Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from preseason loss to Magic

Boston Celtics Dud: Garrison Mathews

Like Aaron Nesmith, Garrison Mathews was a beneficiary of Boston missing several key players within their rotation Wednesday night and, with this, managed to receive a rather sizeable workload.

Unlike Nesmith, however, the third-year shooting guard didn’t wind up seizing the opportunity and, because of this, now has an even steeper uphill battle he must face on his quest to getting playing time (let alone the final roster spot) within the regular-season rotation than he did coming into the exhibition.

Despite not having played a single lick of preseason basketball for the Celtics since signing on with the franchise late last month, the wing still found himself with the allure of being a quality long-range marksman, which is a skill-set that this team could certainly use coming off the bench this season and was one of the main reasons why our very own Chris Conte believed a pursuit of the 24-year-old was a smart idea.

In his first taste of action donning the green and white threads, however, he ended up underwhelming a bit in this aspect of the game, converting on just 28.6 percent of his attempts, all of which came from beyond the 3-points like (seven shots in total).

In 20 minutes played he finished with a stat-line of just seven points and three rebounds while boasting a box plus-minus rating of -10.

Now, while it’s hard to judge the man’s potential on this team based on one measly preseason game, for a guy like Mathews this is the time where he must show up or get shut out.

Here’s to hoping for an improved final outing for the wing during Friday’s preseason finale against the Miami Heat!