Preseason Game 1 recap: Bass, Daniels, Moore impress in sloppy win

Photo by Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images

This was the first preseason game after a rushed training camp, so it was sloppy.  It was also against the Toronto Raptors, who are not very good.  So there really isn't a lot of analysis that goes into this game. But here are a few points that I think are valid:

• Marquis Daniels was pretty slick out there. Starting in place of Paul Pierce, he finished with 11 points on 5-7 shooting, 3 assists and 2 rebounds.  He sliced his way to the basket a number of times and got himself in a great positions to score… hence the 5-7 shooting. 
• Brandon Bass hit a few open jumpers.  He finished with a 4-9 shooting day while adding a 3 rebounds and a couple of blocks.  He showed well on picks, but seemed a little slow to recover.  He was also not ready for a couple of passes.  But those last two things will improve (I hope) in time. 
• E'Twaun Moore only had 4 points, but they came on two clutch jumpers in the final minutes of the game.  Doc Rives sent three rookies (Moore, JaJuan Johnson and Gilbert Brown) out with Greg Stiemsma and Avery Bradley to finish the game.  Toronto countered with three starters, but Moore found enough space to keep the Celtics in front. 

Other notes:  KG was aggressive in the 3rd quarter and had a nice elbow-jumper stroke going.  He also finished with a team high 7 rebounds.  Ray Allen led the team with 12 points.  Rajon Rondo had 8 assists and 4 steals.  No one played more than 27 minutes.  Chris Wilcox had 5 rebounds in 18 minutes and showed he's perfectly willing to get in there and do some dirty work. 

It was sloppy (15 turnovers, 39.4% shooting) but that's to be expected.  I'm actually impressed that the scrub squad held on down the stretch.  Nice move by Doc to get them to finish the game.  They actually played really good defense as Toronto had a chance to win the game on their last possession.  It was a great improvement from the confusion that let Toronto take a brief lead after trailing the whole game. 

The same two teams play Wednesday in Boston in the only other preseason game on the schedule.

Box Score

Hit the jump for a couple of highlights.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x0tZ8rgEyM] 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__fcwOcmg3w]