Speaking after a 144-106 preseason win against the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum offered high praise of new teammate Paul George, saying that it's a bit "surreal" to share the floor with someone he grew up watching and modeling his game after.

Tatum said that he used to study George's game and watch film of George while he was in high school and during his one year of college at Duke.

The Celtics acquired George this summer in the trade that sent Jaylen Brown to the 76ers. While the trade was widely panned considering Brown's Top-6 MVP season a year ago, there is some excitement around getting George into the fold as a complimentary player.

While the narrative for years was that Brown and Tatum were somewhat "competing" against each other, it's exciting to see George, who is willing to play the 'Robin' to Tatum's 'Batman.'

A 16-year veteran of the Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Clippers and 76ers, George is a nine-time All-Star, a six-time All-NBA selection, a four-time All-Defensive team member, and he also won the steals crown in 2018-19.

A career 20.5 ppg scorer, he's now 36 years old. He averaged 17.3 ppg for the 76ers last season, but he only played 37 games. He has played 60 games or less in six of the last seven seasons, meaning there's real concern about his age and health moving forward. In fact, George's ability to stay healthy or not is arguably the biggest question for the Celtics this season.

George says he feels good and he's ready to contribute, though it's presumed the Celtics will take steps to keep him healthy. For instance, he may not play in back-to-backs.

If he does stay healthy, the Celtics have a solid complimentary scorer to Tatum who is also still a very solid defender.

He scored 13 points on 3-of-10 shooting against the 76ers.

Boston will play its third of four preseason games on Wednesday night at home against the Charlotte Hornets. After that? It's one more game against the 76ers in Philadelphia before beginning the regular season on Oct. 20 at the Detroit Pistons.

The Pistons earned the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs a year ago while the Celtics earned the No. 2. Boston went 56-26, playing largely without Tatum, who played only 16 games after coming back from a torn Achilles.