Welcome to the Garden

Welcome to TD Garden, where the Boston Celtics will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers at 8 p.m. (ESPN). The Celtics lead the series, 3-2.

Despite what you’ve heard from the Mother Network, this game is all about the Celtics. They’re the home team. They’ve been here before. It’s their game to win, or lose, tonight.

Apologies for always starting the introductory posts with Ray Allen, but he’s always here working when I start working. Usual routine for Allen, heavy on threes, some free throws mixed in, and a driving, two-handed dunk at the end. He’s still on the floor, so he hasn’t even done the dunk yet. If he doesn’t do it I’ll come back and edit this post.

But he will.

Why harp on Allen’s repetitiveness? Because it’s going to help him in Game 6. It’s going to help all the Celtics. They’ve been here before. Even the young Rajon Rondo has a championship under his belt.

The Celtics know the stakes of tonight’s game: Lose and they face a Game 7 against the NBA’s best home team. They can win that game, but they’d rather win this one.

The Celtics are encouraging fans to be in their seats for tip-off, not that that will be a problem. The buzz around this game is tremendous.

And we haven’t even mentioned you-know-who.

Back with plenty of pregame news and notes as we approach gametime.