Aaron Nesmith Impressed Ime Udoka With ‘Aggressive’ Play In Celtics-Magic

The Celtics lost Wednesday night, but Aaron Nesmith was a bright spot for Boston.

Nesmith dropped a game-high 23 points in Boston’s 103-102 loss to the Orlando Magic. He also racked up four assists, three rebounds and shot 8-for-16 from the field.

The second-year forward capitalized with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Al Horford all not playing, and Celtics head coach Ime Udoka liked what he saw.

“He was extremely aggressive there and carried that into open gym and training camp, and he gets an opportunity with those guys sitting out tonight and plays very well,” Udoka told reporters after the game, per MassLive.com. “Very good complementary piece.”

While Nesmith tried to take charge of the game, he just let it all happen naturally.

“I definitely did, but I was also just kind of letting the game come to me, taking what the defense was giving me,” Nesmith told reporters. “Didn’t try to force anything, but definitely tried to be a little more aggressive with the lineup that was out there today.”

The Celtics are back in preseason action Friday night against the Miami Heat. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. ET, so we’ll see soon enough if Nesmith can recreate what he did Wednesday.