Celtics Coaches, Players Evaluate Team's Progress in Saturday's Scrimmage

PORTLAND, Maine - The excitement continues to build ahead of the start of the 2024-25 Maine Celtics season.  

300 season ticket members joined the Celtics inside the Portland Expo on Saturday as Maine hosted a team scrimmage. The highly competitive event gave the coaches and players a chance to sample different rotations and put some of that hard work in practice to the test.  

“It was good. It was a time for us to evaluate some of the guys trying to make the team and a chance to evaluate where we’re at as a group,” said Maine Head Coach Tyler Lashbrook. “There’s some stuff we can clean up on, but for the most part I'm pretty excited about where we are at.”  

The scrimmage featured three, eight-minute quarters with the team rosters switching in between each period. Donald Carey, Jr. was a member of the White team for the opening period and scored all eight of the team’s points in the quarter. This will be Carey, Jr.’s second season in Maine, and Saturday’s scrimmage showed Carey, Jr.’s aggressive approach on the court.  

“If you’re on the floor, you got to be a threat to the defense, or they won’t respect you,” Carey, Jr. said. “I think I can help my team in a lot of ways with or without the ball. My focus is just to make an impact and help the team win.”  

Carey, Jr. finished the scrimmage with 13 points. Leading the way in scoring were two-way players Drew Peterson and Anton Watson. Peterson led all scorers with 19 to go along with three assists. Watson finished with 15 points and also recorded two blocks on defense. JD Davison is on assignment for Boston and did not take part in Saturday's scrimmage. Top distributors on Saturday were guards London Johnson and Sahvir Wheeler, who tallied five and four assists respectively.  

“For all of these guys in general, you could see they were itching to jump up the ball, have some referees, and see where we are at,” Lashbrook said. “I thought the group was playing really well together. It was good to see how connected we were.”  

Other top performers offensively included another Celtics returner in Jordan Schakel, who scored 14 points. Also in double figures was rookie Eric Gaines, who scored five of his 11 total points in the overtime period.  

“Really good experience to be thrown into some different situations, scores and have to figure it out on the fly. It’s good development for me as well,” Lashbrook explained.  

The Celtics simulated the G League’s Target Score Overtime, where teams battled to seven points. It was Gaines’ three-pointer off a Drew Peterson assist that secured the victory for Team White and symbolized the conclusion of Saturday’s scrimmage.  

Carey, Jr. knows what the atmosphere at the Expo is like on gamedays. While Saturday’s crowd was just a small dose of what Portland expects to see on opening night, it was a welcome sight for the players, especially the four returners on the roster.  

“There was definitely some energy in here today. I was happy to see some familiar faces from last year. I know they are excited for the season to start and hopefully we can clinch this championship that we were so close to getting last year,” Carey, Jr. said.  

Maine's 2024-25 campaign begins on Friday, November 8 when they travel to take on the Long Island Nets. The Celtics return to Portland for the team's home opener on Friday, November 15 against the Westchester Knicks.