We are live at the Garden for tonight’s game between the Celtics and Raptors. This is an intriguing matchup for a number of reasons. The Celtics, as we know, play great defense. The Raptors are a very efficient offensive team. Something shall give tonight. Also to watch, the point guard duel between Rajon Rondo and Jose Calderon and the big man matchup between Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh.

Jess and I will be bringing you all the action, so click through for all the off-the-cuff observations, intentional and unintentional comedy and a few insightful points, as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Doc Rivers had a feeling the Celtics were going to start slowly Friday night. It’s not something he planned on, necessarily, but let’s just say after the team got back after 4 in the morning from beautiful Oklahoma City, he wasn’t surprised that it took his team a little while to get going.

That was why, despite getting down by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, Rivers resisted the urge to call a timeout. “I just tried to burn minutes,” Rivers said. “I didn’t want to sub any of them out. Just thought it was a good way of getting them running.”

Rivers hunch paid off as the Celtics slowly took control, and with the aid of an energetic bench effort, knocked off the Bucks, 101-89. But what of this emerging pattern of early deficits? Read the rest of this entry »

And we’re back. The Celtics turned it up in the second quarter and come out of the break with a 55-47 lead, but that’s not the big news here at the Garden. The big news is the presence of the Grateful Dead, or at least what’s rest of the Dead.

Fans of a certain age will remember that the Dead used to hang out with the C’s quite a bit in the Bill Walton days. On with the show, while we shake it, shake it, Sugaree…

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We are live from the Garden for tonight’s Celtics-Bucks game. If you remember my preseason preview, I tabbed the Bucks as my “down-market team to follow,” and so far they have not disappointed. As predicted, the Bucks are playing defense under first-year coach/ hard-ass Scott Skiles.

They are also getting great production from a rookie, only it’s not first-round pick Joe Alexander. It’s Luc Mbah a Moute, who (hyperbole alert!) one Milwaukee columnist compared to Sidney Moncrief. No, really. Sidney Freaking Moncrief.

Thanks for spending some time with us. I’ll be blogging the first and third quarters and Jess will take the second and fourth. Click through for all the bloggy goodness. Read the rest of this entry »

We are live from my Ikea chair for tonight’s game between the Celtics and Thunder. So many questions will be answered tonight: Was Ray Allen’s revival a one-night deal, can the C’s win back-to-back games on the road, are the Thunder any good?

Check back early and often for continuous live-blogging goodness.
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Come one, come all to tonight’s Celtics-Thunder live-blogging extravaganza. We’ll be doing it right here in this very space, and we’ll be kicking it old-school from our couch, like God and Will Leitch intended, and without that fancy Cover It Live contraption.

We’ll be watching for signs of a back-to-back letdown, making fun of the Thunder (seriously, how long did it take those geniuses to come up with that logo? Five seconds?) and hanging on every word from Mike and Donny.

Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. What else do you guys have to do tonight, besides sweating the senate election returns from Georgia, of course.

The Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson rumors had been out there for a couple of days, but it was still a bit of a shock to see it actually happen. The Nuggets get Billups, Antonio McDyess, and Cheikh Samb (whose name defies spell-check) and the Pistons now have The Answer some seven years after almost getting him from the Sixers. The hold-up in that deal was Matt Geiger’s refusal to give up his trade-kicker, which earned him some honorary MVP votes from the Philly media when the Sixers made it to the NBA Finals that year. (And now you know.)

At any rate, the trade is unique in that it ends two eras, one successful the other not so much, and changes the NBA landscape considerably. After the jump, what it all means. Read the rest of this entry »