Like new offense, ticket sales brisk

Certainly not what team officials thought would happen.

Since the trade, ticket sales have more than quadrupled. Take individual game tickets, for example. For the first three weeks of October, those sales ranged from $50,000 to $80,000; the trade was made Oct. 20, and for the week ending Oct. 26, individual ticket sales topped $400,000.

Last year, the team sold close to 7,000 individual game tickets in the week preceding the opener. And that was for a team coming off an appearance in the Eastern Conference finals. This year, the team has sold more than 11,000. Even before the post-trade spike, the Celtics were ahead of last year's ticket sales -- up 28 percent, according to team officials.

The Celtics do not attribute the increase to Walker's departure. They believe a new product on the floor is attracting interest, especially because the team plans to play a more exciting, up-tempo style.

"It blew me away when I saw [the figures]," said owner Wyc Grousbeck. "What I make of it is it's a totally new team and people are excited to see it. The last two exhibition games, you saw a totally different team, one that was much more watchable. It's a style the players are having a lot of fun playing and it's infectious with the fans.

"The initial reaction I expected was that people would miss Antoine and Tony [Delk]. I miss Antoine and Tony on and off the court. But fans want to come see [the new product]."

Inside info

Mike James called it his version of "Sleeping with the Enemy." The point guard, who spent two seasons with Miami, has offered his new teammates scouting reports on tonight's opponent.

"I know some of their players and some of the tendencies of some of the players," said James. "I'm just trying to pass it on to some of my teammates, like certain spots where some guys like to get the ball and certain moves where they normally get a basket. I'm trying to let some of the players know to watch out for this or look out for that."

Another not-so-hidden benefit for the Celtics may be that the Heat played last night, opening their season in Philadelphia. Also, Miami is still adjusting to an abrupt coaching change, with Stan Van Gundy taking over for Pat Riley last Friday.

Still, the Heat went 5-2 in the exhibition season, and Celtics coach Jim O'Brien offered a much more traditional scouting report.

"They have great scorers at shooting guard and small forward in [Lamar] Odom and [Eddie] Jones," said O'Brien. "They give you different looks at the point guard spot with [Dwyane] Wade being a post-up kind of guy and you have [Rafer] Alston who's playing a lot of minutes at the point guard spot. Brian Grant has always given us fits. [Udonis] Haslem is a rugged guy. So, they have bookends inside that are very, very strong and pound the glass. And they play extremely hard every night out and they defend with a great deal of intensity."

Actions speak loudly

The Celtics lack a truly vocal leader, though O'Brien is not complaining about a leadership void. "Eric [Williams], Paul [Pierce], Walt [McCarty] are good leaders, but they lead by example and they lead in subtle fashion," said O'Brien. "I probably talk enough for everybody. Our guys are strong leaders, but they are not rah-rah, yell-at-each-other type of leaders." . . . You were not imagining things if you saw McCarty, Mark Blount, Brandon Hunter or Kendrick Perkins at MBTA stops on your way to work yesterday morning. The players greeted fans and signed autographs at subway stations around town.