Welcome to the Garden …
Welcome to the Garden, where the Celtics will open their 2008-09 season, and raise championship banner No. 17, tonight against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Championship ceremonies are scheduled for 7:30 p.m., with tip-off scheduled for 8 p.m.
Ray Allen, Tony Allen, and Paul Pierce all have come and gone from the parquet following pregame warmups. Pierce is sitting courtside watching the rest of the team get loose.
Rookies Bill Walker and J.R. Giddens are on the floor right now. Walker is doing some shooting. Giddens is going through some conditioning with strengh and conditioning coach Bryan Doo. Doo has Giddens going pretty hard, running with a resistance band. What that tells me is you shouldn’t expect to see Giddens in any game action tonight if he’s going this hard right now.
No hints about the pregame ceremonies yet. Looks to be business as usual before the game right now. Lost in all the (deserved) fuss about banner 17 is that LeBron James is in town tonight. If you had to choose one game to attend this season based strictly on the opponent, you might choose this one. From a basketball standpoint, LeBron vs. the Celtics is about as good as it gets right now in the NBA.
This is just the start of our coverage from the Garden tonight. Chris Forsberg and I will be back with video, player quotes, ceremony, and game updates all evening.
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