The regular season hasn’t started yet, but through a few Monday night NBA preseason games, one thing has become clear: This year is gonna be a whole lot of fun.
Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward were introduced as Celtics at the TD Garden for the first time:
Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward introduced as Boston Celtics for the first time at TD Garden
— Rob Perez (@World_Wide_Wob) October 2, 2017
This is weird. pic.twitter.com/Sy3Zwl8YCA
Here are their first buckets:
With a jumper off the screen, @KyrieIrving splashes home his first bucket as a Celtic! pic.twitter.com/l928tHTOOM
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 2, 2017
Now @GordonHayward splashes home his first bucket in green & white, followed by a steal and 3-pointer by @smart_MS3! pic.twitter.com/Zg0KAk4Y3U
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 3, 2017
BTW Kyrie also dunks now:
To the rack! pic.twitter.com/wZOJWgEqnr
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 2, 2017
Irving finished with nine points and Hayward scored just five, but that’s not what matters. Neither was outstanding, but neither was awful. This is the beginning of a chemistry that’ll take years to build.
Lonzo Ball isn’t just throwing alley-oops, he’s catching them:
Ball had a slight ankle tweak in the second quarter that scared Lakers fans out of their seats. He was fine and re-entered the game in the second half, but Los Angeles found itself down 20.
That’s when the Lakers went on an insane fourth-quarter run to cut said lead down to four in the fourth quarter, thanks to 23 points on 4-of-9 shooting from downtown by Kyle Kuzma.
Los Angeles still lost, but it’s fun to be a Lakers fan again.
Malik Monk scored his first NBA points on a step-back three:
The first #NBAPreseason bucket for @hornets’ Malik Monk! #NBARooks pic.twitter.com/xs8JD2AKqW
— NBA Draft (@NBADraft) October 3, 2017
It’s what the man does.
Other things that happened:
- Mario Chalmers is back (with the Grizzlies) and put up 19 points in a win over Orlando.
- Jaylen Brown had a pretty cool dunk:
- Guerschon Yabusele has a fun run to watch:
I could watch Yabu run all day pic.twitter.com/2xL9qltaCU
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) October 3, 2017
- And last but not least, Magic Johnson and Scottie Pippen have the coolest handshake in the world.
I have legitimately never seen someone shake hands like this pic.twitter.com/QWRDzAxCaf
— Lakers Outsiders (@LakersOutsiders) October 3, 2017
And to think the NBA season hasn’t even started yet!
Monday night’s preseason scores
Celtics 94, Hornets 82
Grizzlies 92, Magic 84
Wizards 126, Guangzhou Long-Lions 96
Jazz 108, Sydney Kings 83
Nuggets 113, Lakers 107