After getting opening night out of the way, the Celtics know the difficult examinations are not about to stop. The Bulls will be in town on Friday with something to prove under a new coach.
And it wasn't much of a reward for the Celts to have to face Cleveland in the first game just moments after getting their championship rings and hoisting a 17th title banner to the Garden rafters. "Listen, you've got to play them eventually anyway, and we earned the night," said coach Doc Rivers. "We're going to go through it, and I'm really looking forward to it.
"That's really what I've been telling our guys about all year. We understand it's going to be 82 games of being attacked every night. That'll probably in the long run be a good thing for us, but it's something that we're going to have to get used to."
Speaking of the opener against the Cavs and looking ahead, Paul Pierce shrugged.
"Well, we figure no games are going to be easy," he said. "I mean, you are talking about Cleveland, a team that took us to seven games last year and who's a team to be reckoned with (given) their additions. But we're going to face challenges all year. Why not from Day 1?
"Teams are going to be after us. We know that. Look at the games we've got coming up. Those teams really want to beat us because we're the champs.
CELTICS 90, CAVALIERS 85: The Celtics came back from a horrific first half to win their opener. Down by double-figures less than six minutes after getting their 2008 championship rings, they were lucky to be down just 50-43 at the break.
But Paul Pierce had 13 of his 27 points and Leon Powe and Tony Allen combined for 15 more off the bench as the Celtics came back in the latter half.
It was tight at the end, but LeBron James missed a couple of free throws and the Celtics held on after seemingly taking control with a 24-13 third quarter.
After going 0-for-9 on treys in the first half, the Celtics made 3-of-5 in the second.
