The Boston Celtics will kick off their 2018 preseason campaign on Friday night with a matchup against the Charlotte Hornets inside the famous Dean Smith Center at the University of North Carolina. It's the Celtics' first taste of real action this season, but head coach Brad Stevens is going to limit his players to roughly 20 minutes of playing time at the most.

Marcus Smart, who recently lost his mother, will be excused from Friday night's game for personal reasons. 

The Celtics finished the 2017-18 regular season with a 55-27 overall record, which was good for a No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference standings. Without the services of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, Boston managed to make it all the way to the conference finals, where they were ultimately eliminated by the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games.

This season, however, both Irving and Hayward are back, and expectations are high. In fact, most experts and analysts view the Celtics as the favorite in the East.

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Aside from Smart, coach Stevens says all of his players should be “full go” for preseason competition.

“As of last I’ve heard, we should have everybody full go,” Stevens said. “Everybody that’s been here has been playing five-on-five and been looking good.

“The exciting part is that we should have a full group of guys healthy and ready to go,” Stevens added. “And the tough part is that we know we’ve got a lot to cover in a short amount of time.”

Friday night's game inside the Dean Smith Center is set to tip at 7:30 p.m. EST.