Celtics-Heat takeaways: Schroder shines in preseason finale

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The Boston Celtics finished off their preseason with a loss to the Miami Heat on Friday night.

Tyler Herro (29 points) and Jimmy Butler (25) led the way for Miami as it wraps up its preseason with a 5-1 record. As for the C's, it was two-time All-Star Jayson Tatum pacing the team in points with 23 (8-for-19) to go with nine rebounds in 31 minutes.

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Boston finishes its preseason 2-2 and now shifts its focus to Wednesday's regular-season opener vs. the New York Knicks.

Here are three immediate takeaways from the 121-100 defeat.

Dennis Schroder impresses

Friday night marked Schroder's second game in Celtics Green and the newly-acquired point guard delivered an encouraging performance.

Schroder did a little bit of everything as he finished with 13 points (6-for-11), six assists, three rebounds and three steals. Besides a questionable trip of Jimmy Butler, the Germany native looked sharp on both ends of the floor.

He even provided a couple of flashbacks to the Rajon Rondo days.

If this was a harbinger of what's to come for Schroder, we can expect him to be an invaluable sixth man off the Boston bench.

Romeo Langford finishes preseason strong

Third-year guard Romeo Langford put an exclamation point on a solid preseason with his best showing yet. He was Boston's second-leading scorer with 18 points, shooting 7-of-9 from the field and hitting four of his six 3-point attempts.

Langford also did damage on the defensive end, tallying two steals and a block.

In seven games between Summer League and preseason, Langford hit 30 of his 59 shots including 14 of 28 3-pointers. All signs point toward a leap this season for the 21-year-old, and that would be a huge development for this Celtics squad.

Tyler Herro still a thorn in Boston's side

The Celtics, for whatever reason, can't solve Tyler Herro. A year ago, the Heat guard dominated Boston in the Orlando bubble. On Friday, he gave the C's flashbacks of that brutal Eastern Conference Finals defeat.

Herro dropped a game-high 29 points in 23 minutes off the bench. The 13th overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft shot 10-of-15 from the field and 5-of-6 from beyond the arc.

He's at his best when the Celtics are in town.

Boston will look to do a better job of defending Miami's sharpshooter when these two teams face off for the first time in the regular season on Nov. 4.

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