Victory Cigar!!! PHL 87 @ BOS 105 (1-0)

[VeryMuchWoke]

I don't know man, I see great things in these two young guns. They gotta carry all the load though.

Embiid has crazy talent, but everybody acts like he's already fulfilled it.

He's not efficient.
He's good defensively, but not elite.
He's turnover prone.
He can't really shoot the 3 (the most important offensive skill).
He's not mentally tough and has a huge ego.

He's not even worth his contract unless he improves considerably.

Let's not get carried away here. He's got fewer than 100 games in the NBA, but is an AS with a career .576 TS% with per-36 28/10 averages, including 3 11/2 assists and 2 1/2 blocks. A 7-footer with a career .327 from 3. Yeah, he still turns the ball over more than he should.

TS% overates him because it doesn't account for turnovers. Counting stats don't impress me as I'm not a n00b. 33% from 3 doesn't do anything for an offense.

He's great defensively when you can't go 5 out against him, but all the best teams can, so that's overrated.

[CeltsFlow]

We out here

[tfribs45]

Gave it to the young PP. Skies the limit for Jason, Duke prepared him well for the big show! Going to be interesting to see what happens with our roster down the road. We have two starting NBA teams all in one. Kyrie looked out of shape and Hayward looked better in the second half. All in all a solid start! Go C’s

[Taget]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Jayson Tatum kid looks like he's going to be a pretty nice player.

[return2glory]

Great win.

VC goes to Tatum. Closely followed by Morris.

Rozier, Horford and Baynes also played well.

Smart, Hayward and Brown were decent.

Theis still is rusty and needs about 3-4 weeks to get into the swing of things.

Kyrie played like a scrub. Thought that was Wannamaker instead of Kyrie the way he was playing. I loved that Brad pulled him out of the game and went with Rozier with about 5 minutes to go in the 4th. Kyrie might take few weeks to also get his flow back.

Overall, great win. Defense was strong and so was the ball movement. This team is going to be scary good in about 6-8 weeks because Kyrie, Hayward, and Theis are all coming back from injuries and will be playing a lot better by then.

[Spin Move]

Tatum leading the way in scoring and rebounding ...he over dribbled some at times but a solid effort, great game by Al has well. Brad Gets a puff for spreading out the minutes so well, Al was the only 1 to hit 30. Most of the team looked good and Smart only took 4 shots. Looks like we have a really solid 9 man rotation with a bench of Baynes/Morris/Terry/Smart and we can have our top 9 guys keep everyone fresh for the playoffs.

[lon3lytoaster]

I love that we win going away while Kyrie plays so poorly he gets benched in the 4th and no one on the team played more than 30 minutes while Simmons and Embiid were at 43 and 37 minutes respectively.

We have their number, for sure.

[GuyClinch]

Tatum looked great obviously... a little bit shall we say Durantesque - the way he seemed to grow a bit after we got him. Has the skills of a guard and great length...

Nice to see Hayward back - but always worried about injuries like his. So many guys never come back..

[Andrew McCeltic]

Gave it to Hayward for sentimental reasons - everything is there but his elevation to the rim.

Tatum is a fascinating player - watching him on that solo fast break with Simmons trailing him, you realize he’s pushing 6’9” and he’s going to be able to play and guard 2 through 4.. I was high on him at the draft, but I didn’t think he’d be this athletic and offensively impactful this fast.

Morris chucked up a lot of shots but they went in - he’s healthy, as advertised, playing good physical defense and scoring effectively. Will be a decision, like Rozier, at the trade deadline and in the summer..

Wonder what Kyrie was doing tonight - he doesn’t usually go that cold - wouldn’t put it past him to test his teammates by hanging back offensively. Embiid actually shut him down - watching Joel guard Irving and Tatum was scary.

If Philly traded for Jimmy Butler they’d be with us, Houston and Golden State for the best team in the league.. Fultz/Covington.. The city would love him, and he’d have fewer complaints about Simmons/Embiid..

Weird, ISO heavy night. Hope Jaylen figures it out soon - must be tough being overshadowed by Tatum - but Brown can be just as good once he has enough minutes under his belt to have a feel for the game.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

Just got back from the game. It was great to be there opening night.Hands down Tatum gets it although Morris was very solid as well. Same with Rozier.


I thought Hayward looked okay but he was extremely tentative driving to the hoop and looked indecisive at times.

I thought Irving was absolutely terrible. This has to be his worse game as a Celtic right? As terrible as he was never thought he'd get benched for Rozier though.

Good win even though I don't think the Celtics played that well.

[Valid]

Gave it to Hayward for sentimental reasons - everything is there but his elevation to the rim.

Tatum is a fascinating player - watching him on that solo fast break with Simmons trailing him, you realize he’s pushing 6’9” and he’s going to be able to play and guard 2 through 4.. I was high on him at the draft, but I didn’t think he’d be this athletic and offensively impactful this fast.

Morris chucked up a lot of shots but they went in - he’s healthy, as advertised, playing good physical defense and scoring effectively. Will be a decision, like Rozier, at the trade deadline and in the summer..

Wonder what Kyrie was doing tonight - he doesn’t usually go that cold - wouldn’t put it past him to test his teammates by hanging back offensively. Embiid actually shut him down - watching Joel guard Irving and Tatum was scary.

If Philly traded for Jimmy Butler they’d be with us, Houston and Golden State for the best team in the league.. Fultz/Covington.. The city would love him, and he’d have fewer complaints about Simmons/Embiid..

Weird, ISO heavy night. Hope Jaylen figures it out soon - must be tough being overshadowed by Tatum - but Brown can be just as good once he has enough minutes under his belt to have a feel for the game.

Lol no they wouldn't.

[PierceFan4ever]

Remember for like the first 40-50 games last season Tatum stood a lot in the corners at times waiting for his turn on offense ocassionsally?

Now already in game 1 of this season he’s being the man on offense with fancy dribbling, posting up, talking smack, etc.

That playoff run last season really made guys like Tatum, Brown, and Rozier different players right off the bat for this season.

[estendius]

Win by 18, banner 18 boggie

[K For Three]

I was there tonight, got home around midnight. Perhaps I see things at times differently but........

THIS. WAS. GORDON'S. NIGHT.

The. End.

F stats.

Gordon electrified the place. His presence alone. A beautiful white angel sent from Celtics heaven. Just seeing him out there was breathtaking. And all I hear about is damn negativity with his contract or how he looked blah blah blah. Seriously, a year ago he looked like he died.

There was one time as the game went on I felt Gordon even started to look....hungry? He got the shakes out and was just constantly active on the floor. The crowd went WILD for anything positive he did.

This team is going to be UNSTOPPABLE at some point this year. Guaranteed. Just wait until Gordon and Kyrie get to all star levels again, just omg......

This team is LOADED with weapons. And they all actually seem to like each other too since I always keep a close eye on the bench lol. A lot of pats and slaps on the back from each other, they all seem very supportive.

Kyrie had a bad shooting night but I don't think he is one to worry about. He missed a lot of time and he played the role of facilitator a lot well. He starts a lot of seasons slow. He must be good buddies with Reddick, they chatted a lot on the side during the game.

Philly still has no answer for Tatum.


I just could not be more pleased. Sure yes at times in the first half it felt kinda like a preseason game but Philly is not even in our galaxy. And there is clearly still plenty of rust and things to work out with the Celtics.

I am pretty confident that this team really believes it might even win the whole thing this year.

The Red Sox winning during the game was a nice boost too since you could hear the cheers coming from the box seats and they put the score on the screen.

[VeryMuchWoke]

Gave it to Hayward for sentimental reasons - everything is there but his elevation to the rim.

Tatum is a fascinating player - watching him on that solo fast break with Simmons trailing him, you realize he’s pushing 6’9” and he’s going to be able to play and guard 2 through 4.. I was high on him at the draft, but I didn’t think he’d be this athletic and offensively impactful this fast.

Morris chucked up a lot of shots but they went in - he’s healthy, as advertised, playing good physical defense and scoring effectively. Will be a decision, like Rozier, at the trade deadline and in the summer..

Wonder what Kyrie was doing tonight - he doesn’t usually go that cold - wouldn’t put it past him to test his teammates by hanging back offensively. Embiid actually shut him down - watching Joel guard Irving and Tatum was scary.

If Philly traded for Jimmy Butler they’d be with us, Houston and Golden State for the best team in the league.. Fultz/Covington.. The city would love him, and he’d have fewer complaints about Simmons/Embiid..

Weird, ISO heavy night. Hope Jaylen figures it out soon - must be tough being overshadowed by Tatum - but Brown can be just as good once he has enough minutes under his belt to have a feel for the game.

Lol no they wouldn't.

Yeah they'd implode and he'd murder Fultz and Simmons. I think the Sixers finish 4th inn the East.

[Jaqua92]

Man what waa up with Kyrie?

Tatum is a star

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[Jaqua92]

Embiid is also ridiculously overrated.

He isnt close to Giannis. Much less AD. He is a fringe top 10 player on his best days. These "future MVP" talks are blown way out of proportion

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[Shak_Celts]

[K For Three]

Saw Jaylen and Kyrie at the game chatting seriously from time to time when they were both struggling. Both were trying to work things out.

I thought there were a few funny moments in the game that looked like.....hard rust. lmao.

Just though it was terrific to see the whole band together finally.

And you can tell these guys really believe in this.

Read on Twitter

Tatum was the best player of the game even though I gave it to Hayward for his coming back party. Tatum was really impressive live and I liked how they fed him the ball too since he was the obvious hot hand at times tonight.

I also have to say even though most of us hate him, Morris showed up tonight.

Read on Twitter

[Shak_Celts]

know this is VC thread but we can't just out talent raps, we need to make shots. we only had 21 assists but i think if hayward and kyrie hit their usual (certainly kyrie), we could have had 30 easily.