Anfernee Simons made his home debut and showed out for the TD Garden crowd with the Celtics defeating the very shorthanded Cavaliers, 138-107.
With Max Strus and Darius Garland already out due to injury,
Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, De’Andre Hunter and Lonzo Ball joined them in street clothes. Cleveland started Craig Porter Jr., Tyrese Proctor, Jaylon Tyson, Dean Wade and Larry Nance Jr. For the Celtics, it was a ‘dress rehearsal’ of sorts; Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Sam Hauser and Chris Boucher started for Boston.
The Celtics jumped out to a quick lead led by Payton Pritchard, who scored 12 of their first 16 points. Joe Mazzulla went to his bench quickly with Luka Garza and Josh Minott entering the game. Mazzulla, however, quickly pulled Garza and put Xavier Tillman in the game. Boston used 12 players in the first 13 minutes of the game. That is something to keep an eye on as we enter the regular season.
The C’s led the Cavs 33-17 after one quarter. Pritchard led Boston in scoring with 12 and Derrick White behind him with 7 points.
Anfrenee Simons hit a tough step back 3 and one to start the 2nd quarter. The Celtics moved the ball well — a nice back door cut led to a Hugo Gonzalez layup and swinging the ball allowed for Neemias Queta to get an open dunk. Chris Boucher hit a pair of threes near the end of the 2nd quarter to put the Celtics up 24.
Jaylen’s playmaking really stood out in the first half. He had 5 assists in the half and looks like he is ready to take the playmaking leap Boston needs him to take.
The Celtics scored 70 first half points, shooting 62% from the field and led Cleveland’s backups, 70-46.
As previously mentioned, the Celtics substituted a lot in throughout the game. One example of this was Brown checked out at the 8:44 mark in the third quarter before checking back in a minute and a half later, at the 7:14 mark.
Baylor Scheierman made a nice play when hit a really deep three-pointer during the third quarter.
Belo from deep 👌🏻 pic.twitter.com/5kRNmhrTbt
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 13, 2025
Josh Minott concluded the third quarter for Boston with a steal and a windmill dunk. Boston led the game 102-73 entering the 4th quarter. Anfernee Simons led the team in scoring to that point with 18 points off of the bench. Simons can really shoot the ball, making 5 of his first 6 three-point attempts. One of the fun things about the game was seeing him take and make threes while spacing off of Brown, White and Pritchard.
Why not a windmill 😤 pic.twitter.com/y58SOI45YF
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 13, 2025
The Celtics offense was humming throughout the game. White, Hauser, Pritchard and Simons all scored in double figures while Jaylen Brown had 8 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds for the game.
The Celtics shot 54% from the field and 40% from three while holding the Cavaliers to 35% from the field and 20% from three. Boston closes out the preseason on Wednesday at home in a rematch against the Toronto Raptors at 7:30 EST.
