Regret surely followed the Boston Celtics' season-opening loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, a heartbreaking 117-116 defeat on their home court.
Failing to capitalize on a stinker from Joel Embiid was bad enough, and especially so when Payton Pritchard had two chances to win the game in the closing seconds and erase the bad vibes stemming from a blown 10-point lead with nine minutes remaining. But even worse was how avoidable this all could have been with Jrue Holiday in the fold.
Instant "Can we please take it back?" sentiments should emerge on the heels of giving up 74 combined points to the opposition's starting backcourt.
The Boston Celtics experienced a backcourt disaster to open their season
In today's NBA, it's not necessarily disastrous to allow one opposing guard to break past the 30-burger plateau. Points flow aplenty in the three-point-happy era, and scoring guards have been taking on increased prominence for years, much to the chagrin of retired players-turned-talking heads who still cling to the outdated idea of pass-first, pass-second floor generals.
Giving up 30 points to both starting guards? That's not even disastrous. It's calamitous.
Well, calamitous was the reality for the C's as they kicked off their 2025-26 campaign in 0-1 fashion. Not only did Tyrese Maxey resume his march to stardom with 40 points and six assists on 13-of-24 shooting from the field and an audacious 7-of-9 showing from beyond the rainbow, but VJ Edgecombe made his professional debut to the tune of 34 points and seven boards. In the process, he set a scoring record that paired him with one of the most mythologized figures in league history: Wilt Chamberlain.
Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Jaylen Brown, Anfernee Simons, and everyone else who tried to keep the dynamic Sixers duo contained? Well, they failed at the assignment. Epically.
If only they still had a guard known for his tenacious, hounding perimeter defense. For doing all the little things that help lift a team's floor and ceiling. For accepting invaluable assignments that fly below the radar of casual viewers and box score-watchers.
Yeah, we're talking about Jrue Holiday.
It only took the Celtics a single game to feel the pain of the Jrue Holiday void
Matched up against one of many Western Conference contenders in the Minnesota Timberwolves, Holiday used his Portland Trail Blazers debut to record 14 points, six rebounds, seven assists, and three steals. He struggled to find his shot (5-of-15 from the field, 1-of-7 on three-pointers), but he also put his playmaking abilities and defensive versatility on full display.
Reese Kunz highlighted as much for Rip City Project:
"Holiday may not be the elite defender he once was, but he's still one of the most versatile guards in the league on that end of the court. Anthony Edwards was seemingly unfazed by the Blazers' elite defense, finishing with 41 points, but there was one particular possession in the second quarter where you could see precisely what Joe Cronin had in mind when he acquired Holiday.Reese Kunz, Rip City Project
Edwards beat All-Defensive wing Toumani Camara off the dribble only to get picked up by 6-foot-7 forward Jerami Grant. Then, once he passed Grant, he ran into the equivalent of a brick wall in Holiday, resulting in a heavily contested two-point attempt.
"
Hmmm. Sound like anything to which the Celtics might wish they still had access?
Meanwhile (technically in the earlier slate of Oct. 22 games), Maxey and Edgecombe both capitalized on the Celtics' inability to switch and still prevent interior penetration — a stark contrast from previous iterations of this outfit that featured Holiday serving as, in Kunz's words, a "brick wall."
Simons, who Boston received in the July swap with Portland, has never made his money on the defensive end of the floor. He's put in the hard work to remedy that throughout the offseason, and his growth was evident in 32 minutes off the bench, notably preventing a Maxey bucket in transition and thieving the ball away from an inattentive Embiid.
However, an improved Simons is still more of a scorer than a playmaker, still more of a burgeoning defensive presence than a candidate to make one of the league's All-Defensive squads. In short, he's not Holiday.
The Celtics can be excited about Simons' long-term development, assuming he's not just a short-term rental who dosn't fit the stylstic preferences of head coach Joe Mazzulla. But this season — a gap season, to be clear — will get painful first. Boston simply doesn't have the level of talent necessary to chase after much more than a .500 record, and that deficit will only be amplified by the lack of access to a talented two-way player who specializes in filling whatever cracks exist.
He just can't fill the "regret" crack while he's suiting up on the opposite side of the country.