-- Welcome to the Garden where the Celtics are preparing to take on a severely undermanned Golden State team.

The Warriors (3-7) only played seven players in their 114-108 loss to Cleveland Tuesday night after trading away one of their best players in Stephen Jackson over the weekend.

The Celtics and Warriors split their season series last year, with Paul Pierce leading the Celtics with a 21.0 points per game average. The Celtics are 4-6 against Golden State since the 2004-05 season.

The Celtics used the last two days of practice to work on their defense. While the Celtics are limiting their opponents to an NBA-low 87.09 points per game, the Celtics have allowed their last two opponents to score 97 points or more, and the Warriors own the highest-scoring offense in the league, averaging 111.55 points per game.

"They're a potent offensive team," Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said this afternoon on WEEI. "They have a lot of weapons and [Don Nelson] is a terrific offensive coach...It's a team that we should beat but it's a team that we could lose to if we don't come ready to play."