Celtics 'Excited' To Face Tough Competition, Build Chemistry On European Trip
BOSTON (CBS) – After a week and a half of training camp, the Celtics are ready for the chance to see some live action. They will get their wish Tuesday, as the team kicks off its NBA Global Games tour with a matchup against Olimpia Milano at Mediolanum Forum.
The brief two-game trip overseas will conclude with a contest against Real Madrid on Thursday, but the chance for some team bonding has already begun to take place since the team arrived in Italy on Saturday. Since then, the Celtics have attended an AC Milan game, visited Lake Como, and hosted a number of community volunteer events together.
Now that the off days have passed though, the Celtics are worried about getting down to business on a trip that new veteran addition David Lee calls, "really important."
"We have two games over there that we want to win, that we want to play well in," Lee explained. "But more than anything this is our preseason. This is continuing on and off the court to build towards opening night. And that means not only getting better in practice but also enjoying each other's company off the court.
"And getting to travel somewhere where we're going to rely on hanging out with one another because we won't have our families and our friends over there. It's hanging out with your teammates and your coaching staff and the wonderful media members that make the trip, and going from there. And I think that's really important because early in the season we have a lot of new faces. This couldn't come at a better time."
The team bonding should bode well for a roster that saw countless trades and new faces throughout last season. While the competition is fierce for playing time and final roster spots this year, there is a sense of true continuity for the first time in the Brad Stevens era. That should bode well for the head coach as he attempts to push his team deeper into the playoff picture this season.
During the preseason though, Stevens is more focused on just making sense of a jam-packed roster.
"[Our goal is the] same as if we were here: Get better," Stevens said last week. "We only get a couple of days to practice, so hopefully those are good practices. But we'll also, like on the day of the games, our shootaround will be more like a practice -- it'll be an hour and a half instead of an hour and it'll be taped. We're going treat this entire next couple of weeks like a practice, including the games."
We'll get our first hint of what combinations Stevens has liked so far in practice, once he unveils the starting five for both contests against international competition. The decision probably got a little bit easier for the time being with the news Evan Turner will be sidelined with a sore knee for at least Tuesday's contest. Outside of Jae Crowder and Avery Bradley getting likely nods at the 2 and 3 spots, every other position in the starting five could be up for grabs on the trip.
Based on the number of options he has, Stevens admitted he would experiment in the early going with the potential combinations before reaching a decision later this month.
"I think it's very likely that we'll start different lineups in each game overseas," Stevens said. "We can certainly discuss it and talk about it, but I don't think anything will be set in stone. I think you want to have it somewhat set by the time we start our last week of the preseason."
No matter what unit Stevens chooses, one thing is for sure: the players are looking forward to a chance to face some non-teammates and become a tighter unit themselves.
"Playing against somebody else, playing against another opponent, a somewhat real game and just trying to win those games," Isaiah Thomas said of his goal across the pond. "At the same time [we want to] come together as a team. Going on a trip like this, we're all we've got out there. We don't know really too much out there, and we're going out there as one. I think that's going to help us in the long run."
Brian Robb covers the Celtics for CBS Boston and contributes to NBA.com, among other media outlets. You can follow him on Twitter @CelticsHub.
