Boston Celtics (2-1) at Houston Rockets (3-0)
Tuesday November 4th, 8:30 PM ET
Season Game #4, Road Game #2
TV:  Comcast SportsNet, NBA TV
Radio:  WEEI
Toyota Center

Rockets Blog: The Dream Shake

Probable Starting Lineups 

Rajon Rondo vs. Rafer Alston
Ray Allen vs. Tracy McGrady
Paul Pierce vs. Ron Artest
Kevin Garnett vs. Luis Scola
Kendrick Perkins vs. Yao Ming

Scheduling Note

Both the Celtics and Rockets last played on Saturday. Boston lost on the road to Indiana and Houston knocked off the Thunder in the Toyota Center. Advantage Houston.

Injury Report: Boston - No Injuries Reported, Houston - Shane Battier, Questionable (ankle).

Continue reading this post »

Note: First time here since the site update?  Please see here for details on how to claim your account and sign in.

Also, now there are 3 ways to interact on game day!  The first two you know well.

1. Forum Game Thread
2. Chat Room
3. New: This post has auto-updating comments!  Think of it as a blend of the forums and chat.  Please join us to try it out at game time.
   

Chicago Bulls (1-0) at Boston Celtics (1-0) Friday, October 31st
8:00 PM ET
Season Game #2, Home Game #2
TV:  Comcast SportsNet, ESPN
Radio:  WEEI
TD Banknorth Garden

Bulls Blogs: Blog-a-Bull, Thank You Isiah, The Bulls Beat (podcast)

Probable Starting Lineups 

Rajon Rondo vs. Derrick Rose
Ray Allen vs. Thabo Sefolosha
Paul Pierce vs. Luol Deng
Kevin Garnett vs. Tyrus Thomas
Kendrick Perkins vs. Drew Gooden

Lineup Notes

The Bulls don't start a true center and Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon both come off the bench. Odd.

Scheduling Note

Both the Celtics and Bulls have been off since opening their seasons on Tuesday. With the Celtics at home, advantage Boston.

Continue reading this post »

Earlier in the week Steve Weinman unleashed Part 1 and II of his of his NBA Preview. On the heels of that I'm ranking the marketing campaigns of all 30 NBA teams. In doing so I went to each team's website and asked three questions:

- Does the team have a campaign or slogan?
- Is it easy to find?
- Is it the same as last year?

From there I let my my personal bias run wild.

No clear marketing campaign

30. Golden State - Arguably the most disappointing. And I say that because Golden State of Mind proves how dynamic that community is. Furthermore, the Warriors were one of the most entertaining teams of the last season and a half.

29. Bobcats, Grizzlies, Thunder, Timberwolves

- Historically, bad teams have some of the most enjoyable marketing campaigns. And that's solely due to the fact that it's harder to sell a losing team. Hence more creativity and at times a certain amount of comedy. Think Indiana's "Buckle Up Baby" from 2008. Buckle up for what? There's a nightlife joke in there just dying to be made.

Continue reading this post »

Over the weekend I caught up with FTS from Fear the Sword in anticipation of tonight's match up with Cleveland. Obviously I had to ask about Delonte West. Check out his answers below, vote in the poll, and go to Fear the Sword for my answers to his questions.

Celtics Blog: When Boston and Cleveland met in their first preseason game the Cavs aggressively pushed the ball on several early possessions. On one in particular, Mo Williams zoomed past mid court while a shell-shocked Zydrunas Ilgauskas slowly followed. Do you envision the offense moving beyond the "wait for LeBron to make something happen" stage and will Big Z have a place in it?

Fear the Sword: That is going to be something to watch all season.  It is true that the Cavs, with James, Williams and West, will want to push the ball at every opportunity, but I also think it will be “fire with focus”.  Mike Brown has sold this team on the fact that defense is what is going to ultimately win in the playoffs.  I think the Celtics proved that as well, being one of the League’s top defensive teams last year, even with “the Big 3”.  What the Cavaliers will need to avoid is being a running team one night, then a defensive team another.  Defense is their identity, and while the running game should benefit them more on certain nights, against certain teams, in order for the Cavaliers to get a high seed in the Eastern Conference they are going to have to commit to defense for 82 games.

Continue reading this post »

About 2 weeks ago Comcast announced Bob Cousy would not be involved in its Celtics broadcasts during the 2009 season.  The Cooz did not agree with the decision:

"I would have liked to have continued. I'm only involved in 10 games a season, so it's not that big a deal. But I would have liked to have been allowed to keep my hand in, especially after 22 years of [Celtics] mediocrity - last year was kind of fun, frankly, and I was looking forward to doing it again. Comcast can choose to do the hiring and firing, but if it's a financial situation, I'm not being overpaid. What they pay me is what they spend monthly for office supplies." - Bob Cousy

The "22 years of [Celtics] mediocrity" gets to a crucial point about Cousy's tenure.  He was not one to sugarcoat his feelings and pretend that a fundamentally flawed basketball team had a bright future.  Unfortunately his pessimism was a downer at times.  Still, the fact that he enjoyed last season was one of the underrated developments of Boston's return to glory. While you may not have cared for Cousy's presence as much as I did, there is no denying he is one of the strongest links to Red Auerbach.  Consider parts one, two and three of this tribute to Red.  That, coupled with the fact that Cousy turned 80 this past August, motivated me to look at Bill Reynolds' Cousy: His Life, Career, and the Birth of Big-Time Basketball.

The book opens on March 17, 1963 (St. Patrick’s Day), Cousy’s last game in the Boston Garden.  Five aspects stood out from the first chapter.

1. Author Bill Reynolds noted that John F. Kennedy was President, Martin Luther King Jr. was five months away from his "I Have A Dream Speech" and a wool suit with two pairs of trousers cost $49.  And yes people said trousers.  But I was more struck by an excerpt from the New Yorker, which described the gradual acceptance of basketball,

"spectacle of ten, tall, skinny young men running around in midwinter in costumes that look very much like summer underwear no longer appears as bizarre as it once did." – Rober Rice (Reynolds 12).

Continue reading this post »

I had no idea what I was doing when I created Celtics Bandwagon in the fall of 2006. Thankfully SB Nation saw something and brought me aboard. That coupled with my bold strategy to trick environmentalists into becoming Celtics fans led to the creation of Green Bandwagon in March of '07. In my over year and a half here I've seen the C's hit rock bottom (the 5th pick!) and then inexplicably climb to the top of the mountain. It's been a fun ride. And now CelticsBlog is joining the aforementioned SB Nation. Obviously this is big news. CelticsBlog is a giant in the NBA blogosphere. But what does it mean moving forward? A lot:

- Starting this Friday (October 24th) Green Bandwagon will no longer be SB Nation's Boston Celtics themed blog. However, it will live on in an archive section on CelticsBlog.

- All Green Bandwagon members will become CelticsBlog members.

- I will write for CelticsBlog, which is something I did in the past. Who can forget my epic Leon Powe/Bill Laimbeer post? Ideally the move will expose my work to a much bigger audience and free me up to write posts about what really interests me.

- You can still reach me at greenbandwagon@gmail.com.

At the risk of leaving someone out I want to thank all of the readers and bloggers that helped me along the way at various points. Off the top of my head that includes Steve Weinman, esp4p3, njnick, Michael18, Georgia, Hossy, NHRoyal, PNH91, and Rondo. Also Blez from Athletics Nation, your friendly Bulls Blogger from Blog-a-Bull, LaRocque from ROOMOFZEN, FLCeltsFan from Loy's Place, Fooch from Niners Nation, atthehive from At The Hive, Cornrows from Indy Cornrows, Seth from Posting and Toasting (incidentally one of my favorite blog names), Dave from Blazers Edge, and Pradamaster from Bullets Forever. I'm sure there's many more. In closing I've already got some good posts planned for CelticsBlog. So I'm going to take a few days off and end this with a picture I've run to start and finish my blogs (all 2 of them):

Catch you on the flip side.

- Anytime Rajon Rondo starts to limp around I get concerned. And even though initial reports are good I'm taking the wait and see approach. I've had numerous fantasy baseball and basketball teams felled by guys who were initially day-to-day and then didn't play for weeks on end. As a side note, every now and then it's fun to be alarmist.

- It's a blast when Eddie House gets hot from deep.

- Where is Boston's defense?

- The newer, lighter Stephon Marbury is a hell of a lot quicker than he used to be. He always could get to the rim. I can't imagine too many second team players can hang with him. And not many starters for that matter.

- The Knicks have an entirely new attitude. There will be some bumps in the road, but it looks like their laughingstock status has come to an end. Not sure how I feel about that.

- Look for the C's to attack David Lee on offense when these two teams meet in the regular season.

- It's always hard to make sense of a preseason game. Still, give the Knicks credit. They got after it.

- New York did a much better job of getting to the line (34-43) than Boston did (12-19). Believe it or not Tommy Heinsohn thought there was something rotten about it.

- That's it for now. Unless someone gets cut I'm taking the weekend off in preparation for the real season.

The latest installment, courtesy of Celtics Blog. Enjoy.

Chicago Bulls
Nels: Give Me The Rock
Matt: Blog-a-Bull

Cleveland Cavaliers
Rock: Waiting For Next Year
FTS: Fear The Sword
David Friedman: 20 Second Timeout
Amar Panchmatia: Cavalier Attitude

Detroit Pistons
Brian Spencer: Empty the Bench
Natalie Sitto: Need4Sheed.com
Matt Watson: Detroit Bad Boys

Indiana Pacers
Tom: Indy Cornrows

Milwaukee Bucks
Jeramey Jannene: The Bratwurst
Frank Madden: BrewHoop