Summer League: Magic 85, Celtics 82

Posted by Brendan Jackson on Jul 7, 2009 27185 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2009%2F07%2F07%2Fsummer-league-magic-85-celtics-82%2FSummer+League%3A+Magic+85%2C+Celtics+822009-07-07+22%3A03%3A17Brendan+Jacksonhttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D2718

Another one in the books for the Celtics Summer League team and things could have gone better.  After playing well and for the entire game, the Celtics squandered the lead in the fourth to come up one desperate three point shot short of tying the game in the waning seconds.  It was actually pretty dramatic.  Even the commentators Dante and Gelante got in to it for the final seconds, and if you read my post this morning, you know how I feel about them.

Inconsistent play abounds in Summer League, but from the two games thus far I can still offer some observations.

First and foremost, I was wrong about Coby Karl in assuming that because he’s the son of an NBA coach and rode the bench for the Lakers and was then subsequently dropped that he couldn’t play.  From what I watched today, Karl can play and he can play hard.  He put a lot of effort into both ends of the floor with and showed that he his a complete player (dribbling, shooting, playing defense).  He also had at least three And-1′s that were pretty ridiculous, so props to him.

Secondly, J.R. Giddens for the second straight day was very explosive.  He scored 17 points, and played 37 minutes and still was all over the court until the final buzzer sounded.  He showed off his aggression by taking it to the hole with great ball fakes and strong ball takes.

Thirdly, Gabe Pruitt seemed to have the same polished game he had yesterday which makes me hope that he is ready to accept the back up point guard job- but then again, this is just Summer League.

Fourthly, yes fourthly, those who didn’t play so well.  Lester Hudson seemed far less equipped to handle the point today with good pressure from Orlando’s guards.  Nick Fazekas, while shooting a high percentage, is almost a complete defensive liability.  He did have one blocked shot and one offensive rebound, but those were fortunate bounces in transition.  His rotations were painfully slow.  As were Robert Swift’s, although Swift has just enough length to block shots (4).

Tomorrow’s game is at 5:00pm and Celtics.com will stream it live for you real fans out there.

Also, here is the box score and David Thorpe’s Tweets for today’s game:

Box Score:

Tweets: