Big Three will take it easy tonight

WALTHAM - Fair warning from Celtics coach Doc Rivers: It would be a good idea to get to tonight's preseason opener before the national anthem.

He wouldn't put a number on exactly how long he'd leave Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce on the court against Philadelphia at the University of Massachusetts's Mullins Center, but the best way to keep count might be with a stopwatch.

"Put it like this," Rivers said. "Get there early would be my advice."

The way preseason works, the top two priorities conflict with each other. You want to get players on the court so they can develop a rhythm, but you also want to keep them healthy and ready to play 82 games.

When it comes to Allen, Garnett, and Pierce, Rivers's job is to find a balance.

"We're not going to play our guys a lot of minutes early on, I can tell you that," he said. "It's a great opportunity, though, to get a look at some of our other guys."

He compared the next few weeks to the end of the regular season, last spring, when the Celtics clinched home-court advantage in early April and spent the last two weeks trying to get to the playoffs in one piece and with some sense of cohesion.

"We played [the starters]," Rivers said. "But we didn't play them a lot. It will be similar to that probably the first five or six preseason games."

Last preseason, Piece and Garnett led the team with an average of 32.4 minutes in seven games, and Allen was right behind at 31.3. But they were still figuring each other out on the court. With the exception of Kendrick Perkins, out with an injured shoulder, there aren't many question marks among the starters this time.

"We know what to expect from one another," Pierce said. "We're a little bit more fluid. Our practices are a lot more crisp. We have our chemistry down.

"Last year, we were trying to learn each other, learn everybody's tendencies, whereas this time around, we already know what our strengths and our weaknesses are and we're ahead of the learning curve."

One of the biggest keys to last season was the way Rivers managed the minutes of his three star players.

"That was probably the most rest I got in my career," said Allen, whose 35.9 minutes were his fewest since the 2002-03 season.

"Doc understands," Pierce said. "This is going to be a long season. It was a long season last year. You don't want to come out into a sprint in preseason. We're just going to work our way slowly into it until we're ready for Game 1."

It's all part of preparing for the marathon.

"I think everybody's taking care of their bodies the way they need to, knowing that it's a long season," Allen said. "We know what our ultimate goal is, but this is a process and it starts [tonight] for us."

Quality Brand

Count Pierce among those who think the 76ers have jumped into the upper tier of the Eastern Conference after acquiring Elton Brand. "It depends on how long it takes for them to jell," he said, "but I'd say talent-wise, I'd put them right near the top." Pierce said he's known Brand for a while and "I'm just happy to see him in a good situation. You talk about a guy who two years ago was an MVP candidate of the NBA. Very good post player, very good rebounder, he could do pretty much everything you asked out of a power forward." Rivers said the biggest benefit from adding Brand is that he'll be able to work with Andre Miller, a terribly underrated point guard in Rivers's eyes. "It's going to be a much better division," Rivers said. "At the end of the day, it will make us much better, too."

Repositioned

Be prepared to see Darius Miles at small forward tonight. Also be prepared to see Darius Miles look awkward at small forward. Rivers said the Celtics have played the lanky Miles mostly at power forward, but also at small forward. "Quite honestly, it's been almost unfair in some ways, because he's been mostly at 4, almost exclusively at 4," Rivers said. "We may play him some 3 and he may get lost, but we're still going to do it." . . . Sam Cassell will not play tonight. He left practice early yesterday for personal reasons related to a family issue . . . Rivers had no update on Perkins, but said that if the center missed two or three games, he'd likely test out Glen Davis and Leon Powe alongside Garnett in the frontcourt. Newcomer Patrick O'Bryant will start for Perkins tonight.

76ers-Celtics
What: NBA exhibition
When: Tonight, 7
Where: Mullins Center, Amherst
TV/radio: CSN, WEEI (850)