The Celtics got back to work today in preparation for next week's season opener. After two days off, the team went through a rigorous -- but efficient -- three-hour practice, something Doc Rivers referred to as the start of recap of the basics.
"We’ll work on every single thing that we do," said Rivers. "I’m not going into this week saying, ‘We’ve got to work on this one thing.’ It’ll be Basketball 101."
Not a lot of news from today, but there are a few tidbits I felt were worthy of mentioning...
100% attendance today for the C's (with the exception of course being Avery Bradley).
Leandro Barbosa practice for the first time as a Celtic today and is expected to be ready for Tuesday. Barbosa received plenty of praise from his coach and his peers. "He had a great practice," according to Rivers. Rajon Rondo added, "He [Barbosa] was very vocal today. He was the point guard. He moved [Jason Terry] to the side and I think they both liked that situation. JET's more of a scoring point guard and Barbosa set a lot of those guys up today in practice."
Chris Wilcox and Darko Milicic -- who declared himself "100%" -- also fully participated in practice, both tremendous news for the big-men depth of this team. "It's the first day, so I didn't expect too much," said Wilcox, who missed the entire preseason with back spasms. Wilcox assured everyone he is feeling fine. "My back feels great, everything felt great. So, hopefully, keep it up. I'm coming from scratch right now, so everything I do is trying to improve, trying to get better. So, I'm just out here working and feel out where I need to be and get back in the flow of things." Meanwhile, Milicic, after receiving a cortisone shot last week, deems himself good to go. "It feels good," said Milicic. "I practiced today. It feels good." Rivers added, "He was heavily taped, but he was fine."
When asked what he thinks his free-throw percentage will be this season, Rajon Rondo answered with confidence. "100%, minus 10, so 90%," responded Rondo. Such a bold prediction for a guy who has not shot higher than 65% during the regular season from the charity stripe, but it wouldn't be Rajon if he wasn't super confident.
Rondo got what he wanted and that was Ray Allen out of town! Now he needs to pick up the scoring and hopefully he worked on his free throw shooting in the off season because 65% doesn't cut it when you go to the hoop like ROndo does!
ReplyDeleteGo Celt's!