PORTLAND — The Maine Celtics welcomed the Westchester Knicks to town on Friday night for their first home game of the season. Unfortunately, Maine wasn’t able to give their fans a great showing, as they got absolutely ripped to shreds. The game ended in a blowout 127-100 win for the Knicks.
The only real highlight of the night was JD Davison’s record-breaking game, as he snapped the all-time scoring record in Maine history. Other than that, it was a messy evening for the Celtics. No one could get anything going on offense, their defense was in disarray for most of the night, and Westchester walked away victorious.
Here are three studs and three duds from the rough night in Maine.
Stud - History for JD Davison
Entering the game, Davison was just six points away from the all-time Maine Celtics scoring record. By the time the first half came to a close, the record was his.
This year marks Davison’s third up in Portland, as well as his third on a two-way with the Celtics. And now, he will forever be a part of history with the Celtics organization.
First, a champion. Now, an all-time record holder.
Davison struggled to score the ball, but he was far and away the best game manager on the floor. His ability to set up his teammates was impressive—most of his teammates just missed their shots.3
Dud - Drew Peterson
From the jump, it looked like Drew Peterson was pressing the issue a bit too much. His open jumpers weren’t falling, he was turning the ball over in awkward spots, but most significantly, he just looked like he was trying a bit too hard to get into a rhythm.
That said, the game wasn’t all negatives for Peterson. Most importantly, it’s clear that he’s taking on the role of a leader on this team. Every chance he got, he was talking to teammates and yelling out instructions.
Unfortunately, his clear leadership didn’t translate to a great on-court performance on Friday night.
Stud - Baylor Scheierman (offensively)
During the preseason, things were looking rough for Baylor Scheierman. Brad Stevens’ first first-round pick looked wholly unprepared for the speed of an NBA game. But in Maine, he’s starting to find his footing.
Scheierman played well in each of Maine’s first two games, and he continued his impressive offensive year in Game 3. In a game where the Celtics were wholly outmatched by Westchester, Scheierman was a bright spot.
He was the only one who could find any sort of rhythm, particularly in the first half. As Maine’s offense sputtered, completely unable to generate any sort of flow, Scheierman’s (largely isolation) buckets were one of their only sources of offense.
The rookie struggled at times on the defensive end (one particularly embarrassing spin cycle highlighting an ugly defensive night for the entire Maine team), and his scoring tailed off in the second half, but his offense was one of the few positives of the evening.
Dud - Dmytro Skapintsev
To be clear, Dmytro Skapintsev doesn’t deserve all of the blame for his own place on this list. But he’s on the list nonetheless. Maine’s drop coverage was awful all night, and Skapintsev just wasn’t good enough to hold the tide.
As Celtics defenders struggled to navigate the pick-and-roll, Skapintsev was left on an island to guard multiple players. He picked up a few nice blocks, but for the most part, he was unable to do much against the Knicks’ ball-handler.
And even when he was able to get a stop at the rim, he lost the rebound because none of his teammates came over to help in the paint.
Now, Skapintsev wasn’t great outside of that torture chamber, either. He was laboring up and down the court for most of the night, and even when he got some looks of his own in the paint, he couldn’t finish.
Outside of being a decent one-on-one post defender (and an okay shot-blocker), Skapintsev looked rough.
Stud - Hason Ward
Hason Ward picked up a technical foul in this game for a small altercation with TJ Warren, but he’s an intriguing prospect.
Ward is an extreme athlete. Think of a corner store version of Robert Williams III.
That’s not to say that Ward doesn’t have potential, though. He certainly does. He has elite bounce and can block shots with ferocity if he can get to the right spot. And if he has the right pick-and-roll partner, he could throw down some lobs, too.
The issue is that he’s not the best at timing, and his positioning needs some work, too. Plus, he’s a non-shooter, so until he learns how to set better screens and position himself better on the court, he’ll be a project player.
All that being said, Ward clearly has the makings of an intriguing player to watch. By the time the fourth quarter came around, he found his footing a bit, highlighted by a monster put-back slam. He still needs to work his overall game, but his athleticism should keep him in the back of fans' minds.
Dud - Everything
There’s not much to like in a game like this. Scraping together studs for Scheierman, Watson, and Ward was tough, especially considering none were perfect. Maine just struggled on both ends.
Offensively, they found nothing. All they ran were pick-and-rolls that went nowhere with three guys staring into space off the ball. The occasional cut from Watson or others changed it up, but those were few and far between.
Their offense was far too predicated on isolation scoring, and while they did generate a decent number of open threes, they don’t have the personnel to knock them down at a high clip.
Defensively, things were even worse. The pick-and-roll defense, as previously mentioned, was brutal. Skapintsev was consistently left on an island, and even when they tried out zone or switching, Westchester still carved them up.
To make matters worse, Maine’s struggling offense only made their defense worse. Every time they missed a shot, Westchester grabbed the ball and ran.
Maine’s communication also left much to be desired. Time and time again, Westchester got wide-open looks from three or at the rim simply because Maine wasn’t connected. Someone didn’t help over. The weak-side defender wasn’t paying attention. A rotation got missed.
Maine found some success in the fourth quarter, largely thanks to their own transition opportunities and the hustle of London Johnson and Tristan Enaruna, but it was still a tough, tough night.