TEAM UPDATE - INJURY REPORT

Sunday practice notes: Garnett takes full part
Posted by Steve Bulpett at 2:19 pm
Kevin Garnett (strained right calf) went through the full practice today and, barring any unexpected problems, will be able to play against Orlando tomorrow night.

There is a question, however, whether Shaquille O’Neal will be out there with him. Shaq slipped on some snow and ice this morning and injured an adductor muscle in his upper leg. He did not work out. …

Kendrick Perkins went through his first full contact session since offseason ACL surgery and looked very good. He is hoping to return when the Celtics host Dallas on Feb. 4.

112288

Hi,
Who's going to cover D12if Shaq is out? SE?

AK

Sinus,

Don't worry. As soon as this post is finished, I'm leaving for the Garden. I'm still sick as a dog, but the Celtics are furnishing me with a surgical mask so I won't infect people. So, if you see a tubby looking Kr. Kildare playing center tonight, that'll be me. My strategy for Dwight? Keep watching his kneecaps for toothmarks.

Sam

sinus007 wrote:Hi,
Who's going to cover D12if Shaq is out? SE?

AK

perhaps the sniper in section 305 (just a tranquilizer)

beat

beat wrote:

sinus007 wrote:Hi,
Who's going to cover D12if Shaq is out? SE?

AK

perhaps the sniper in section 305 (just a tranquilizer)

beat

much easier to drug his water. Plus no trace: no pin mark, no tooth mark.

Sam,
Are you really going to the game tonight? If yes - lucky dog. The closest I came was my daughter had court-side seats at Hornets game.
Maybe next season when Celtics come to Cle and the tickets are $10 a dozen I'll go.

AK

Sam,

Good luck! Should be a great game. Just stick out your leg as Howard goes by.

112288

112288 wrote:Sam,

Good luck! Should be a great game. Just stick out your leg as Howard goes by.

112288

Then he'll be in line to coach for the Jets.

beat

Beat,

I hate the Jets!

112288

112288

Marcus asked me yesterday if it was possible for the Pats and the Jets to both lose.

I thought for a moment and said Of course it is.

He looked a bit perplexed......then I said one team loses this week and one next week.

Did not see the Jets winning yesterday Pats were flat but the Jets did put more heat on Brady than expected I think. As for there chances next week at Pittsburg. Who knows? But I just gotta think the Jet bubble gets busted big time.

Not a Jet fan nor a Pat fan either.

My team is watching just like me. Been a fan of this team since the YA Tittle days.

beat

Sinus,

No, that was just a bit of humor. I went to the inaugural game of the Garnett era (bought a companion ticket and left the seat empty in honor of my dad). Frankly, I was really turned off by the game presentation. It became so bombastic, patronizing and disheartening that, when the announcer yelled, "Everybody clap yo' hands," I yelled a retort that almost got me thrown out. Otherwise, I barely made a sound (a total turnaround for me), clapped some, but felt removed from the game. I just sat there and watched and was glad when they won—but without a real sense of elation.

There once was a time when I felt I owned the place (admittedly a different place) and that I could accomplish anything. I knew the people sitting around me, knew the ushers, knew the navigational secrets and shortcuts, made it a point to get there early to see the Celts come out for warmups while John Kiley played, "It's a Great Day Tonight for the Irish," started screaming early and often, and felt I hadn't done my job if I had any energy left by game's end.

Now I felt just part of a herd that was being cued when it was time for noise, watching acrobats who left me wondering where the sawdust was, listening mainly to kids going "Yay" while all the corporate types were getting loaded or whatever in their hermetically sealed cubicles, paying like the captive audience I was for a slice of pizza, and feeling progressively worse about the experience as the Celtics won a pretty good game.

I left, not at all resenting the experience, but simply realizing that I had once experienced Basketball Camelot, and it was now time for others to attend, support, and enjoy the Celtics. The best way I could now support the Celts is via message board (BDC at the time) and by attempting to safeguard their history via the written word.

I was still sufficiently invested in the physical experience to wade through a crowd and attend the parade at season's end. I went back to TD Garden a season ago when Sam Jones was inducted to the New England Hall of Fame. I could see myself attending for a special reason in the future. But, as far as my getting maximum pleasure out of watching the game, I now prefer the midcourt perspective of television. I even welcome commercial breaks during timeouts and halftime, which would be most natural times for the circus atmosphere to resume.

No hard feelings as far as the Celtics hierarchy or the Garden are concerned. Just the end of an era for me and the beginning of another. I still feel that attending a Celtics game is a great happening for someone who is more in tune with the entertainment mentality of today. Go see your heroes in person. See everything that happens—even during timeouts. Don't be hampered by what a tv director chooses to show. Express your personal opinions vocally. It's all part of the experience, and it can be a memorable experience.

And then, now and forever, Go Celtics!

Sam

That other place Sam, that crumbling, old, starting to fall down... building was the Mecca of all basketball to me. I loved that old dump and all it's character...eccentricities. I once watched the lower half, from the waist on down, of MJ and the Bulls vs. the C's in one of those obstucted view seats but I just loved the atmosphere...C's won, by the way. When it came down, some of the Celtic magic went with it. But there is plenty of magic left in this team and its fans.

Sam,
It's a sad story. But nothing's forever, everything is changing around us. Therefore always look on the bright side.

AK

How true, it was really hard for me to get used to going to the TD Garden after spending so much of my years in the "old" Garden. I loved that place, sat in almost every section one year trying to figure out where I would want my season tickets the next year. It was great, there was a guy at the ticket office who came to know me and my friends when we came up to the booth, he always had three great seats put aside for me, even during the playoffs. Those were the days. Going into the Celtics office to buy my tickets the next year was a thrill.

Now, it is something to try and get tickets to a game. My son and I usually try to sit in Loge 20 or Loge 15, we used to pay $75.00-$85.00 for playoffs,
This season, when Durant was supposed to be coming to town, Ticketmaster wanted $157.50 for the same seats. Sorry, TV is a lot cheaper and I never bought them. The only games I have gone to this year are with
tickets of a family member who sits in the Balcony and pays $38.00 for the second row, behind the basket. I went last week for the Rockets game.

I agree Sam, it is such a different enviornment than years ago, but, I still say that being there is twice the fun especially in the playoffs. Last year I saw Miami and Cleveland, I will never get close to those tickets this year.
Sam, remember the "old days", you could buy two tickets if you had a season ticket for the playoffs? I had more friends than I wanted back then, everyone loves a winner!

I feel sorry for the young people who want so bad to go to these games and the parents who just can't afford to spend all kinds of money for these tickets. Some day, this is going to backfire and they will lose fans. This up coming lockout could be the beginning.

I'll be going to see the Celts vs. the Mavs Feb 4 with my son and his fiance who'll be coming down from Portland. A big deal to come up from Florida, and the best price I could get was $110 a ticket for nosebleed seats in section 325. Still, it's well worth it for the family experience. We talk about these games for years after. At least there are no girders to sit behind like at the old Garden.

The place will be jumping that night, Perk is scheduled to return for that game. I think everyone will be going wild so I bet you will see a great game.

No matter what we pay for tickets at times, I love going to the games. You know the old saying "Being there is twice the fun"!

Rosalie, I might just hop on a redeye and pay scalpers prices to see Perk back on the floor.
One of my favorite Gahden moments was being out in the lobby and a sink had burst and water was spilling all over the floor like a fountain...
Such a beautiful old dump.

Rosalie, it really seems to be becoming a game for the privileged, which is a shame because I believe a greater percentage of the "unprivileged" are hard-core fans, while a greater percentage of the "privileged" have motives other than hard-core fandom for attending.

We've all heard of Murphy's Law and possibly Parkinson's Law. Sam's Law is: "All the good stuff gets wrecked." You find a restaurant you like, and something ruins it. It goes broke or it becomes impossible to get a reservation or the prices go through the roof. You find an ideal vacation spot, and all of a sudden, it's overrun and overpriced.

IMO, that's why one of the most important human attributes is memory. Once we've experienced something, nothing except the ravages of age can take it away from us. We can always replay it in our minds, savoring it forever. Some naysayers will call it living in the past, but I choose to look at it as a hard-earned personal asset that the naysayers lack.

The trick is to moderate reference to it so it won't look as though you're bragging at the expense of others who who will eventually be just as rich in the memory department.

Sam

I will agree with you there Sam. Some of my fondest memories were the days I spent following the Celtics in the l960's. They were some of the greatest games I ever saw, because I was watching at least 8-10 HOF'ers. No one can ever take those memories away. Watching Bill Russell run the floor was a thing of beauty, and, I know why I am such a Ray Allen fan, because I was a huge John Havlicek fan and he reminds me so much of him. Run, run, run. The opposition could never keep up with him. So....as you say, these were the times of my life. Watching the l976 triple overtime in the second balcony of the old Garden is forever etched in my mind.

So, if I am accused of living in the past, so be it, because the past was such a wonderful time in my memories.

Rosalie, this should really be on our "life and other oddities" thread because it has a lot of relevance to perspectives on life. Among other things, it should be a source of inspiration to those who are younger than we are (in other words, almost everyone) because they have so much memory-building to look forward to.

I'm in the process of writing my family's history, and I've developed a list of 21 areas I want to cover, ranging from lighter things like dating customs of the past and idiosyncrasies of family members to more weighty matters such as momentous events and the impact of technology on changing our lives. Simply looking over that list, without even having started to recount the details, boggles my mind with the profusion of riches with which life presents all of us. I wouldn't trade the time span of my life or the fullness of it for anything; and I suspect most people feel similarly.

And, as I've reviewed the cast of characters comprising my family tree, one thing I've come to realize is that the length of our respective lives has relatively little impact on the quality of our lives. What's most important is for each of us to appreciate every moment we have so that, in the end, each of us is fulfilled to the maximum of his or her potential.

So much for the philosophical part of the program. lol.

Sam

Rosalie, It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who appreciates Ray's constant motion as that of a latter day Hondo. He should get an Ever Ready battery commercial someday.

Can't you remember all the stories there were out there about Havlicek, his lung capacity! Everyone said he must have had oversized lungs to keep running and running the way he did, and no one being able to keep up with him. When I watched Ray last night, little by little you could see him running Redick around in circles. Then all of a sudden he got free and hit those three pointers. He is a marvel, I just love watching him play the game of basketball as much as I love watching Hondo. There will be a long time before you see someone quite like him again,

Rosalie

I read somewhere Hondo had a RESTING pulse rate in the 40's. Average Joe's is about 70-72.

Remember the story of Red sitting by a pool and watching Hondo swim numerous laps. After a bit Red asked him how far he could swim, to which Hondo replied he didn't know because he never tried it to find out. To him it was just like running.

Guy was so pale too.

Sort of on this topic, remember the great race horse Secretartiat. One of the reasons the horse was so much better was the size of the pump he had feeding those muscles.

Secretariat was a phenom. He was able to run the times and attain the speed he did because he was trained by one of the best trainers in the world, Lucien Lauren. He also had the heart and the will to win. But he had one advantage that nobody knew of at the time. When Secretariat was put down the autopsy showed that is heart weighed close to 22 pounds,the average Thoroughbred heart weighs 9 lbs. Secretariat's heart was all in porportion, not a mutation.

Make me wonder about Hondo's

As for RA when I watch him out there reminds me of the energizer bunny. just keepd going and going and going. Never seems to force anything but just waits till he has that 1/2 inch (as Tommy H says) and the dagger is on the way.

beat

For several years I kept telling my son how great Ray Allen would look in a Celtic uniform. When they pulled the trigger on that trade, I was thrilled. I wish he was like Paul and had spent his entire career here in Boston, I want to claim that he is a Celtic for a lifetime! I wonder just how long he will continue to play, considering that he only has one more year on his contract.

Havlicek retired at the right time, before his body gave out on him. His last couple of years he, too, had injuries that kept him from being the player he had been for years.

It is wonderful, however, that both of these players played here in Boston and were champions. I am just waiting for Ray to break Reggie's record, he will do it in a Celtic uniform. I am sure both he and KG wish that they had come to Boston years earlier. Imagine what might have been?

Don't worry Rosie,when Ray retires he'll be going in in a Celtic jersey and he'll be breaking the record in about 8-9 games,this is easily his best year as a Celtic,he Paul and KG play so well together,making each others strengths even stronger.Ray looks like hes got another 4 or 5 years left as Reggie Miller called him the best shooter in the league.Dwayne Wade couldn't even keep up with him,he really does have alot of Hondos attributes,hes a physical marvel at 35,better than ever.

Hondo would say he knew he was in basketball shape when his resting heart rate was 40.