PORTLAND — The Maine Celtics were back home on Thursday night for their first of two matchups against the College Park Skyhawks. Joey Hauser was in town with the Skyhawks, which meant that Celtics forward Sam Hauser also made an appearance. He even jumped on the broadcast for a few minutes.
Drew Peterson was out with concussion symptoms from a hit he took back on January 7, though he was a full participant in their latest practice. He's been working his way back from the injury. Donald Carey Jr. was also out for Maine, and Atlanta Hawks two-way player Keaton Wallace was out for the Skyhawks. That left Baylor Scheierman, JD Davison, and Anton Watson to lead the way for the Celtics.
The game was close for the entire night, as neither team could find any separation. College Park hit the glass hard as Scheierman and Davison put on a master class of offensive initiation.
Maine blew an eight-point lead in the last eight minutes of the game, highlighted by a brutal bad-pass turnover by Davison. However, he made up for it by hitting a monster bank-shot three in traffic to tie the game at 116-116 heading into overtime.
Once they got there, it was all Davison. Bucket after bucket, he led the Celtics to a 123-122, electrified by an elam ending.
Here are three studs and three duds from Maine.
Stud - Baylor Scheierman
The Scheierman that is currently suiting up for Maine is very different from the one most Boston fans watch fumble through the preseason. His developmental progress is clear as day.
From the very start of the game, Scheierman was doing a bit of everything for the Celtics, especially on the offensive side of the ball. JD Davison is still their primary ball-handler, but Scheierman is getting a ton of touches as the offensive leader, too.
His shooting stroke looks extremely confident, he’s not afraid to put the ball on the floor and drive, and his energy was amazing on Thursday, too. Plus, his playmaking was a huge part of the Celtics’ success.
Scheierman looks great in Maine right now.
Note: Scheierman got fouled hard early in the fourth quarter and limped off the floor. It looked like he briefly went back to the locker room before returning to the bench.
Dud - Rebounding
Maine had a lot of trouble corralling rebounds on Thursday. The Skyhawks were led by Mouhamed Gueye and Dominick Barlow, both of whom are fringe NBA players, but that wasn’t the biggest problem.
Every time the ball bounced off the rim, it felt like the Celtics were just watching. Rather than going up to meet the ball in the air, it just hit the ground, and College Park often got to the spot first.
This was a big reason the Skyhawks were able to hold onto a lead for most of the first half.
Stud - JD Davison
Davison is Mr. Maine. He’s probably the best player in franchise history at this point, and once again, he proved why on Thursday night.
Everywhere you looked, Davison’s fingerprints were on this game. When Davison is suited up in a Maine jersey, he’s one of the best players on the floor. Whether that be driving, passing, or shooting, he’s giving them a bit of everything.
As mentioned, Scheierman has started to take over some ball-handling duties, but that’s fine with Davison. He simply sinks over to the corner or into open space and makes an impact from there.
It’s unclear what the future holds for Davison past this season, but for now, he’s giving Maine their best chance to win.
Dud - Defensive consistency
The makings of a solid defense are present in Maine, but they don’t execute consistently enough to be that. Too often did College Park get open threes and free second-chance points.
Sometimes, Maine would get lost off the ball. Other times, it would be a miscommunication in the pick-and-roll. Then there were the drives where Maine wasn’t able to get any pressure at the rim. It just felt like they weren’t able to string together full possessions on defense for stretches of this game.
They also got beat in transition way too easily. Even when they did manage to get back, they weren’t great at defending on their back foot.
Stud - Anton Watson
The Celtics’ second-round pick looked great on Thursday night. His progression since Summer League has also been very notable, much like Scheierman’s.
Watson’s three-point shooting stood out more than anything against College Park, as he was letting it fly without a second thought. And luckily for Maine, he was hot on Thursday. Watston played beautifully alongside the passing of Scheierman and Davison.
Defensively, Watson also shined. He looks very comfortable guarding guys in any situation he finds himself in, whether it be transition or a one-on-one situation.
But perhaps the most impressive part of Watson’s game on Thursday were the flashes of playmaking he showed off. The rookie sees the floor super well, especially for a big man.
Dud - Offensive creation
If Scheierman of Davison didn’t have the ball in their hands on Thursday night, the Celtics weren’t going to get much on the offensive end. Jay Scrubb tried his best a few times, but his shots weren’t going down at an efficient rate.
Scheierman and Davison are by far the best two playmakers in the team, and when they had the ball, the offense got results. Unfortunately, that also meant that, when they didn’t, the offense didn’t.
There was the occasional Scrubb isolation possession, some nice flashes of Watson in transition, and a few other guys sprinkled in there, but the amount of dependency this Maine offense had on Scheierman and Davison on Thursday night was staggering.