Celtics 99, Knicks 85: Scenes from a sloppy preseason finale

Hey! The Knicks kinda tried to play basketball, but looked a little lazy doing it. Then they kinda stopped for a while, then started again, and ... whatever. They lost to the Celtics, who were similarly uncertain about whether or not they should play basketball. Jose Calderon shot very well, Carmelo Anthony shot very poorly, and these things happened too:

Kristaps Porzingis would go on to have quite a nice game, but started with 3 quick fouls. This was the third, just kinda being careless with his off hand as he tried to block a shot. This one coulda easily been a no-call, but there were and will continue to be plays in which Kristaps hits guys because he can't keep track of all his body parts. That'll take time.

Kyle O'Quinn can still pass, and Arron Afflalo had a nice little offensive game before his hamstring started acting up. That's probably gonna be a thing.

Afflalo showed off some of that post game, too. He's very reluctant to pass when he feels he's got a mismatch, but that self-reliance paid off most of the time in preseason:

But yeah, hard to imagine Afflalo being a sure thing even a week from now. Hamstrings don't mess around.

Robin Lopez has had his moments catch and popping, and he's great at setting picks, but hooooo boy does that post game look ragged sometimes. I like him better farther from the basket.

On the other end, Lopez gave us a pretty equal helping of nice defense and terribly sluggish shot contests, especially when bad backcourt defense forced him to help.

Kristaps can do some things, man. He put the ball on the floor and got all the way to the rim one time, and soon thereafter showed off this little two-dribble turnaround:

If he didn't have that, I'd still feel quite good about him. But he's got that. He's got all kinds of things!

Love this little pick and dive to the rim by Jerian Grant. Nice eyes by Derrick Williams to find him, too!

This is one of the few times I can remember someone throwing a hard double at Kristaps, and it's definitely the first time I can remember him finding a way out of it:

Gorgeous play.

More in a recap later tonight!