BOSTON – The Boston Celtics took another step in the right direction Friday night, beating the New York Knicks, 96-82, in their much-anticipated TD Banknorth Garden preseason debut.

As expected, coach Doc Rivers played his starters more minutes than he allowed them to in their preseason opening loss to Houston last Wednesday.

"The starters got a lot of minutes in good rhythm and they handled it very well," Rivers said.

Rivers also experimented with Boston's second unit, allowing them to play together at the same time for long stretches. He did not play some of his third-unit players such as Brian Scalabrine (9 points) and Lester Hudson (2 points) until the midway point of the third quarter, though he did play all 16 Celtics.

All eyes were on Kevin Garnett's surgically repaired right knee, and he had another positive outing. After recording 6 points and 5 rebounds in 13 minutes against Houston, Garnett tallied 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting and 8 rebounds in 22 minutes Friday night against the Knicks.

Garnett, who is 6-foot-11 and 253 pounds, spent plenty of time posting up New York's 6-foot-9, 250-pound power forward Al Harrington. On the flip side, Harrington, who tied with teammate David Lee for a team-high 13 points, took advantage of Garnett's limited mobility on the defensive end.

"I thought Al did a really good job of attacking," Garnett said. "He was being very, very aggressive coming off of the dribble and he tested my reaction of my leg and all of that and I thought I did a decent job [guarding] him. He's a scorer and when he's attacking like that, he's like a bull … As opposed to the [other] years that I played him it wasn't anything out of the ordinary."

Garnett's only scare of the night came with 1:32 remaining in the first half when he was fouled while posting up New York 6-11 forward Jared Jeffries. Garnett grimaced, shook his leg to work out the kinks, knocked down both free throws and remained in the game though he did favor his right leg over the final 1:32 of the first half.

"He kicked me in the calf and that didn't help things but with a little hot pack here and then some ice, I thought I finished the game pretty well."

"I'm not back to where I want to be but I don't have any worries when I'm out there," Garnett added. "I'm putting in my time. I'm putting in my work. I'm doing everything they asked me to do. I'm just getting stronger."

Garnett said that his timing is a bit off and that he is building up his stamina so that he will be ready to play a full 35 to 40 minutes once the regular season starts.

Garnett's defensive co-captain Kendrick Perkins looked good in the post. He knocked down his first four shots while displaying an array of post moves, helping Boston build a 19-8 lead by the end of the first quarter. Perkins led the Celtics with14 points and 7 rebounds.

Ray Allen also had a solid first half, scoring all 13 of his points in the opening session, and Paul Pierce shook off his early first quarter struggles when he missed six of seven shots, by knocking down three of his final four shots for nine points and five rebounds. He had the highlight of the third quarter when he threw down a reverse dunk.

"I don't know where that came from," Pierce said. "I'm good for one of those like one every 20 games."

Rounding out the starters, Rajon Rondo had six points and three assists.

As for Boston's newcomers, Rasheed Wallace only made one of his first seven attempts over the first three quarters, but he exploded for 11 fourth-quarter points to put the exclamation point on the game. He left the floor with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

"He's been great," Rivers said. "He's a terrific teammate. Right now it's just more getting him [acclimated] to our system, defensively and offensively. For me, it's a learning curve with him as well. Obviously we know he can shoot. We know he can post. We're just trying to figure out a good rhythm for him. Right now he is coming off the bench and he's never done that so we're figuring out how to use him in that way with maintaining his rhythm so it's probably a learning curve for both of us and for his teammates."

"He's a 7-foot guy that can play inside and outside," Pierce said of Wallace. " . . . He brings us so much versatility as far as what we are trying to do on offense."

Rivers said that Marquis Daniels was the Celtics best player against Houston, but Daniels struggled last night (3 points, 3 rebounds, 1-for-5 shooting) while Glen Davis (7 points, 8 rebounds) and Eddie House (5 points, 5 rebounds) provided some sparks off of the bench.

Shelden Williams (1 point) did not get into the game until there was 5:52 remaining in the game and the Celtics were up 84-64, and Michael Sweetney (2 points) and J.R. Giddens (2 points) did enter until there was 4:37 remaining.

It was a sloppy game from start to finish with the two teams combining for 36 turnovers (18 each) and 45 personal fouls. The Celtics limited the Knicks to 37.7 percent shooting from the floor (29-for-77).

The Celtics used a 9-0 run to close out the first quarter and never looked back. They led by as many as 24 midway through the fourth quarter.

"It was not pretty but I thought defensively we were really good," Rivers said.

roblee@projo.com