Doc Rivers chose not to play Kevin Garnett Monday night in Philadelphia and no one on Boston’s roster logged more than 27 minutes of action. Paul Pierce played just 21 minutes and Rajon Rondo was on the court for a team-high 27 minutes. Rivers’ goal was to have his core ready for tonight’s game against Brooklyn, its first home game of the preseason.
On the other hand, the Nets’ head coach, Avery Johnson, was much more interested in his team’s game against the Washington Wizards than he is in tonight’s game against the C’s. His two highest paid players, Joe Johnson and Deron Williams, played 38 and 31 minutes respectively last night against Washington.
Johnson used a nine-man rotation throughout the game. That’s similar to what Nets fans will see in the regular season. Johnson used such a rotation in an attempt to win the team’s first home game in the Barclays Center.
“I just thought it was important,” Johnson said of his team’s home opener. “I thought it was nice that our fans would go home with a good feeling about our team.”
Johnson’s goal was achieved thanks to a 98-88 win over the Wizards. He sent Williams and Gerald Wallace back into the game in the final four minutes of regulation in order to secure the team’s first home victory.
Tonight’s contest won’t be the first game ever played in TD Garden, but it will be the first home game for this particular Celtics team. That seems to hold importance with Rivers. He rested his players last night with the goal of playing tonight’s game at full tilt.
With that being said, Boston is likely to experience much different results tonight than it did on Monday against Philadelphia. The team committed 21 turnovers during its 107-75 loss to the Sixers.
Many of the lineups Doc Rivers used were ones that we saw for the very first time. The starting lineup of Rondo, Pierce, Courtney Lee, Jared Sullinger and Darko Milicic was the fourth different starting lineup Boston has used during its four preseason games.
Tonight’s contest will likely feature a version of the Celtics that will be much closer to what we’ll see in the regular season. Garnett is expected to be back in the lineup, and Rivers may choose to shorten his bench with only four preseason games remaining to hammer out his rotations.
That sounds a lot like the approach Johnson took with the Nets last night. Brooklyn wound up grabbing a victory in its first home game of the preseason, and the Celtics will be looking to duplicate that result tonight.
