MANCHESTER, N.H. -- For the fourth time in seven preseason games, Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens trotted out a starting lineup that featured Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, David Lee, and Tyler Zeller. Is this the quintet that will start on opening night next week?

Stevens wasn't ready to lock it in, but you get the sense that -- barring freak injury or illness -- Boston will trot out that same starting five Wednesday night, when it opens the 2015-16 regular season against the Philadelphia 76ers.

"I like the lineup," Stevens said before Friday's 81-65 victory over the 76ers at the Verizon Wireless Arena, which capped a 6-1 preseason for the Celtics. "I think that, as time goes on throughout the year, I kind of look at us as having anywhere from probably 10 starters. Will we start them all? Will we mix it up? Will we not? Who knows? We'll see how the year presents itself. But I do like the way that group has played together thus far. And I think I talked about it a little bit [Thursday] with David in a facilitating role and those guards cutting, that's some of the best things that those guards do. They're all explosive cutters. They're all physical guards. So I think it's a good balance."

The NBA doesn't distribute lineup data from preseason games so it's hard to properly quantify the success of Boston's most common starting five. But it's safe to say that the Smart-Bradley-Crowder-Lee-Zeller combo played well out of the gates. In their four games started together, Boston outscored its opponents by 21 points (54-33) over roughly 22 minutes of floor time.

Remember that Boston's strength last season was its bench, which often rescued the team when the starters struggled. If the Celtics' first unit can establish early leads, it positions the team well for when Isaiah Thomas hits the floor.

In fact, it's fair to wonder if Stevens worked backward a bit, finding the proper parts to surround Thomas on the second unit -- namely Amir Johnson and Kelly Olynyk -- and then constructed a first unit from there. That starting five does have three familiar starters from last season in Smart, Bradley and Zeller, while shuffling Crowder to the starting role he found himself in by the team's final playoff game.

"Like I've said all along, it's about two things: No. 1, you obviously have to earn your way into playing. And everybody's going to get those opportunities," Stevens said. "And then, No. 2, is how do you complement each other? And we've talked about our depth being a real positive. And I think it will be a real positive from the standpoint that 1 through 15 can play.

"I think the biggest thing is then how do we bring out the very best in one another when we're on the court? I think the whole idea of a shooting 4 with Isaiah is pretty obvious, like, pretty sound. And I think that one of the things that we've found with that first group that has started those games with David is that that's been a good match for whatever reason. But we have such a small sample size it's not fair to assess yet."

One thing is clear: When Crowder is running with the first unit, the Celtics have a tenacious group of defenders on the wing and their goal is to get after opposing teams.

"I think [setting the defensive tone is] big for any team," Crowder said. "You have to take full advantage of the opportunity to jump on a team if you have one at the start of the game. I think that sets the tone for your whole team. It sets the tone for the whole game. And I think it’s pretty big moving forward. I think we’ve focused on it, we’ve talked about it. And we want to bring it to life in the near future."

The Celtics were notorious last season for slow starts in the first and third quarters. While Stevens doesn't necessarily subscribe to Crowder's "punch them in the face" mentality, he does want to see his team hit first more often.

"I think the way I'd phrase it is, 'Just get off to a good start,'" Stevens said. "I mean, you have to start games well. You have to start third quarters well. And then you have to be able to finish quarters. We're going to find out if a starting group can start games well, if it can start third quarters well and, if not, we'll make changes swiftly, because we can."

One of the luxuries that Stevens enjoys with a deep and even roster is that he can swap out pieces if things get stale for any reason.

"It's a long year," said Stevens. "You've got to start well and you've got to be prepared to play. And I think when you're generally prepared to play, you look engaged, you sound engaged, and you come out ready to roll right from the get-go."

Cuts are coming

The Celtics brought 17 players to Manchester and played them all. It's likely that, when they reconvene after the weekend, they could be down to the 15-player max that teams are required to trim to by Monday night.

"So I really have spent very little time talking about [roster moves] with [Celtics president] Danny [Ainge] since we made the cuts earlier this week," Stevens said. "But I’m assuming it’ll be in the next 24-48 hours."

The Celtics are expected to waive training-camp invitee Corey Walden with the goal of funneling him to Maine (potentially with Levi Randolph, Coty Clarke and Malcolm Miller, who were cut earlier in the week).

Boston must also move at least one guarantee contract after that. The Celtics are exploring all trade options, but have the necessary room to eat a guaranteed contract should nothing materialize. The Celtics are overstocked in the frontcourt, which might open up possible trade avenues, but Perry Jones III is the player facing the longest odds to stick on the roster if Boston finds no deals to open roster space.

Loose Balls: Bradley, IT troubles, handshakes

• Bradley suffered a bruised right shin Thursday night, but played 10 first-quarter minutes Friday and showed no ill effects. Bradley feasted on sloppy Philadelphia ball handlers, generating four steals before the first TV timeout. He added six points on 3-of-4 shooting before taking the rest of the night off.

• Thomas had been battling tendinitis after sustaining a bruised left shin last week in Brooklyn. Thomas had his worst outing of the preseason, missing 14 of the 17 shots he put up and finishing with seven points and six assists. The Celtics are hoping he was simply shaking off some rust after missing a couple of games while his knee healed. Joked Thomas: "I didn’t think short guys got tendinitis. I thought that was a tall-guy thing. I don’t know what it is. It was just a little painful the last few days."

• The Celtics have lots of interesting pregame handshakes.