WALTHAM -- The Celtics held their final practice at Healthpoint Saturday afternoon before heading out on a eight-day west coast trip on Sunday. Before that, they'll have a matinee on Sunday afternoon against the Orlando Magic at the Garden with some additional reinforcements on the offensive front.
Kyrie Irving is expected to return after a one-game absence due to a sore shoulder. He practiced with the team on Saturday.
"I’m still going to need some work but I’m just ready to go back out there and play," Irving said after practice. "I’m just glad I had a few days to kind of reset and do the things needed in order to put myself in a great position to go out there and play."
Irving also responded to being named as an All-Star starter on Thursday night after voting from fans, media and the players.
"It’s pretty awesome to be identified by the fans, NBA players," he said. "It’s a great accomplishment for your career. But there’s still things ahead you want to accomplish throughout your season, but when you get to kind of the midway point playing in that game amongst your peers, it’s always a fun time, especially for the fans who support the NBA."
Irving will be part of a revamped All-Star format that will have a 24-player non-televised draft instead of the usual East vs. West team. LeBron James and Steph Curry will be the captains after topping the fan vote and Irving hopes it will be a more competitive matchup.
"I’d like it to be," he said. "That’s the hope, but we’re all kind of great competitors and also great friends and I think prior to the All-Star games that have happened over the last couple years, there’s been some bad blood going into All-Star games and some matchups that people want to see. It’s just the excitement of the weekend, and hopefully this new format gives that competitive drive because I know some people want to see some matchups and some teams, everyone’s hope of who they want to see go against one another. So I’m pretty sure as we all get closer to the weekend, we’ll put on a show, especially better than it was last year, in terms of being the high-scoring pace it was."
Jarell Eddie gets a second chance with Celtics
Jarell Eddie spent three days with the Celtics back in October 2014 before he was waived prior to the start of the regular season. The 6-foot-7 swingman remembers very little about that stint.
“I remember I was excited. I got picked up off waivers and I was really excited," Eddie said. "And I thought, like, OK, cool, I got another opportunity. And then a couple days later I wasn’t here. So it was real quick. A quick stint...I definitely talked to Coach. I met Coach Stevens. I met Danny. I met a lot of the staff. I think I watched practice and I feel like I worked out. Then I feel like the next day I was gone.”
Eddie will get at least a few more days in green this time around after the day officially signed the 26-year-old to a 10-day contract on Saturday. The team called the journeyman on Wednesday to let them know they planned on signing him, but delayed making the deal official until today so he would be under contract for the full west coast trip (through next Monday).
Brad Stevens made no secret about what the team brought in the Virginia Tech product for.