The Boston Celtics' 2012-13 season officially opens Friday with Media Day at the team's practice facility in Waltham, Mass. To get you ready, our friends at ESPN Stats and Info put together a glance to get you up to speed since the last time we saw Boston on the floor:
BOSTON CELTICS 2012-13 SEASON AT A GLANCE
Last Season: 39-27 record, No. 4 seed in East, won Atlantic Division
Playoffs: Lost to Heat in 7 games in Conference Finals
Players re-signed: Brandon Bass, Kevin Garnett, Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox.
BY THE NUMBERS
95.5: Points per 100 possessions (defensive efficiency) the Celtics allowed last season, second-best in the league trailing only the Bulls. Once again the Celtics built much of their reputation on a stingy defense.
66.5: Percentage of the Celtics field goals that were assisted, the highest rate in the NBA. Obviously that’s in large part due to Rajon Rondo running the team’s offense.
9.9: Second-chance points per game last season for the Celtics, fewest by any team. Boston just didn’t hit the offensive glass much at all. The Celtics were the only team in single digits.
19: Different starting lineup combinations used by the Celtics last season. Only four teams used more combinations and three of those four missed the playoffs. Doc Rivers had to mix and match his personnel all season.
LOOKING AHEAD
* The Celtics could win their division for the sixth straight season. The divisional alignment was different then, but even in the 1980s the Celtics didn’t win six straight division titles. Since the NBA split into conferences in 1970, the Celtics have never won six straight division titles.
* If they make the playoffs, they’ll have been a playoff team in all six seasons during the Pierce-Rondo-Garnett era, though this would be their first time in that span making it without Ray Allen.
* If they make the NBA Finals, they’d be there for the third time in a six-year span. That’d be the first time the franchise has done that since the Bird-McHale years of the mid-1980s.