Practice: Wallace and the rotation

Chris Forsberg/ESPN Boston

The last players on the practice court on Thursday included Phil Pressey and Brandon Bass.

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Boston Celtics guard/forward Gerald Wallace received a minor knee injection and sat out practice Thursday, but coach Brad Stevens said it would not impact his availability moving forward.

The 32-year-old Wallace did not play in Wednesday's season-opening win over the Brooklyn Nets, but Stevens has maintained an open dialogue with Wallace about his role on this team since the start of training camp. The 14th-year veteran, earning $10.1 million this season, has embraced the idea that he might not have a consistent role when others are healthy.

Stevens stuck with a 10-man rotation in the opener and that meant neither a veteran like Wallace nor a rookie like James Young were able to sneak into the game. Likewise, second-year point guard Phil Pressey was a healthy DNP.

One thing Stevens stressed to his team following Thursday's practice session was being ready for your opportunity.

"All those guys know, you’re an injury, a misstep, a mishap away from being in the fold, and you have to be ready," said Stevens. "We just talked about it when we were sitting in the middle [of the practice floor after practice.] The one thing you always have to be is be ready to be called on, because everybody will be called upon as some point or another."

The Celtics currently have 14 healthy bodies and center Vitor Faverani, who underwent knee surgery earlier this month, is expected back with the squad soon to continue his rehab. Rookie Dwight Powell was the team's other scratch for Wednesday's game.

But it was telling that the last four players on the practice court on Thursday included Powell, Pressey, and Young, who were getting in the extra reps they might not always get in games and practices. (The other player was Brandon Bass, who has always seems to put in the extra work despite a consistent rotation role).

Focusing on the 10 players that saw floor time on Wednesday, Stevens lamented not playing Tyler Zeller more, but said he got too caught up trying to match up with Brooklyn and trying to stem any late-game rally.

"I should have played Tyler Zeller in the second half and I didn’t do that," said Stevens. "Because I was trying to match up with [the Nets] because I was just worried about the 3-point shot, because that was the only way, I felt like, they could get back in it. And we still didn't guard it, so I should have just played him."

Zeller still put up six points in six minutes and should see increased minutes when the Celtics visit Dwight Howard and the Houston Rockets on Saturday.

A couple other notes from Thursday's session:

• Film Review: Stevens was asked for his impressions of Wednesday's win after watching film and noted, "When we played well, we weren’t as good as I thought we were, and when we played poorly, I actually felt like we did some good things. When they made their run in the second half, I felt like we were just giving them too much ground with the ball, we weren’t getting into shooters' air space, we weren’t doing those things that you need to do to keep a team that’s playing free and coming back from a large deficit from coming back. We need to do that better. Then, execution-wise, I think we can get a lot crisper. So hopefully that’s what we do. We’ll see. We had a decent practice [Thursday] and we’re not going to do anything physical [Friday], we’ll just fly to Houston and then meet as a team when we get to the hotel real briefly."

• Frozen in time: Stevens lamented being away on Halloween, but said he'll probably FaceTime with his kids -- Kinsley and Brady -- as they go Trick-or-Treating on Friday evening. Stevens didn't want to give away his kids' costumes, but joked that the family is, "Still in Frozen mode." Maybe being out of town spared Stevens from having to dress up like Kristoff.