Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: As experiments go, well, nothing blew up yesterday afternoon in the borough of Brooklyn. The shrinking of the preseason game between the Celtics and Nets was much ado about four minutes. The Celts took a 95-90 victory in the game shortened from 48 to 44 minutes, scoring more than they had in two of their regulation losses during this exhibition season. Overall, the game lasted an hour and 58 minutes, 12.5 minutes shorter than the C’s had averaged in their previous six outings — but the exact same it took them to beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 111-91, in 48 minutes last Thursday. “I don’t know how much impact it had on the game,” said coach Brad Stevens after his club improved to 4-3 in the preseason with one more game left (Wednesday at home against the Nets). “I didn’t think we’d get to 60 at one point, with the way we were scoring,” he added sarcastically with a nod toward the Celts’ 17-point first quarter. As for the switch to 11-minute periods and the elimination of one mandatory TV/radio timeout in the second and fourth sessions, the coach said, “You notice it a little bit when you’re subbing at the start of quarters. But I thought the flow with the one less timeout was actually a little bit better in the second and fourth. But I didn’t notice it other than that."

Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News: The first game without Brook Lopez didn’t go well for the Nets in the paint. It also didn’t help that his replacement, Kevin Garnett, didn’t play because of a stomach virus. The Nets gave up 20 offensive rebounds and were outscored in second-chance points 20-2. They allowed Celtics forward Jared Sullivan to score 21 points and grab 19 rebounds in falling to 3-1 in the preseason. “It’s not a pretty picture out there from that perspective,” Hollins said. Lopez is out for at least the remainder of the preseason with a sprained foot. On Sunday, the Nets went with a small lineup, starting Mason Plumlee at center (6 points, 4 rebounds) and Mirza Teletovic at power forward (3, 6). “We do (feel the loss of Lopez),” Joe Johnson said.

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: The state of Dwight Howard's knee had not been a question for days, with Howard returning to practice Thursday and going through full workouts Friday and Saturday. But any doubt that might have existed was crushed before the opening tip Sunday. With young Rockets guards Nick Johnson and Isaiah Canaan enjoying a layup-line dunk contest, Howard pulled out one of his 2008 New Orleans specials, sans cape. He windmilled over the rim and threw down his dunk, demonstrating his hops were fine. Then Howard went to work considerably more important to the Rockets than his ability to put on a pregame show. After a rocky start, Howard came on strong enough to feel he is on his way back to full speed for the season opener, as the Rockets held off the Golden State Warriors 90-83 at State Farm Arena. "I just had to get going a little bit, get the feeling of the game," said Howard, who had 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 16 first-half minutes. "Once that happened, everything was pretty cool.

Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle: The Warriors usually like the flexibility of entering the season with a 14-man roster. But they’re leaning toward keeping 15 — at least until contracts become fully guaranteed Jan.10 — because their training-camp invitees have been so solid. In what might be their last extended minutes before the cut, Craft had three points, seven rebounds and three assists, Holiday had 18 points (7-for-13 shooting), three assists and two steals, Kapono had a point (0-for-7 shooting) and six rebounds, McAdoo had four points and four rebounds and Watt had four points, two rebounds, two assists and three blocked shots. “It’s going to be agonizing when we get to that point, because I can make a case for all of them ...” Steve Kerr said.

Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: Both Kobe Bryant and Lakers coach Byron Scott talked to Julius Randle, saying he has the potential to become an NBA All-Star one day IF he mimics Bryant’s work ethic. If not? Randle will just become another forgotten NBA player. “It means he can’t [bleep] it up.” Bryant explained in more vulgar terms following the Lakers’ 98-91 preseason victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday at Staples Center. Once the initial laughter from reporters around him subdued, Bryant then offered another punchline. This one came at the expense of ESPN recently ranking him as the NBA’s 40th best player after appearing in only six games last season because of overlapping injuries to his left Achilles tendon and left ankle. “If you [bleep] this up, you’re a really big idiot,” Bryant said. “ESPN are idiots, but you’re really a big idiot if you manage to [bleep] this up.” Once his press conference ended, Bryant said, “you’re welcome” to this reporter, an obvious reference to his series of Nike commercials aired two years ago promoting the “Kobe System.”

Jody Genessy of the Deseret News: Dante Exum was given his first opportunity to start Sunday night in the Jazz’s final preseason game in a five-day SoCal stay when Utah coach Quin Snyder opted to give regular starter Trey Burke the night off. Exum didn’t play as well in Sunday's game as he did Thursday when he scored 13 points with six assists in a 119-86 rout of the Lakers. But this was yet another night in which Exum showed NBA viewers flashes of his extraordinary potential. He dazzled with a crossover and floater. He had a heads-up putback bucket. He had two assists, zero turnovers and ran the offense well at times as Utah took a 54-38 halftime lead before most starters were given a break. Better than anything, Exum got more NBA seasoning. There are few players in the league who have a similar combination of quickness, size, athleticism, ballhandling skills and court vision as Exum. Other facets of his game have come along nicely this fall, too.

Jack McCarthy of the Chicago Tribune: Derrick Rose hit another milestone in his second comeback tour Sunday. The Bulls guard took charge down the stretch, logging fourth quarter minutes for the first time this preseason as he helped the Bulls hold off the Hornets 101-96 at the United Center. Rose collected nine points in the quarter, including an 18-foot jumper, a key rebound and two free throws in the game's final 1 minute, 16 seconds. "It was great, he played hard throughout the night," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "With Derrick, the only way he's going to shake the rust off is to play. So we've got to get him out there." Rose played nearly 28 minutes — the most this preseason — and closed with 17 points, also a preseason high. He entered on Sunday at the 7:22 mark of the fourth quarter and played the balance of the game. But Rose was just among several Sunday standouts.

Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders repeatedly has said thus far he wants a team that played almost no zone defense last season to at least dabble in it this season. If the concepts work like they did during Sunday’s 112-94 preseason victory over injury-strapped Oklahoma City, they might do more than that. “If we have the success we had tonight, we’ll probably use it a lot,” he said. Refined during recent practices, those zone defenses held a Thunder team missing injured superstar Kevin Durant for the next two months to 36 percent shooting and 40 points in the first half on a night when Russell Westbrook, the opponent’s other All-Star, made just three of 10 shots, scored 11 points and played only 23 minutes at the BOK Center. Six Wolves players had two steals each and rookie forward Andrew Wiggins had three in zone defenses that also trapped Thunder players at three-quarters and half-court. Afterward, Saunders praised Wiggins’ assertiveness and Kevin Martin’s activeness.

Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman: The last we left regular-season Russell Westbrook, he wasn’t playing back-to-backs. As part of a maintenance program following his return from December knee surgery, the Thunder never played him two straight nights down the stretch last season. It was a precautionary measure that seemed to benefit the energetic point guard come playoff time, when he put up historic numbers. And after a restful summer, he has looked great in the preseason. So it’s expected that Westbrook will have no restrictions once the regular season starts, particularly after the injury to Kevin Durant. But Scott Brooks, at least for now, wasn’t ready to rule that out. He rested Westbrook on the front end of OKC’s only preseason back-to-back and, before Sunday’s game against Minnesota, said it’s a discussion that will take place in the future. “We haven’t talked about that,” Brooks said. “That’s so far down on our list right now. He’s feeling great."

Ben Strauss of The New York Times: The N.B.A. players union has hired Gary Kohlman as its new general counsel, according to a person who was briefed on the negotiations but was not authorized to speak publicly. The union’s executive committee approved the nomination, and a formal announcement was expected as early as Monday. Kohlman, 68, was the lead trial lawyer at the Washington firm Bredhoff & Kaiser, where he represented a number of unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the United Steelworkers. In February, he argued in front of the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of Northwestern’s scholarship football players, who sought the right to form a union.