Celtics visit Nets looking to avenge loss

Boston Celtics (1-4) at Brooklyn Nets (3-0)
Thursday, October 18, 2012
8:00 PM ET
Preseason Game #6, Road Game #4
TV: TNT, CSNNE
Barclays Center
Referees: Tony Brothers, Mark Ayotte, Matt Boland
The Celtics and Nets square off for the second time in 3 nights. The first game between these two resulted in a 97-96 Celtics loss. The Nets sat all of their starters while the Celtics played their full squad. But a unit of Kris Joseph, Fab Melo, Micah Downs, Rob Kurz and Jason Collins lost a 9 point lead in the final minutes to give the Nets a win. I can honestly say we probably will never see that lineup on the court again.

I expect both teams to play their starters. The Nets are at home and the Celtics have just 2 more preseason games after this one to tune up the lineups. Since Doc hasn't started the same unit twice, it's hard to tell who will be in the starting lineup for this one. I'm thinking it will be the traditional starting lineup with Lee at SG. The Celtics will get to see the new look Nets starting lineup of Williams, Johnson, Wallace, Humphries, and Lopez.

This will be the first time ever for the Celtics to play in the brand new Barclays Center, which will be the home of the Nets from now on. This will be the Nets' second game in their new home. The Celtics had cut two players just before Tuesday's game. They have just added another player in Leandro Barbosa, but I'm not sure if he will be in uniform and available for the game. Darko is expected to miss this game with the wrist injury.

The Celtics still have much to work on before the season starts, and with just 2 games after this one, it seems like a good time to get serious with the rotations and leave the experimentation behind. Hopefully they can lower their turnovers and finally get their pick and roll defense to work.