Results tagged “nba”

Isn't there a certain buzz around the air around here four times a year? Whoever designed the sports calendar was a genius. Basketball and hockey start right at the time the baseball season is winding down. Baseball, aside from its soul-nourishing appearance in the dead of winter, starts just when we need it to. And then there's football. It may not be strictly necessary for it to start in September these days, now that pennant races don't always end in heartbreak, but it really seems like time for football.

It's two huge games tomorrow night, as the Bruins face elimination (again) in Raleigh in game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Celtics try to put an end to the Magic in the NBA playoffs. And Bostonist wants you to watch the games with us. We'll be live blogging the Bruins and (maybe) the Celtics games tomorrow night. Pencil us in and tell your own hilarious jokes about the invisible appendage that Paul Pierce has been using to foul people.

The uteri of an undetermined number of Boston women turned themselves inside out today with the news that a Somerville man had been posing as little-known NBA player Jeff Turner on local singles' message boards.

Update: KG just gave a shove to Pachulia of the Hawks, and he's been taken out.

There's been a lot of praise heaped on Bruins goalie Tim Thomas this year, and it's all been deserved. The guy's been a huge reason why the B's are still very much in the playoff hunt. But man is mortal, and Tim looked anything but great last night in Florida, giving up four goals in 12 shots through two periods. His defense was far from blameless, but Tim's been great at covering for their mistakes. Not last night.

Is it just us, or does it seem like whenever the Bruins have the spotlight to themselves, they lose? When they play the same night as the Celtics, or Patriots, they're fine, but give everyone else the night off, and it feels like we always have to lead with a Bruins loss. Maybe it's just us. But they deserve better.

Last night was one of the strangest games we've seen in a while at the TDBG. With the unremarkable Clippers in town, the second quarter had a playoff-like intensity to it, with technicals, an ejection, and some really scrappy play. The fourth quarter showed a surprising lineup, as Doc left the second unit (House, Powe, Davis, Posey, Tony Allen) in for almost the entire time. Most surprising of all - the bench played some fantastic defense and better-than-expected offense to close the Clips out.

Today, we're not going to talk about YouKnowWhat XLII. Because there's nothing to talk about. Today, we're going to celebrate two big wins from our two local winter teams. (We will remind you, however, that we'll be live-blogging YouKnowWhat XLII starting 7:30ish on Sunday. Get your commentin' fingers in shape.)

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Let's say you're going to the Celtics-Timberwolves game tonight. If you're like most of the people at Celtics games these days, chances are you weren't there last year. Which is perfectly legal on your part. But there's something you should know. Most of the Timberwolves played here last year, during that long, miserable 06-07 campaign, and several of them - promising, hardworking youngsters for the most part - were sent away to make room for the Celtics team you proudly cheer today.

There's lots of ways to look at it. After 32 good games, we were due for a stinker. Every NBA team is competent and capable of winning any game (well, the Knicks, but you know what we mean). We had serious letdown potential after the Detroit high. Ray Allen and Big Baby were in street clothes.

More than any other game this season, last night's Celtics game resembled an episode of Full House. There were a lot of laughs at the beginning, some serious moments towards the end, but it all wrapped up very neatly, complete with an "awwww" track from the studio audience.

Hey, wasn't this West Coast trip supposed to demonstrate that the Celtics weren't quite as good as everybody thought?

As the primaries approach and now that they've given John McCain their endorsement for Republican candidate for president, the Herald has whipped off the gloves and is going after former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney. Dave Wedge ladles a heaping helping of sarcasm when describing the latest development in the Romney vs. Huckabee Catfight Extraordinaire:

Gifts were exchanged in Foxboro yesterday. From Miami to New England: a total lack of competition. From New England to Miami: Their foots off the gas pedal and a non-humiliation. 'Tis the season in the NFL.

Poor Chicago. True, the Bulls could have made things interesting at the TD Banknorth Garden on Friday night if they'd actually shown up ready to play. But we imagine that they knew, as they sat in the locker room before warmups, that the Celtics weren't going to let anyone speculate about Boston's ability to bounce back from a loss.

One of the most remarkable things about the Celtics' remarkable turnaround is that NBA players actually want to come here. You may remember the lure of playing in Boston almost got Reggie Miller off his couch, and now there's talk that future Hall-of-Famer Gary Payton called his agent the other night and said he'd like to come to Boston.

Boston Celtic Kendrick Perkins might miss today's game against the Sacramento Kings because a bed attacked his toe. No kidding. Even the AP just let Perkins tell the story of the headboard that tried to take his toe: I was asleep. I guess whoever put my bed together didn't put it together right when I moved, so one side of my bed fell. My bed was tilted, so I got out of my bed to...

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is gaining appeal among Republicans thanks to his hard-right views, his ability to lose weight, and Chuck Norris. Obviously, this has former Massachusetts governor and presidential aspirant Mitt Romney thoroughly freaked out because Romney has spent boodles of money and has less to show for it. All Huckabee had to do was lose weight and gain an action star. Hence, Romney has unleashed an attack ad. However, we think Romney...

TO: The Rest of the NBA (address not shown) FROM: The Little Nine (littlenine@celtics.com) RE:Remember Us? --- Hi everyone. It's the Little Nine here. You know, the "supporting cast" that was going to be the one thing holding the "Big Three" back from romping all over the NBA this year? Almost to a man, the papers and the Internet said that Pierce, Allen and Garnett would play well, but they had no support and no...

Remember when Celtics-Lakers games used to mean something? In the Sixties, the Celtics championship road seemed to always end with a victory over LA. In the Eighties, the Bird-Magic schism divided the NBA right down the middle, but the Lakers took two out of the three Finals in which they went head-to-head. The rivalry even has its own Wikipedia page. Alas, for the last 20 years or so, the cachet has been long gone. While...

Josh Beckett got to hoist the championship trophy, ride down Boylston on the duck boats, and will get a huge ring in the spring. He earned the Sports Illustrated commemorative issue cover, the champagne and beer showers, and the reputation for serving as the ace among aces in October. He had a rich season, so we're hoping that such a reminder helps as C.C. Sabathia is toasted as the American League's newest Cy Young winner....

You may have heard that the Patriots are undefeated, the only team so remaining in the NFL, and are causing many a sleepless night among the '72 Dolphins champagne brigade. It may not be as flashy - it may not even last 'til tomorrow - but the Boston Celtics enjoy a similar distinction. With their brushing off of the Hawks last night, combined with the Clippers' (!) loss to Detroit, the C's begin today as...

The Celtics are pleased to announce that they've added an extra level to the bandwagon, and it's poised to start its run tonight at the Garden against Washington. This is the original bandwagon, mind you; not the auxiliary bandwagons the team expects to roll out over the course of the season. Naysayers (and there are some) point out that the supporting cast around Ghidorah is untested and unreliable. OK, whatever. So their starting point guard,...

Unusually quiet on the local sports scene yesterday. Sure, the World Champion Red Sox dispersed to the talk show circuit. At various times last night, and for the next few days, you can see members of the hometown team doing walkons with Letterman, Leno, O'Brien, "The Daily Show", "Nightline", "The NFL Today", "Thomas the Tank Engine", "The Iron Chef", "CSI: Miami", and "Deadliest Catch". Check your local listings. But in terms of actual, on-the-field, recappable...

With rare exception, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays is a different team when Scott Kazmir is on the mound. But on Tuesday night, the Red Sox was also a different sort of team - one that came back for only the second time in 43 games from a deficit heading into the eighth inning. Yeah, that's right. The Sox were down late in the game and they actually came back to win, 2-1. The game...

Green Kool-Aid is our favorite flavor. (Yes, Green is a flavor.) We've been chugging the semi-sour variety of it for three years now, as Danny Ainge has told us that we'd been assembling key parts for a magical youth movement that would lead the Celtics back to glory. And we've sipped the ultra-sour variety for a month, trying to figure out what kind of a youth movement features a creaky 32-year-old shooter. But today, the...

As fans, we can afford to be capricious. That's why the Kevin Garnett-to-the-Celtics rumors, which seemed way too expensive back in June when we thought we were building for the future, have us a little giddier now. ESPN is reporting that the trade talks are starting to swirl around again; the deal would still involve Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff (who is the Celtics MVP based on how much everyone lusts after his expiring contract), and...

How would you have scripted this comeback? How would you write the pivotal scene in a movie about a promising young pitcher whose career is threatened by cancer surgery, but comes back less than a year later to light a needed fire under his first-place team? You probably would have written it to be against the Yankees. But other than that, it was a storybook night for Jon Lester, who tamed Cleveland to the tune...

Remember May? When this kind of thing happened all the time? The Red Sox and White Sox played a close, competitive game for six innings. Then the Chicago bullpen melted down in a big way, and the good Sox found themselves on the right end of a 11-2 win. The Red Sox had a 2-1 lead going into the sixth, when a J.D. Drew RBI double and a Coco Crisp RBI single gave Kason Gabbard...