Richard DiMarzo
Hello everyone, my name is Richard DiMarzo and I am a sports writer for the Merrimack Beacon. We are going to be going over the Celtics’ very first matchup of the season last night against the Philadelphia 76ers. Starting with the results in the game which was the Celtics stomping the 76ers in a 126-117 victory to start this NBA season.
The Celtics were going back and forth with Philadelphia all game, but overall they ran a very smooth offensive and defensive gameplan. It was very interesting to see how the Celtics would come out with their new coach and new additions to the team and from what I saw, they showed everyone they really mean business. The players who really set the tone though were the two stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown who each had 35 points and absolutely dominated the 76ers’ defense. Another notable name a with big performance was Marcus Smart with 14 points and 7 assists, and new addition Malcolm Brogdon dropped in 16 points and 4 assists off of the bench. Other players like Noah Vonleh and Blake Griffin who are new to the Celtics this season also got some big minutes in the season opener. Now yes the offense did look great, but what really pushed this Celtics team to their first win was how great their defense was, totaling 3 blocks a and 8 steals as a team. The Celtics also forced Philadelphia to take a number of tough shots last night and recapturing their identity from last season, and I expect this to continue.
Moving on, I think new Coach Joe Muzzulla did a fantastic job with player rotations and keeping his team composed even when they were down and this was a very great sight for any Celtic fan. Overall a great win for the Celtics and a very positive showing for a team who had to deal with multiple bumps in the road this off-season.
