Preseason Thursday: Celtics Rolling, Rookies Running the Night, and Ben Simmons Is Back

The Celtics kept rolling, beating the Cavs 124-113. The rookies are running the rest of the night — real minutes, real auditions. And in Los Angeles, Ben Simmons is back on an NBA floor for the first time in a Kings uniform. Let's be honest about what preseason basketball is: rotations, not results. Nobody's hanging a banner for an October win over a team resting four guys. But the games still tell us plenty.

The scores are verified from ESPN as of 6:45 p.m. PT. The storylines come from what's been reported this week — not from reading box scores like tea leaves.

Celtics 124, Cavaliers 113 (final): Boston's depth does the talking

The Celtics beat the Cavaliers 124-113 at Rocket Arena — the first final of the night, and the most Boston result imaginable. This is the most Boston sentence you'll ever read: up double digits in a preseason game in October, and it still looks easy. The Celtics' machine doesn't care what month it is — ball movement, spacing, and a rotation that goes 10 deep without the quality dropping.

For Cleveland, the question was never whether they can score — it's whether the defense travels when the rotations tighten. Preseason doesn't answer that. But getting out-executed by Boston's second and third units is the kind of thing that follows a team into the regular season. The Cavs have real expectations this year. Nights like this are where you start to see whether the depth is real or a mirage.

The 4th-quarter cluster: Heat 122, Pelicans 113; Nets 104, Sixers 91; Wizards 99, Knicks 96

Three games, all in the third quarter, all within a possession or two. The Heat led the Pelicans 122-113 late in the fourth at Kaseya Center — Miami (1-0 in the preseason) trying to stay unbeaten while New Orleans (1-0) looked to spoil it. The Nets were pulling away from the 76ers 104-91 at Barclays Center, and the Wizards had flipped the script on the Knicks, up 99-96 midway through the fourth at Madison Square Garden.

Here's the preseason truth about games like these: the fourth quarter belongs to players fighting for the last three roster spots, and that's the best basketball of October. The starters do their 18 minutes, the rotations get weird, and by the final five minutes you're watching guys whose names the broadcast crew is still learning. Those are the minutes that decide careers. Watch them.

Spurs 90, Hawks 85 — late third: the young core watch

San Antonio led Atlanta 90-85 late in the third at the Frost Bank Center, and this is the one I'd have had on the second screen. The Spurs' young core is the most interesting long-term project in the league — every preseason rep matters when you're building around players this young. The Hawks (0-1 in the preseason) hanging within five on the road is its own little statement.

Seven points at halftime is nothing in preseason, where third quarters turn into G League auditions. But the first-half rotations are the ones the coaches actually care about, and San Antonio's young group winning the minutes that matter is exactly what their fans want to see in October.

Kings at Lakers, 7:30 p.m. PT: the rematch, the rookies, and Ben Simmons

And then the main event of the preseason night: Sacramento at the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena, 7:30 p.m. PT — a rematch of Monday's opener, which the Lakers won 127-103 at Golden 1 Center. We previewed this one earlier today, but the headline since then got bigger: Andscape's Marc Spears reports Ben Simmons is expected to make his Kings preseason debut tonight.

Simmons sat out Monday's opener along with Malik Monk and Keegan Murray — the Kings playing it cautious — but Spears reported Simmons is healthy and has had as strong a training camp as anyone on the roster, with the franchise ramping him up slowly. If he plays tonight, it's the most interesting 15 minutes of the entire preseason slate. A healthy, engaged Ben Simmons changes what Sacramento can be. That's a big "if" with a long history, but that's exactly why you watch.

The other rookie storyline: Lakers first-rounder Cameron Carr, the 24th overall pick out of Baylor, who led the Lakers' bench with 19 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals in 22 minutes on Monday — 7-for-13 from the field, 3-for-7 from deep, a plus-six. "I was definitely nervous," Carr said after the game, via Spectrum SportsNet. "It is real, human. I was definitely nervous, but it is basketball." Tonight he gets the encore, in front of the home crowd, with the coaching staff watching to see if the debut was a fluke or the start of something. JJ Redick has gushed about Carr's potential — the Lakers had him much higher on their draft board than 24th.

And on the Kings' side: Darius Acuff Jr., the No. 7 pick, Sacramento's new point guard and the most important prospect in the franchise. Monday was the first look. Tonight's the second, against a Lakers team that knows how to test young guards. The Kings' season — and honestly the next five years of the franchise — runs through how fast Acuff grows up.

The injury report, as of this week's reporting: the Lakers were without Austin Reaves (tweaked ankle), Walker Kessler (jammed finger) and Collin Sexton (light calf issue) on Monday, with Redick calling all of them day-to-day. As the New York Post reported, Redick said the sidelined guys "may play" in the next one. Kessler's absence delays one of the most anticipated debuts of the Lakers' preseason — the 7-foot-1 rim protector Redick has called a "perfect fit" next to Luka Dončić and Reaves.

What tonight actually tells us

Preseason scores are fool's gold. What matters: Carr's encore, Acuff's growth, Simmons' debut (if it happens), and which of the Lakers' crowded guard rotation — Quentin Grimes, Jaden Hardy, Bronny James — makes the most of Reaves' absence. The Celtics looking like the Celtics in October is the least surprising thing on the board. The rookies are the story. They usually are.