BSJ Live Coverage: Celtics vs. Hornets preseason 7:30 p.m. - Another chance to get warm

BOSTON CELTICS vs. CHARLOTTE HORNETS

Location: TD Garden, Boston, MA

Game time: 7:30 p.m.

TV: NBC Sports Boston

Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Preview: This will be the Boston Celtics' third of four preseason games. In the first, they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers without playing any of their regulars. In the second, they demolished the Philadelphia 76ers with almost everyone active.

That leaves some question marks ahead of Wednesday night's contest. Who will play? Will the Charlotte Hornets roll out their regulars? Will Boston use this game to gather more information about its starting unit?

As of now, there are no clear answers to those questions. There was no shootaround media availability on Wednesday morning, either, so the Celtics' plans against the Hornets are almost completely unknown.

Tale of the tape: The Celtics and Hornets squared off three times last season. In the first matchup, Charlotte got the best of Boston. But in the final two games, the Celtics picked up two wins.

But this is preseason. There's no telling who actually plays for either team on Wednesday night. However, drawing from the first two Celtics games, an educated guess could be made.

Boston sat its starters in its first game, when they were on the road. Joe Mazzulla also didn't coach that game, giving Tony Dobbins and DJ MacLeay that opportunity. And in the Celtics' second road game, he's letting Sam Cassell coach.

So, maybe the Celtics want to play their starters at home and sit them on the road for a rest. That would mean those guys will be active against the Hornets.

As for the Hornets, they lost to the Brooklyn Nets in their first game and then took down the Milwaukee Bucks in their second. Kon Knueppel hasn't played in a preseason game yet, but the Hornets played more starters versus the Bucks than they did against the Nets.

One fun play: Rather than a single play, I once again wanted to highlight how impressive the Celtics' defense was in their preseason game against the Sixers.

Obviously, it was just one game. One preseason game, at that. LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid, and others all sat out. But it wasn't about the personnel. It was about the process.

Boston looked different on defense. Rather than sitting back and living with one-on-one matchups, it reverted to the turnover-creating defensive style Mazzulla tested out at the beginning of last season. Back then, the Celtics didn't have the personnel to succeed with that style. Now, they do.

Their preseason game against the Sixers was their first chance to test it out. And things went perfectly. The Celtics nabbed 16 steals. The most they had in a game all of last year was 14. I made an in-depth breakdown of the defense here, so feel free to check it out: