Celtics slated to play 6 games in Summer League, starting today

The Boston Celtics are fielding teams in the Utah and Las Vegas Summer Leagues, beginning tonight.

They will begin play tonight, at seven p.m. in Salt Lake City, of all places (given the team's pursuit of Gordon Hayward, it's an interesting coincidence) against the Philadelphia 76ers and Markelle Fultz, plenty of drama for a technically meaningless event. They will then face the San Antonio Spurs on the fifth (also at seven), followed by the Utah Jazz to close out the Utah portion of the schedule (that game will have some added meaning as well, hopefully good).


The play will then shift to Las Vegas, with Boston's first matchup coming Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. against the Los Angeles Lakers, followed by a matchup against the Portland Trailblazers the same time on Sunday night, with the Celtics closing out their Summer League series with a rematch against Fultz and the 76ers on the 11th, at 6:30 p.m. EST. You can watch them on watch.nba.com, starting with the Jayson Tatum - Fultz matchup people will (incorrectly) use to judge Danny Ainge's draft choice a TINY bit prematurely.

Boston's roster is strikingly wing-heavy, and almost certainly not by accident. More than half - in fact nearly two-thirds - are small or combo forwards or, like Jabari Bird (formerly of Jaylen Brown's alma mater, Cal), large twos who mostly play up on defense. In addition to those two former teammates, the Summer League roster is also populated 2017 draftees like Tatum, Semi Ojeleye, the former SMU standout taken 37th, and Kadeem Allen, selected with Jabari late in the second round. Last year's other draftees - Ante Zizic, Demetrius Jackson, and Abdel Nader - will also participate.


Landen Lucas, the Kansas center we previously reported as joining Boston's Summer squad, will also be there, as will former Ohio State big man Trevor Thomas, who will join Lucas and Zizic as the only traditional frontcourt players on the roster. Scott Wood, formerly of NC State, and Roscoe Allen, a Stanford alum, join Terren Petteway (ex-Nebraska) and Perrin Buford (alumni of Middle Tennessee State) to round out the wings, with Scoochie Smith, an undrafted point guard out of Dayton, to round out the roster.

For more stories about the offseason on CelticsLife, click here. For more by Justin, click here.



Photo via Las Vegas Review-Journal
Follow Justin at @justinquinnn


Share