The Boston Celtics dominated the Cleveland Cavaliers in preseason action with a 138-107 wire-to-wire victory at TD Garden on Sunday (Oct. 12) evening. To be fair to the Cavs, Cleveland was without five of the team’s best healthy players and another two injured as well. But then the Celtics were without injured star Jayson Tatum, making things even in our eyes.
In all seriousness, however, it was an excellent outing for Boston after a bit of a dud against the Toronto Raptors on Friday (Oct. 10), with every one of the 19 players who took the floor for Boston putting points up. Anfernee Simons led all players with 21 points, and Derrick White put up 16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks to lead the starters.
Payton Pritchard (14 points, 5 boards) and Sam Hauser (15 points) also stood out as starters, and Josh Minott (16 points, 6 rebounds) had another outstanding outing for Boston off the bench.
Luka Garza (7 points, 5 rebounds) also had a solid game as a reserve, and camp invitee Wendell Moore Jr. (5 points) had a thunderous dunk near the end of regulation that had the whole bench on its feet. Oddly, head coach Joe Mazzulla seemed angry after the win speaking postgame, and was unprofessionally curt to legitimate questions asked by the press.
With the win, the Celtics improve to 2-1 in their four-game preseason schedule, and next face the Toronto Raptors at home on Wed. Oct. 15.
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