BOSTON - The days are getting shorter and the nights a little colder, which can only mean one thing . . . basketball is back in Boston.
The Celtics opened camp at the end of last week, and will hold an open practice for season ticket holders Tuesday night at the TD Garden.
But fans won't see a typical practice. In fact, the Celtics are holding a private 45-minute practice session prior to opening the doors for fans. It's there that they'll run plays and work on things that fans would probably get a little bored of watching.
After that, they'll regroup in the locker room as fans are allowed into the arena, and they'll come back out to play three eight-minute quarters, the last one being the end of the game. It sounds like the points from each "quarter" will carry over, so it'll be a three-quarter game essentially.
So what are the teams? Who starts? Well, we aren't sure yet. Brad Stevens joked that they're going to pick out of a hat. With it being so early in camp, it's important not to make too much of the lineups as coaches are finding what works.
"We're just trying to see combinations and we have a number of minutes we want each guy to play," Stevens said. "Whether they're the first people on the court or not really has no bearing on anything yet, so that's what we did. It's more combination-based than anything else."
One thing Stevens seemed intent on was not playing any one player over 16 minutes tonight, which is two-thirds of this game for all you English majors out there.
Stevens categorizes positions as ball-handlers, swings, wings, and bigs. The Celtics, while not exactly top heavy, are very deep. They've got plenty of ball-handlers and a more bigs than Brad Steven probably knows what to do with. That includes newcomers David Lee and Amir Johnson, who will undoubtedly work their way into the rotation.
"We have to find the right combinations for our team, that's the No. 1 thing," Stevens said. "We have a lot of guys that are very capable, but just like anything else sometimes guys don't fit great, sometimes guys do. The sooner that we can find it, the better. I've got thoughts in my mind on how certain guys will fit. We've got data on how certain guys would fit that have been here. But with a new team and a new season it's good to see it all live early on. That goes into again when you're making these pairings just some of what you want to see. The first three days of practice we have probably only changed a person here or there. We've just really focused on putting our system in on both ends."
Celtics rookie Terry Rozier was supposed to address the crowd prior to the start of the practice, but it was actually Brad Stevens who came out and spoke.
"First and foremost, thank you for coming out tonight and kicking off our season with us," Steven said to the crowd. "It's a treat for us to see you all here and it's a treat for us to get to call this home 41-plus times a year. I will tell you this, you can't predict much as you get ready to go in to the 82-game season in the NBA. I know this from the first five practices and the first three days of practice, the 20 guys that they just introduced really, really take pride in putting that jersey on. That means a lot to them. And we're looking forward to doing our best to represent Boston and the Celtics the right way. Thank you for coming out."