtics](https://theathletic.com/nba/team/celtics/) played their final home game before their [NBA](https://theathletic.com/nba/) regular-season opener against [Philadelphia](https://theathletic.com/nba/team/sixers/) on Oct.

Sam Hauser continued to make the most of his opportunities Wednesday night, as he was the best shooter on the floor for the second straight game.

Hauser followed up his team-best 4-of-5 effort from deep against Charlotte Sunday afternoon with another team-high 5-of-8 3-point performance against Toronto Wednesday night. A mic’d up Jayson Tatum praised Sam Hauser this past week at practice, calling the second-year wing a legitimate shooting threat. Payton Pritchard was Boston’s lone bright spot during bonus time, as he scored or assisted on all four of its field goals.

BOSTON — Sam Hauser's quickly climbing up Celtics fans' power rankings the more he knocks down each of his 3-pointers. He shot a blistering 4-for-5 on 3s in ...

It’s only been two preseason games, but the early returns have been promising for Hauser to take that next step. Hauser continues to make his case for a rotation spot as a shooter — especially after Danilo Gallinari went down because of a torn ACL. “I tell him all the time: If people left me that wide open and all I had to do was catch-and-shoot, I would make a lot more shots as well,” Tatum said. The second-year forward started off on a two-way contract with the C’s last season. According to Tatum, that answer is a resounding “hell no” on if Hauser is better than him. Hauser has quickly emerged as one of the best shooters on the team — if not the best marksman.

Former UVA basketball stars Malcolm Brogdon and Sam Hauser are forming a connection with the Boston Celtics.

Sam Hauser and Malcolm Brogdon weren't the only former Wahoos to shine in NBA preseason play on Wednesday night. On the one three-pointer that Hauser made that Brogdon didn't technically assist, he had the hockey assist as he drove baseline and fed the ball to Payton Pritchard, who passed once more to Hauser on the wing for the three. We certainly look forward to watching Hauser and Brogdon continue to develop into a formidable duo in this upcoming NBA season. Three of those four three-pointers were assisted by Malcolm Brogdon, who recorded 11 points, nine rebounds, and five assists in his first live action playing for the Celtics after they traded five players and a first-round draft pick to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for the former NBA Rookie of the Year in July. As the Celtics hoped, Malcolm Brogdon already appears to be the crucial missing piece to the puzzle for Boston on the offensive end of the floor. Malcolm Brogdon and Sam Hauser have never shared the floor together before.

From a pair of Jaylen Brown jumpers to Jayson Tatum's fancy footwork at the rim, Tatum putting Scottie Barnes in the spin cycle, and Sam Hauser's ...

If you pause the clip at the seven second mark, you can see how poorly positioned and off-balance Trent is as Brown's ready to initiate his move. Trent recovers quickly, flipping his hips and shading Brown to go middle. Scottie Barnes is then waiting to pick him up at the three-point line. The Celtics send Jayson Tatum and Al Horford up the floor to set high ball screens for Jaylen Brown on his left and right. With Siakam in the restricted area, worried about Brogdon's drive, and Young dropping as Vonleh dives to the rim, Hauser's left open for a three he buries at the buzzer. Brown dribbles between his legs, steps back, has plenty of space to get a clean shot off, then swishes a three from the left wing.

With Danilo Gallinari out, the Celtics are in need of a dynamic 3-point shooter who can pull defenders away from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

“My job is to just space the floor, find openings, and be an outlet for those guys like [Tatum and Brown],” Hauser said. Hauser’s key is to hit enough 3-pointers to force defenders away from the paint. Hauser may be the best candidate yet. That encouraged the Celtics to wait on Hauser to develop instead of making a short-term roster move. Gallinari, at 6 feet 11 inches, would have been a nightmare matchup because of his size and ability to shoot. “He’s worked really hard and does a great job playing off of others and kind of taking what the defense gives him,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. They added Brogdon, and the hope is that Grant Williams, White, and Pritchard take steps forward while Hauser works himself into the rotation. That’s kind of what I’m known for is shooting, and that’s how I can help this team in the best way possible.” He should be part of the second unit this season, at times spending time on the floor with Brown and Tatum. That’s what the Celtics have needed for years. Shooters are a commodity in the NBA. The quest has been fruitless the past several years.