Celtics notes: Preparations for Cavs begin with assist from Kyrie Irving

WALTHAM -- After taking a day off to rest after clinching a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics were back at it in Waltham this afternoon to begin their preparations ahead of the series opener on Sunday afternoon at the TD Garden.

The opponent may have changed but the emphasis remains the same for this group as they try to hone in on slowing down the best offense in the East for this postseason.

"Not much different than before," Al Horford said of Brad Stevens' message before practice. "We understand the things that we need to do. I think that the focus level is still there from our group. Defense, transition and that's the things they kept on harping on. Those are the things that we understand that if we do well, it'll put us in a good position."

After a sluggish first round against the Pacers, the Cavs had turned things up a notch during their sweep of the top-seeded Raptors, with role players like Kevin Love, J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson finding their grooves again in that series.

"Besides LeBron just playing out of his mind, just Kevin Love’s always a huge help, J.R. Smith when he hits his shots, Kyle Korver got to treat him like J.J. Redick and not let him get good looks," Terry Rozier explained. "Obviously, we want to try to slow down LeBron as much as we can, but we can’t let the other guys be special. When other guys are playing special the Cavs are one of the toughest teams to beat in the NBA."

While there is plenty of turnover in Cleveland from last year, the Celtics' still will have some unique insight into the Cavs' tendencies thanks to Kyrie Irving. The point guard has already spent extended time with the team assisting with preparations. 

"Big time," Rozier said of Irving's help. "He’s around. I’m pretty sure I think he’s going on this trip. He’s always going to be there for me to talk to, whether it’s something I can get better at, something I can see, things like that. Me being a leader, I know he’s there, so I’m gonna use that to my advantage."

Stevens and the rest of his staff have seen a ton of the Cavs all year long in preparation for this moment, but acknowledged he spent a lot of time with Irving yesterday as he formulated the team's gameplan.

"I spent a lot of time with him yesterday and I’m sure he’ll speak to all of our players individually," Stevens said. "We’ve all played against Cleveland now a bunch – in the postseason too – the last couple of years. Certainly, in the regular season. Because they’re on TV all the time, we’re watching them every night, just like everybody else is. I think there’s a lot that everybody knows that makes LeBron so great. But certainly, we’ll pick Kyrie’s brain on guys like him and everyone else around him."

OTHER NOTES

Brown Better, Larkin still out

The 21-year-old shooting guard will get three full days of rest before the start of the East Finals and he expects that time off to help his strained right hamstring heal completely. Brown played 30 minutes in Game 5 against the Sixers, but he does think he will have any playing time restrictions in this series.

While Brown is feeling better, the end of the C's bench still remains mighty thin as the team practiced with just ten players. Shane Larkin remains out for Game 1 with strained shoulder and he's questionable to play at all in the series. Meanwhile, Abdel Nader suffered an eye injury during practice that kept him out

"Nader didn’t practice," Stevens said. "He was doing some one-on-one stuff at the beginning of practice and got swiped across the eye and had a little bit of blurry vision, so he’s going to go see our doctor here. Shane did not practice, he’s in the training room, he’s not going to play early in the series for sure. I doubt that he’ll play anyways."

That thin bench and the Cavs' tendencies to play with small ball lineups will likely force the C's to stick with an eight-man rotation for the entire series,