It’s hard to take much out of the preseason, but I think Thursday night’s beatdown of the Charlotte Hornets showed the Celtics’ plan to hang their collective hat on defense. And I’m going to prove it with two plays.
The first was a quintessential Derrick White moment early in the third quarter. What looked like a pretty routine block was actually the perfect example of why White is such an asset defensively. He has freaky-long arms capable of creating extreme angles at the rim, in turn removing LaMelo Ball’s usually crafty finishing ability.