Welcome to the Garden
Welcome to the Garden, where the Boston Celtics (51-12) will host the Utah Jazz (42-23) at 7:30 p.m.
The Celtics desperately want to win tonight’s game before embarking on a nine-day, five-game road trip starting tomorrow night in Milwaukee. The Bucks represent the easy part of that trip. The Spurs, Rockets, Mavericks, and Hornets: not so much.
Utah will not make it easy tonight. If the playoffs started today, the Jazz would be the fifth seed in the Western Conference and would be matched up against the Hornets.
Incidentally, if the playoffs started today the Celtics would be the No. 1 seed on the East and would play New Jersey. Boston can clinch the Atlantic Division tonight with a win or a Toronto loss. The Celtics are currently 17.5 games ahead of the Raptors. They are 25 games up on the Nets.
I always love how quiet the Garden is several hours before gametime. A couple of Jazz players are shooting on the parquet. Rajon Rondo is on the other end, iPod-in-ears, shooting jumpers for the Celtics. The dancers are stretching at center court. There are scattered arena personnel throughout the Garden.
Just a reminder that Natasha Bedingfield is scheduled to play some hot jams after tonight’s game. Your game ticket gets you into the concert as well.
Back with more from the Garden in a few.
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