Boston Celtics drop 2nd preseason game to Knicks

Oct 9, 2013; Providence, RI, USA; Boston Celtics guard Chris Babb (52) and point guard Phil Pressey (26) celebrate against the New York Knicks during the second half at Dunkin Donuts Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

For the first 36 minutes of this game, it was your standard preseason game: sloppy, borderline un-watchable and very funny. Then in the 4th quarter something magical happened as the gods sent down an angel whose name is Chris Babb. Down 23 points, Babb scored 12 points in the 4th quarter to help Boston engineer a comeback for the ages. Sadly though, Tim Hardaway Jr. hit the game winning shot with 8 seconds left and Boston wasn’t able to complete one of the greatest comebacks in NBA History.

Aside from the almost comeback, there were a lot of things of note in tonights game. Though like always everything should be read and understood with the realization that this is the preseason.

One of the more interesting things of note is that the starting lineup — different from Monday’s — once again got off to a slow start. Stevens, who is still tinkering and experimenting with lineups, decided to go with Avery-Lee-Wallace-Bass-Sullinger curiously deciding to bring Jeff off the bench though he did say to not read into it. Wallace and Sullinger, who were the two that stood out from the starting lineup, were extremely active on defense both taking charges and on offense knocking down perimeter shots.

The 2nd lineup is where things got interesting. Humphries continued his solid play leaving me conflicted about whether or not I’ll be able to stand having him on the team for an entire season. Olynyk furthered my belief that he is in fact a deity walking among us and Pressey’s play led to the creation of his own bandwagon. Seriously, Pressey for his first action in an actual NBA setting was very good. He was very active on defense, and was surprisingly under control. He finished the game with 7 assists and 0(!) turnovers which is especially noteworthy. He handled the full court pressure New York put on him pretty well and took care of the ball which is all you can ask for from the rookie.

There was one thing I had a problem with in this game: Both Lee and Green seemed content to stand around and be disengaged in the offense. Lee may as well just sign a lease for the left corner because it seemed like he never moved from the there. It’s not a surprise from Lee who shouldn’t be expected to play that much of a role on offense but Jeff has strangely not been involved in the offense for the most part in these two preseason games. We know Jeff isn’t a playmaker but Coach Stevens should still be able to get him involved by running him off screens or posting him up. So far he’s getting most of his looks off of kick outs to the corner or above the arc. He had a nice transition dunk but for the most part he was once again relegated to being just a spot up shooter — which isn’t a bad thing but it would be nice to see him get more involved.

To have some fun, here are some fake “Tommy Heinsohn preseason overreactions” from me so far:

“Vitor Faverani is the 2nd coming of Marc Gasol!”

“Phil Pressey reminds me of a guy I used to play with, you know who I’m talking about? BOB COUSY!”

“That Chris Babb fella’s 3pt shot reminds me of Reggie Miller. He’s got a lot of Reggie in him!”

“I LOVE WALTAH!”(ok that wasn’t an overreaction I just couldn’t resist)

Boston takes on Philadelphia Friday Night for their 3rd game of the Preseason.

Twitter: @TreyAdell