The good news for the Celtics: Their first preseason game was a rip-roaring success, a 93-65 win over the Philadelphia 76ers in which 12 C's scored and the outcome was never in doubt. The bad news: They have no time to celebrate. It's time to hit the road and jump right back into action.
The Celtics left Manchester, N.H., in a hurry on Wednesday night, putting both the Granite State and the visiting Sixers in their rearview mirror and taking off for Newark, N.J., where they'll take on the Nets at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The preseason is just getting under way, and they've already got a back-to-back on their schedule with less than 24 hours separating games one and two.
With any team, that's tough – with the Celtics, it's especially scary. With all the creaky old veterans hobbling around the C's locker room, you can never be too careful about going too hard, too fast.
"I've thought about it, but I don't really know what we're going to do," coach Doc Rivers said after Wednesday's win. "We will shorten the rotation. There may be a couple of guys that won't even play [Thursday]. We'll see."
The C's have already begun pacing themselves for the long road that lies ahead. Rivers used captain Paul Pierce for only 19 minutes in the preseason opener, and two of Pierce's elders — Kevin Garnett and the fossilizing Shaquille O'Neal — played just 15. It was the young role players on Rivers' bench — Semih Erden, Delonte West — that played the bulk of the minutes Wednesday.
With an established veteran team like the Celtics, winning and losing games is of little concern in the preseason. It's a matter of experimenting with lineups, working on chemistry and putting in a few dress rehearsals from Rivers' playbook. To that end, the C's put together a solid performance Wednesday and appear headed on the right track this October.
"I think we played well as a team," said Rajon Rondo. "It was the first time we got to play against somebody besides ourselves, so it was a little different."
"It was pretty good," Pierce added. "When we come into preseason, we look for a couple things that we try to put into the game that we worked on in training camp, and I think for the most part, we went out there and executed them. We're a defensive team first, and I'm extremely proud of the way we defended."
Defense was definitely the Celtics' strong point Wednesday night, as they held the Philly attack to 18-of-67 shooting (26.9 percent) by clogging up the paint and forcing the normally athletic Sixers to become jump shooters.
The Celtics' goal is to repeat that defensive effort every night. With a healthy and vibrant Garnett, an explosive Rondo and a host of solid bench pieces (most notably Erden and West) all doing their parts, that goal is within reach.
On Thursday, the C's will try their hand at slowing down a young Nets team led by Brook Lopez, Devin Harris and a monstrous rookie in Derrick Favors. New Jersey may have lost 70 games last season, but 2010-11 will be brighter, and Thursday night will be no pushover for Boston.
Not that it matters — the Celtics are focused at this point not on the results, but on the process. They're not worried about the Nets — they're still figuring themselves out. They'll look to integrate O'Neal into their starting five, to keep Erden progressing, to build the chemistry of their second unit, and to see what (if anything) they can get from the youngsters at the end of their bench. It's all a work in progress.
"We've still got several new players that still have to get adjusted to the Celtics' basketball culture," O'Neal said. "But overall, we're doing what we're supposed to do."
