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Cassell back to help Celtics defend NBA title

By Jimmy Golen of the ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted Sep 29 2008 7:48PM

BOSTON -- All the issues Doc Rivers had to deal with in his first summer as an NBA champion - replacing the free agents who left, working on his golf game, figuring out what to wear to the White House - there's one thing that never came up.

"I can't imagine even seeing a laid-back Kevin Garnett," Rivers said Monday. "I don't think that will happen. So I don't worry about that part."

The Boston Celtics coach gathered with his title-winning team for media day at its practice facility, where a shiny white 2008 championship banner is already covering the empty spot where Rivers pointed a spotlight last year - just in case anyone didn't get the point. It was the NBA-record 17th title for the team, the first since 1986, and no one in the organization wants to go through a similar drought before Banner No. 18.

"You do not get to a level and then step backward," Garnett said. "It will probably be the hardest thing we've done, other than getting the first championship."

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