Kristaps Porzingis finding a lot of comfort -- and open space -- playing with Celtics

BOSTON -- The Celtics held a regular-season dress rehearsal at TD Garden on Tuesday night, with Joe Mazzulla playing his starting five for extended minutes in a 123-110 win over the New York Knicks. The Celtics head coach wanted to give his star-studded lineup time to mesh before the real seasons gets underway next week, and they did not disappoint on their home court.

Mazzulla started Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Kristaps Porzingis, and wanted to see them run while on the floor. The Celtics held a track meet in the first half, putting on the jets on offense and racing out to a 41-point first quarter. 

With so many offensive weapons, chances are someone is always going to always find themselves open for the Celtics. It's easy to lose track of guys like Holiday and White, both of whom are great at cutting to the basket without the ball and can make things happen in the paint. Somehow, the Knicks consistently lost the 7-foor-3 Porzingis as they focused most of their defensive attention on Tatum and Brown.

Porzingis should get used to all that open airspace. Tatum looked like an MVP in his preseason warmup, torching the Knicks for 28 points. Porzingis benefited the most from Tatum's preseason heater.

It started from the first possession of the game. Tatum went inside to Jrue Holiday, who found an open Porzingis in the corner. The big man calmly knocked down a three for the first bucket of the game, and the Celtics were off and running. 

The Tatum-Porzingis pick-and-roll is going to be a deadly weapon for Boston all season. Teams will adjust, but the Celtics are going to take full advantage of Porzingis' size and skillset next to their best players.

Porzingis paced the Celtics with 10 points in the opening frame, hitting four of his six shots from the floor (including two of four from three) to help Boston build an 11-point lead. That edge was up to 18 by halftime as Tatum had 24 points by the break, including 15 in the second quarter.

The Knicks cut the Boston lead down to 12 in the third quarter, but Porzingis got the crowd going again early in the fourth. After helping secure a jump ball, the big man hung around the hoop and received an alley-oop feed from Payton Pritchard. 

He followed that up with another three a few plays later  -- his fourth of the evening -- and then caused an Isaiah Hartenstein miss at the rim to close out his evening. In all, Porzingis stuffed the stat sheet with 20 points, eight rebounds, and a pair of blocks in the Boston victory.

The Unicorn did a bit of everything on offense against the Knicks, hitting stepbacks and knocking down threes. He hit eight of his 13 shots overall and was 4-for-8 from downtown. He already looks comfortable on the court with his new teammates, but the chemistry is going to get even better as everyone's minutes together continue to climb. 

That's a scary proposition for the rest of the NBA.  

"It's just easy to play with these guys," Porzingis said after the win. "I keep repeating myself, but they draw so much attention that I get wide-open 3s, wide-open looks, and they find me. And I shoot open shots. That's it, it's really simple. It was a good game for us to keep building that chemistry."

"The ball will seem to find KP a lot just because of his skillset." said Mazzulla. "He creates two-on-ones and close-outs, so getting him in those positions for those side pick-and-rolls is the trigger for our offense right now."

"He's obviously a very skilled player," Tatum added. "He makes the game easier for myself and for everybody else. His versatility, obviously the ability to stretch the floor and shoot anywhere. So when he's open, find him."

Tatum and Brown have never played with a unique offensive weapon like Porzingis, and Porzingis has never been flanked by so much star-power like Tatum and Brown (not to mention Holiday, White, and veteran Al Horford). With the Celtics able to create so much space for each other, the sky is really the limit for this team on the offensive end.