BOSTON -- For most of Brad Stevens’ time in Boston, the Celtics have been a pretty good road team.
Last season, Boston’s 23-18 road record was tops among teams in the East and fourth overall in the NBA.
That talent will be put to the test to start the season.
The Celtics, coming off a season in which they won more games (53) than any team in the East, will open with four of their first five games, and 7 of their first 11, away from the TD Garden.
Of the Celtics’ 82 regular-season games, 70 will be televised on CSN while the remaining 12 will be nationally televised -- the highest number of exclusively televised national games allowed by the NBA.
MORE ON THE CELTICS SCHEDULE
On Oct. 17, Boston will open the season on the road at Cleveland, the reigning Eastern Conference champion. The two met in the conference finals, with the Cavs knocking off Boston in five games.
The league made an emphasis to do a better job of spacing out games as to allow teams and players to better rest their players without having them held out of games. One of the ways they're doing that is starting the season about two weeks earlier than normal.
Boston had 17 back-to-back sets last season, but only 14 this season.