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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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

I watched chunks of last night's game and was encouraged to see Tony Allen playing/looking better than he has in quite some time. Meanwhile, Sam Cassell will make his debut tonight and my lukewarm thoughts on Darius Miles' play so far are shared by others.

In other news I've been a little distracted due to a major announcement about Green Bandwagon's future that should come down sometime in the next 4 days. So look out for that. In the meantime head over to the always stellar Posting and Toasting to get caught up on the Knicks.

via www.celtic-nation.com

At some point during the regular season I will write a post about a basketball team playing listless, uninspired basketball. If last year was any judge it won't be the Celtics. However, I encourage a player from said team to log on here and remind me how I went through the motions during the preseason. For example I spent the better part of today thinking Boston was playing New York tonight. I ran through several different post ideas and realized that New Jersey was tonight's opponent. Ugh. The Nets. To be fair I do have a passing interest in the organization for a few reasons:

1. I'm still intrigued by Yi Jianlian. That doesn't mean he's good.

2. I  tried for over a year to get a Sean Williams/Marcus Williams "Smoking and Stealing" campaign going. Unfortunately the former Huskie moved on to Golden State. So yeah.

3. How many LeBron to the Nets stories does the NBA blogosphere have left in it? 1000.

via blogpistolero.files.wordpress.com

This was one of the most boring games I've ever watched. It was choppy, the crowd was, for the most part, lifeless and overall the game just dragged on until Leon Powe mercifully blocked a shot to prevent overtime. That doesn't mean I don't have some thoughts:

- If a decision on Darius Miles were based upon what he has done so far, he'd get cut. I just can't get too caught up in him hooking another bench player and throwing in a lay up. And that was his biggest contribution last night.

- The starters for the most part looked good. And I say "for the most part" because Kendrick Perkins was rusty, which was to be expected.

- What does Leon Powe do? Get buckets. Apparently he also refrains from talking to the training staff about hand injuries until the swelling gets out of control.

- "Rajon Rondo is a potential Hall of Famer." - Tommy Heinsohn after Gary Tanguay asked if Rondo had any shot of making the All Star Game this year.

- I wish we could fast forward 2 months just so I could hear what we'll be saying about the bench. My guess? There will be some rocky moments.

- I'm a big Tony Allen fan and even I worry about his consistency.

Finally, it looks like Brian Scalabrine is safe:

“I have no intention of cutting Scal,” Ainge said. “It’s early. We think Scal can help us. Last year when KG got hurt, Scal started and we were 7-2 in those games. Our team defense was even better. I’m not saying he’s a better defensive player than KG, but we were able to maintain things and play good team defense."

I don't remember it like that. In fact I recall Glen Davis and Leon Powe coming off the bench and making an impact while Scal drove me crazy in the starting role. It was Big Baby that made Tim Duncan work in that Sunday game against the Spurs. Oh well. That does add some intrigue to the next couple of weeks.

It's really early. And expectations are a lot different for Celtics fans. We're just hoping O'Bryant can be a back up center. On top of that he's signed to a reasonable contract (just under $800,000) for this year. That's very different to when he joined Golden State as the #9 pick. However, the overriding opinion so far has been that, at the very least, O'Bryant is not terrible. He's rebounded a bit, blocked a few shots and show a developing post game. Once again, not a ringing endorsement. But was Golden State just the wrong place for him? Is he going to fall apart when the season starts? Am I missing something?

After about the 3rd or 4th preseason game I start to zone out a bit and pine for the regular season. That intensifies when Boston takes the court with a team its already played in the preseason. You know, like tonight. So in anticipation of tonight's game I'm throwing out 5 players I'll be watching, as well as what I'm looking for:

Point Guard: Gabe Pruitt - initiate the offense
Shooting Guard: Tony Allen - avoid turnovers and foul trouble
Small Forward: Darius Miles - earn a roster spot (vague I know)
Power Forward: Glen Davis - conditioning
Center: Kendrick Perkins - defend and look/stay healthy

Head over to Fear the Sword to check out the enemy and catch a Cavs' season preview.

On the bright side, if they run out of balls in Pittsburgh, they can use a sock:

Delonte West Sock Quote (via TonyAllen06)

Make sure to check out Liberty Ballers, the new 76ers blog on SB Nation. It's good to grab another Atlantic Division blog. 3 down, 2 to go.

The Atlantic Division ran last week. And now the Southwest Division is up in this ongoing blogger preview initiative. Meanwhile, the Central, Southeast, Northwest, and Pacific divisions will be posted over the next month or so.

Dallas Mavericks
Jake Kerr: Mavs Moneyball

Houston Rockets
grungedave and UofTOrange: The Dream Shake  

Memphis Grizzlies
Joshua Coleman: 3 Shades of Blue

New Orleans Hornets
Rohan: At the Hive
ticktock6 & mW: Hornets Hype
Ryan Schwan & Ron Hitley: Hornets247.com

San Antonio Spurs
Graydon Gordian: 48 Minutes of Hell

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com

- The Rockets had 45 free throws after 3 quarters. That's insane.

- Tommy Heinsohn is pushing Gabe Pruitt aggressively right now. I'm not ready to buy.

- The Bill Walker era could go a lot of different ways. Off the top of my head:

1. Guy who plays way too hard and gets injured as a result. Think Delonte West in Boston.
2. D-League stud.
3. Loose cannon.
4. Contributing role player.
5. Garbage time, highlight reel machine.
6. Overly excited, to the point that it's a little weird, end of the bench guy.
7. League leader in chest bumps.
8. Some combination of the previous 7 suggestions.

- "Classic Leon." - Tommy Heinsohn after Powe grabbed a rebound, tried to rip off Chuck Hayes' arm, and then got to the line. I still think Powe needs to be around a little longer and play more to have classic moments. But I was terrified of Powe at that moment.

- From my preview earlier today -

"If Patrick O'Bryant continues to impress and emerges as the back up center, Davis will be in a bind. He needs to approach these games with a sense of urgency. He's in a contract year, is competing for time with Leon Powe, behind KG of all people, and does not appear to be in peak condition. Furthermore, Powe gets buckets, is incredibly intense, and is also in a contract year. Davis could be relegated to the bench."

Davis must of read it as he responded with a solid effort. At the same time, even Tommy admitted that Davis was "huffing and puffing."

- One of the bigger stories in Boston's preseason has to be the 16 players the Celtics have on the roster right now. Who will get voted off the island? Barring a trade or Brian Scalabrine falling out of favor, Darius Miles and Sam Cassell (from a skill  level) appear to be the most vulnerable. Regular visitors know I don't think Cassell has much left in the tank. I also worry about his shot selection. On top of that Miles made a few nice plays in limited action. Yet, I'm coming around on Cassell a bit. His constant yapping might be an asset. I wish I could do a better job of articulating what I mean. Also Miles is the only one without a guarantee. One more point.

- I wouldn't call Patrick O'Bryant a stiff. Note to self - talk to Golden State Warriors fans about him. Get reactions.

- I liked how O'Bryant, Eddie House, Pruitt, Powe, and Miles played together.

- Given the fact that he played in the Olympics, I was surprised to see Luis Scola get so much time.

- Shane Battier is a tool. That doesn't mean I dislike him. Although I am worried that people might not be saying "tool" anymore. I should check on that.

I got a text from a reader at the game. It's not the highest quality as those aren't typically formatted for a larger screen. But I appreciate the effort. More importantly I can't wait to talk to him. This is an absolutely insane preseason game and he's right up close.

Meanwhile, a ton of basketball and extra curricular activity has already occurred and they've only played a half. Bill Walker and Eddie House going at Tracy McGrady. Kevin Garnett hustling to block Rafer Alston's lay up. Alston's dunk. Paul Pierce and Ron Artest getting into it, rolling on the court at one point. Tony Allen and Patrick O'Bryant in foul trouble. It's been chaotic.

And you know what? I feel good about this Celtics team. They came together like a gang tonight. I don't know what House said to McGrady when he came to Walker's aid, but I'd bet almost anything it included "motha" and a word that rhymes with trucker. It says something when the defending champs fight like hell to go into the half with the lead...in the 3rd preseason game. The NBA is in a fantastic place right now.

I'm coaching a road game today and don't have enough time to fully dive into the news that Comcast fired Bob Cousy. I have to say it caught me off guard for several reasons.

1. Cousy was incredibly positive last season and genuinely enjoyed being there. This wasn't like previous seasons where he complained the whole time.

2. It's Bob Cousy, one of the key remaining links to Red Auerbach. The Cooz!

3. Donny Marshall is okay as a studio guy, but I'm not sold on his broadcasting work.

4. There will come a point when you can't get Tommy Heinsohn and Cousy on the air together. There's no reason to force the issue.

Three Rockets to Watch:

3. Rafer Alston - There's a part of me that's still surprised that he's the top point guard in Houston. Not as surprised as the Dream Shake, but surprised nevertheless. Actually I only brought Alston up to remind everyone of the time Boston ended Houston's win streak on TNT and Rajon Rondo stood his ground:

Rajon Rondo and Rafer Alston Double Tech March 18 2008 (via bigmac15)

Still awesome. And yes if they had been at a night club Rondo would have been in trouble.

Catch more after the jump...

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- I was impressed with how quickly Mo Williams pushed the ball up the court when he set his mind to it. In fact during the first several possessions of the game Williams, and LeBron James, pushed the ball aggressively. And on one of those plays I caught Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the background, running as hard as possible with a, "You've got to be freaking kidding me" look on his face.

- I know Tommy Heinsohn annoys some people, particularly non-Boston fans. Yet every now and then he'll drop a Maurice Stokes reference. I respect that and fans of other NBA teams should too. As a side note the reference was part of a comparison to LeBron.

- Of course Heinsohn also yelled, "Classic Leon Powe!" at one point. Has Powe been around enough/played enough to have classic moves? Heinsohn went on to say that Powe will be better than Charles Oakley. Classic Tommy Heinsohn.

- Having said all that, Powe gets buckets.

More after the jump...

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I've been busy all day and it's not slowing down for a couple more hours. So I'm going to have to go light on the preview tonight. For me it's all about Mo Williams. Can he step up and help LeBron James share the offensive load? For the Celtics I'm watching Bill Walker and Rajon Rondo. I'd love to see the latter go after Cleveland's point guards.

It just hit me that Boston is scheduled to play Cleveland tonight. I need to get back in the swing of things. More on this one later.

via jussihakanen.files.wordpress.com

I spent the better part of my summer trying to dunk. Ultimately I failed. Yet in the process I got in better shape and improved several aspects of my game. And pick up basketball was a big part of my regimen. I had a regular game going for a month or so that rarely made it beyond 3-on-3. And it was usually 2-on-2. It turns out that familiarity builds...familiarity. So I was excited when open gym kicked into gear again this week. I looked forward to playing full court and guarding someone else.

Unfortunately only 7 guys showed up and I had to settle for half court 3-on-3. Alas. Winner stayed and the losing team shot to vote someone off the island. Thankfully the tempo was good and my team held serve for 4 or 5 consecutive wins. On top of that, I had one of my best open court showings since moving to town. Then in the fifth game I took a shot to the face while fighting for a loose ball. It stunned me and I stepped wrong, spraining my ankle in the process. That was it for me. As I write this I'm making use of 3/4 of the RICE acronym, thinking about how to implement compression and how hard it must be to play in the NBA.

The first time I got up close to a live NBA game it was amazing how big, strong, and fast NBA players are. The court seemed too small. I can't imagine taking a forearm or elbow from someone like Kendrick Perkins and continuing to be effective. Just throwing that out there.

Years from now we'll look back fondly on how overwhelming it was to be a Boston sports fan during the first decade of the new millennium. And by "we" I mean Boston sports fans. Everyone else will remember how obnoxious we were while our teams dominated. And it's moments like this I'll recall. Currently I find myself inexplicably excited about a sloppy preseason game to the point that I temporarily forgot about a looming Red Sox/Rays grudge match. These teams hated each other when Tampa Bay was bad! And now the Rays are loaded with swagger, talent, and a division title. Granted the 2004 Red Sox, 2001 and 2003 Patriots, and 2008 Celtics won in such a way that I could never be truly disappointed again. Yet I'd still love to see Boston stomp on the Rays and put an end to their Cinderella story. Go Sox.

Links to check out:

Fellow SB Nation blog - Over the Monster.
Fellow SB Nation blog - DRaysBay.
SB Nation's all encompassing MLB postseason hub. That's the type of thing that, with a basketball twist, could be fun come next spring.

via www.sbnation.com

I never want to be one of those reactionary types. Still, here are some quick thoughts:

- Leon Powe gets buckets. We know this.

- Thaddeus Young is a player.

- The 76ers have the potential to run teams off the court some nights.

- Given Patrick O'Bryant's age, height, contract, and length, the Celtics have to feel pretty good about the gamble so far. He may have found the right organization to develop him.

- During Darius Miles first defense possession, when he forced the jump ball, he looked slow and rusty. Over time he looked better and I feel better about his conditioning. But he's clearly not where he needs to be yet. I see him playing in the NBA. I'm just not sure he's ready.

- It was good to see the Ray Allen come out of the gate shooting well.

- I enjoyed the SCAL-A-BRINE chants. I did not enjoy Scal's gunning.

- I'm feeling better about year 5 of the Tony Allen era. Also I'd forgotten that he's a good foul shooter - 5-5 on the evening, 75% for his career.

- Rajon Rondo flew up the court at points and in general looked good.

- It's easy to get caught up in the AND1 type of atmosphere that Bill Walker inspired tonight. Who doesn't like a half court ally oop and a dunk on Theo Ratliff? Check that, a monster dunk on Theo Ratliff. Granted the purist in me wasn't crazy about J.R. Giddens going out of his way to celebrate Walker's dunks. And yet Walker, Giddens, and Gabe Pruitt did get me thinking. Over the summer there was a fair amount of talk about Boston's veteran leadership mentoring the incoming youngsters and keeping certain new additions in line. However, there's a chance that the young guys will energize the older players. I expect Walker to make mistakes, Pruitt will have a hard time getting minutes, and Giddens is raw. Yet those guys looked hungry. Danny Ainge may have assembled a nice mix of established stars, young veterans, reclamation projects, and rookies.

- Glen Davis looked big. For some reason I had this image of Powe sending food Davis' way and then laughing as the former LSU Tiger scarfed it down.

- We may look back on it when it's all said and done and wonder why we spent so much time arguing about Eddie House's back up point guard abilities.