Rajon Rondo committed a flagrant foul on Dwyane Wade during the fourth quarter of the Miami Heat's 120-107 win over the Celtics.

"It was a punk play," said Wade about the foul after the game. "He clotheslined me."

The Boston Celtics have exercised the fourth-year option in the contract of Avery Bradley. This option covers the 2013-2014 NBA Season 

Bradley, a 6’2” guard, had a breakout season during the 2011-12 season recording career highs in virtually every statistical category. Bradley averaged 7.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 21.4 minutes in 64 games last season. 

Doc Rivers, Gregg Popovich and Doug Collins are candidates to replace Mike Krzyzewski as head coach of the United States' national basketball team.

“Honestly, I think that’s a hard job for an NBA coach,” said Rivers. “First of all, hopefully you’re playing in June, and college coaches are done in March. They have a lot more time to prepare.

“The biggest difference for a college coach is that the seven players that they don’t [start] can never get back at them. If I did become the coach, the seven guys I didn’t play, I would just have to prepare when we play them in the regular season — they are going to try to score 50 on me. You’ve just got to endure that.”

Rivers believes Larry Brown was aversely affected by coaching the United States in 2004 because players who didn't start or received limited playing time took it out on him when they next played the Pistons.

The Boston Celtics don't have a backup point guard and the signing of Leandro Barbosa continues to reveal how the team is confident that the strategy will work.

The Celtics have Rajon Rondo at point guard, with Jason Terry, Avery Bradley and Courtney Lee, in addition to Barbosa in the backcourt.

“I love his speed, his ability to handle the ball. we don’t have a backup point (guard), but we have another ballhandler," said Doc Rivers. "Our theory is if we throw three ballhandlers out on the floor, someone can bring the ball up — and that’s the way we’ll play with our second unit.” 

Leandro Barbosa has agreed to a one-year deal with the Boston Celtics.

Barbosa finished the 11-12 NBA season with the Indiana Pacers following a trade from the Raptors.

The Boston Celtics have waived guards Jamar Smith and Dionte Christmas.

Smith, a 6’3 guard, appeared in four preseason games for the Celtics and averaged 2.3 points and 1.0 rebound. Christmas, a 6’5 guard, appeared in four preseason games for the Celtics and averaged 3.3 points and 1.8 rebounds per game.

Doc Rivers has heavily experimented with the Boston Celtics' lineup during the preseason, starting Brandon Bass at power forward in Saturday's overtime loss to the Knicks

“I just want to see them play,” said Rivers. “I’m not looking for one thing or another. I want to try different lineups, and eventually one we’ll like a lot. We’ve liked both that we’ve tried, but I just want to give different guys different spots.”

Jared Sullinger has also started at power forward, pairing him with the taller Kevin Garnett.

“It’s not much of a challenge,” Rivers said of deciding on a rotation. “I’m going to get the core guys ready at the end of the day.

“I think THE most important thing is to get Kevin (Garnett), Paul (Pierce) and J.T. (Terry) and Courtney and (Rajon) Rondo and Brandon and Sullinger (and Jeff Green) — all those guys have to be ready. Everybody else, we’re going to try to give them a fair shake. We’re going to look at them in practices. We’re going to watch them in some guys. But at the end of the day, we’re trying to get ready for a season.”

The Boston Celtics have their most versatile roster in years, which should allow them to be a better matchup against the Heat.

“We had a number of guys that could play multiple positions and really take a lot of pressure off of me, (Kevin Garnett) and (Rajon) Rondo,” Paul Pierce said. “There’s a number of possibilities, and as a coach, that’s a great problem to have.”

But Doc Rivers insists the team wasn't built specifically to give the Celtics the best chance possible against the Heat.

“That’s the one thing we don’t do,” Rivers said. “We just make moves to make us the best team we can possibly be with our personnel. Hopefully that’s enough to make us a better team than them and everyone else.”

Doc Rivers and the Boston Celtics are attempting to make sure Jared Sullinger is never their tallest player on the floor to compensate for his lack of lift and length.

“We try to protect him so that won’t happen,” said Rivers. “The reason we played him with Kevin (Garnett) in the second quarter is because the bigger guy was always guarding Kevin. We got the matchup that way.

“Sometimes you have to create the matchup. Some teams don’t have two bigs like that, they only have one. So when you’re playing with Darko (Milicic) or you’re playing with Kevin, you really don’t have that problem. The good thing is that for a long stretch he was guarding a 5. Early on I thought they were taking advantage of it, but as the game went on I thought he got better at it.”