Boston Celtics’ unicorn has rougher outing against rival than ‘sterling’ debut

Boston Celtics unicorn Kristaps Porzingis had a rougher outing against the Miami Heat on October 27 than he did during his “sterling” debut at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks two days prior on October 25, as CelticsBlog’s Daniel Poarch pointed out following the 119-111 Cs win at the TD Garden.

“The matchup of Kristaps Porzingis versus Bam Adebayo proved to be an issue for the Celtics tonight,” Poarch prefaced before saying, “Though Porzingis had a solid night from a scoring perspective — 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting — he struggled to contain Miami’s 26-year-old center. Adebayo was the Heat’s second-leading scorer with 27 points, largely bullying Porzingis in the paint and around the free throw line. Porzingis complicated matters with foul trouble, picking up his fifth personal foul of the game midway through the fourth quarter and fouling out shortly thereafter with just three minutes left in regulation. This was a much rougher outing for the Celtics’ unicorn than his sterling debut.”

Bam Adebayo, previously an issue while being primarily defended by Al Horford, Robert Williams III, and at times, Marcus Smart, looks to continue to pester Boston as long as he is in a Heat uniform after overpowering Porzingis in the paint. Adebayo’s 27 points and seven rebounds made for the second most spectacular Miami stat line behind Tyler Herro’s 28/6/6, but neither made for one on the winning team during a magical night in Boston.

Jaylen Brown flips the narrative with his own eye-popping stat line for the Boston Celtics

Following an opening tipoff struggle session against the Knicks, Jaylen Brown needed to respond in a big way, or else risk losing the narrative and being pegged as the team’s third option. Luckily, Brown was not going to let one game dictate his 2023-24 season, responding with a 50% shooting night on 22 shots and a 42% night from beyond the arc on seven attempts to go for 27 points in his first appearance post-supermax.

After the pair was quiet on opening night, Brown and Derrick White were the stars of the C’s home debut. It looks like there will be a rotating cast of stars on any given night for Boston during what could be shaping up to be a special season.