The Celtics were scuffling along in typical summer league fashion. They were down by 17 to the Brooklyn Nets…
… until undrafted rookie Jonathan Gibson took over.
Gibson dropped 17 points off the bench and led the Celtics to a 30-14 fourth quarter and 82-73 Celtics win. Gibson is a 6’1″ guard out of New Mexico State with little chance of making the Celtics roster, but who is most certainly auditioning for a spot on someone else’s.
Nice day for Gibson, but we’re focused on other players…
Kris Joseph: Another impressive day for the Syracuse swing man. He continues to display a nice mid-range game and an aggressiveness on offense. He also had a nice block on the break and 5 rebounds. This is two straight nice games for Joseph.
Jared Sullinger: He struggled offensively, shooting just 3-12, but that’s not a huge concern. He hit a couple of jumpers and late in the game he muscled some shots in off the right block, once again displaying an ability to work in the post. He did have 12 rebounds to go along with his 8 points and 2 steals. And as Doc Rivers said at halftime, Sullinger is also displaying some very nice passing ability. Doc said he can be an NBA-level passer pretty quickly… which is reminiscent of him calling Avery Bradley an NBA-level defender after he was drafted.
E’Twaun Moore: Another OK at best game for E’Twaun. He had a nice stat-line: 15 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists… but he shot 5-12 again and seems to be struggling on that end. He was better defensively, though… so that message seemed to get through to him.
JaJuan Johnson: He hit a few mid-range shots, which is his bread-and-butter. He was a game high +22 and he had 3 blocked shots. He still needs work, though.
Fab Melo: Same here, he needs work. But man, can he block a shot. He had 1, officially, but I thought he had another… or maybe the one he had was so emphatic that I felt like it should count for two.
The majority of this game was typically ugly. And yes, I’m probably going to write that a lot. Sullinger, and everyone for that matter, showed they have a lot of work to do. Joseph is making some noise, though… so we’ll keep a very close eye on him moving forward.
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