Porzingis gave the Celtics a surprise: to create big trouble for their opponents and compete for the title

Originally compiled from: The Athletic

Written by Jay King

原标题：Celtics’ Kristaps Porziņģis shows flashes of the ‘big problem’ he knows he can be

Note: This article was originally published after the first pre-season game.

BOSTON — During Kristaps Porzingis' most recent preseason practice, Al Horford found a surprise. He has played with Porzingis and watched the video of the Porzingis match. Horford thought he knew what his new teammate would bring him, but still didn't fully anticipate the combination of strength and grace the 2.21-metre centre-forward would display in his daily training sessions.

Porzingis blocks the ball and catches the ball. He dribbled the ball and strode forward to complete the attack.

Horford later recalled to TA: "It probably wasn't like that, but it looked like his shoulder was right at the rim. You played with a guy, you were ready, you looked at him, but it really surprised me. He is more flexible and athletic than I thought. "

Ever since the Boston Celtics came to Porzingis from the Washington Wizards trade, they have been eager to see Porzingis perform in the game. In his preseason debut Sunday night, Porzingis played 25 minutes and scored 17 points, showing why his new teammates are so excited about his game. Holladay also played in a Celtic jersey for the first time in the Celtics' 114-106 win over the 76ers, but Porzingis performed better than him on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.

Porzins said: "I think it's natural. I think when we work with each other, other teams have big problems defending me and other players singles. Hand-to-hand, backdoor tactics, things like that. I think it's really hard to defend. A lot of times, they attract too much attention and open up the game for me. I think that's what happened early in the game. The longer we play together, the more accurately we judge each other. "

Less than five minutes into the game, Tobias-Harris rushed to the basket, intending to score a layup. As he looked for a layup angle, Horford and Porzingis were essentially going to swallow him. Horford could have blocked, but Porzingis got ahead of the curve. Even without Robert Williams, opponents would struggle to score low on the Celtics.

Including this block, Porzingis forced his opponent to make three consecutive mistakes in the middle of the first quarter. At the other end of the court, he showcased his diverse skill set. He made a three-pointer over Paul Reed's head, broke through Daniel House's dunk, received a pass from Derek White in the dogfight, and beautifully assisted Jaylen Brown to complete an open layup. The Celtics' starting lineup played a bit rusty on the court and missed out on plenty of open opportunities, but Porzingis missed only two of his seven shots. He also made eight free throws, three more than last season's most free throws by a Celtics center in a single game.

Asked what changes Porzingis would bring, Holladay said: "Pull up the space. One more target, one more shooter, you can't really ... You have to defend him. If you don't defend him, he'll be like tonight. Similarly, I feel like the room for breakthrough will become more open, and it will be easier for players like [Brown and Jason Tatum] to make layups... This makes the game easier for everyone. "

Other notes:

Holladay came off the bench: Shortly before the start of the game, the Celtics announced their starting lineup, which was the first surprise of the game. The team revealed that Holladay, who is widely believed to be a lock-in starter, will come off the bench on Sunday night. Horford and Porzingis started up front, alongside Tatum, Brown and Derrick White.

Joe Mazura said Holloday's belated arrival – who missed training for the opener before the deal officially went into effect – contributed to the squad decision. Mazura also stressed not to interpret his rotation during the preseason opener, so it's entirely possible that the Celtics still plan to start Holladay during the regular season.

"He came the day before training, so I think that's one of the reasons for that," Mazura said. But at the end of the day, like I've said this week now, we have seven, eight, nine starters who can start (or) finish. So pre-season can try different squads and our players are open. They were ready to play together, ready to sacrifice, ready to do whatever it took to win. So there will be a lot of different line-ups, especially during pre-season. Then we were able to maintain that openness and flexibility throughout the year. "

In the second half, Holladay shot 2-of-10 but grabbed five rebounds and had two steals. The Celtics managed to force opponents to make mistakes in a small lineup of Holladay, White, Tatum, Brown and Porzingis. Horford made two blocks in Sunday's starting lineup and shot while looking much younger than he was 37.

The Celtics' performance is still not satisfactory. They shot just 28 percent from the field in the first quarter, trailing by nine points.

Mazura said: "I think in the final moments of the game we showed the physicality that we deserved. Defensively, we played with the right mindset and the intention to try to do things right. As long as our intentions are right, our efforts are right, our mentality is right – although our performance was not very good, it was the first race. So I'm more concerned about other things. "

Holladay said that adjusting to basketball was "fairly easy" for him.

"Really smart players make the game easy, I know I have a lot of open shots and I have to throw them in, the team has a lot of smart players, a lot of great talent, so that's the easiest part," he said. "