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Celtics Excited as Opening Night Looms

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WALTHAM, Mass. – There’s nothing like Opening Night, and we’re about to experience the 68th in Celtics history Wednesday night at TD Garden.

This is the one day of the season during which everything begins anew. The Celtics have a clean slate. Their opponent, Brooklyn, is in the same boat.

Every goal set by every player and by every team is attainable when Opening Night arrives. It’s no wonder why the day means so much.

“I think everybody’s excited,” Brad Stevens said on Tuesday with an audible spike of enthusiasm. “There’s 30 teams that are excited to get started and anxious to play and to play well.”

Playing in the first game of the season is always different than the following 81. There always seems to be a different atmosphere in the building for Game 1.

Think about it. Celtics fans have been starving for meaningful basketball for more than six months. The Celtics themselves have been dying for just as long to bounce back after a disappointing 2013-14 season.

Both groups got a basketball tease during exhibition play, but as Evan Turner says, those games don’t compare to the real thing.

“The intensity is really kicked up, or boosted up,” Turner said while discussing Wednesday’s opener. “Sometimes those preseason successes aren’t going to be as easy to come by as a regular season situation.”

Marcus Smart, James Young and Dwight Powell, Boston’s three rookies, should take note of Turner’s comments. What those players are about to experience is a whole different animal.

Crowds will double. Games will intensify. The microscope will magnify.

“It’s definitely tough,” said Kelly Olynyk, who experienced Opening Night as a rookie just a season ago, “but you’re still playing basketball on the highest level on the world stage, which is amazing.

“You’ve just got to calm yourself. It’s something you’ve looked forward to your whole life and you’ve just got to take it in stride.”

That’s easier said than done, but everyone, including Boston’s rookies, must be sure to enjoy it. You only get so many Opening Nights.