Boston, MA
In an era when home court means less and less, the Boston Celtics are 16-0 at TD Garden
![In an era when home court means less and less, the Boston Celtics are 16-0 at TD Garden In an era when home court means less and less, the Boston Celtics are 16-0 at TD Garden](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/images/apmediaapi/2024/01/02/USAT/72081635007-Raptors_Celtics_Basketball_03697.jpeg?auto=webp&crop=3727,2098,x0,y193&format=pjpg&width=1200)
When the Boston Celtics were winning championships with Larry Bird and Kevin McHale in the 1980s, they were notoriously tough to beat at home. The old Boston Garden could be oppressively hot, and a rowdy home crowd added another obstacle.
Buildings in the NBA aren’t like that anymore, but the current Celtics are on their own impressive run at home.
Boston is 16-0 at TD Garden. With its corporate name and modern feel, that arena doesn’t have the mystique of the old Garden, but it does house a fine basketball team that is trying to leave its own mark on Celtics history.
“We got the best fans in the league,” guard Derrick White said last month when asked about receiving “MVP” chants. “I know I’m not the MVP, but it’s always cool to hear.”
Forgive Boston fans for getting a little carried away. At home at least, the Celtics look worthy of quite a few honors.
Amazingly, Boston’s perfect home record nearly ended last week against a team trying to halt an even longer streak. The Detroit Pistons took a 21-point lead in the second quarter before the Celtics came all the way back to win 128-122 in overtime on Thursday night. It was a record-tying 28th straight loss for the Pistons, and Boston would have been a most unlikely place for them to finally win.
Detroit did end the streak two nights later at home against Toronto. That was a night after the Celtics had also defeated Toronto at home, again barely keeping their streak alive with a 120-118 victory. Boston’s next home game is Friday against Utah. Minnesota, in town next week, could provide a significant test.
What’s interesting about this run by the Celtics is that overall, home-court advantage isn’t nearly what it used to be in the NBA. Last season, the home team won 58% of the time in the regular season. That number is around the same this season. Back in the late 80s, that figure was north of 65%. In the 1950-51 season, it was 74%.
In some ways, the Celtics themselves have reflected the overall state of home-court advantage in the NBA. In 1954-55 — when home court was a huge deal — Boston went 21-5 at home and 4-22 on the road.
In 1985-86, the Celtics set a record by going 40-1 at home. Then they went 10-0 at home in the playoffs en route to the championship.
Nowadays, nobody feels that unbeatable at home. Even Denver, with its difficult altitude, lost seven home games during the regular season in 2022-23, then another in the postseason on its way to the title. Whether it’s because of more comfortable travel, less intimidating venues or other reasons, winning on the road is a good bit more common now.
That’s not to say nobody can put up a dominant home record anymore. San Antonio matched Boston’s record by going 40-1 in 2015-16, losing only to Golden State in its next-to-last home game — a victory the Warriors needed while closing in on the all-time wins record of 73.
Of course, those Spurs then dropped two of their three home games during a second-round playoff loss to Oklahoma City.
There are signs that home-court advantage isn’t as big a factor anymore in the postseason either.
From 1983-94, home teams were undefeated in Game 7s. And after Washington beat Seattle in 1978, no road team won Game 7 of the NBA Finals until LeBron James and Cleveland did it at Golden State in 2016.
These days, however, home court assures nothing in a Game 7. Last season, two road teams won in that scenario — Golden State at Sacramento and Miami at Boston. That was, remarkably, the fourth time in the past two decades that the Celtics have dropped a Game 7 at home. It also happened in 2005 against Indiana, 2009 against Orlando and 2018 against Cleveland.
In that span, no other team has lost more than two Game 7s at home.
So Boston’s dominance at TD Garden is noteworthy, but the Celtics know as much as anyone that they can’t take it for granted when they start the postseason.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
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Boston, MA
North End Feast season closes with the San Gennaro Feast
![North End Feast season closes with the San Gennaro Feast North End Feast season closes with the San Gennaro Feast](https://media.timeout.com/images/106174141/image.jpg)
The North End is one of the most restaurant-dense neighborhoods in the country—so it makes pefect sense that its biggest annual attraction are the feasts. These are street fairs celebrating Italian American culture with food carts, carnival games, live music and parades, held each weekend in August to honor various saints. The 2024 season closes out Labor Day weekend with the San Gennaro Feast, taking the Paul Revere Mall on Hanover Street from Friday, Aug. 30–Sunday, Sept. 1. The patron saint of Naples, Italy, is celebrated by the Saint Gennaro Foundation of Boston, founded by North End restaurateurs Frank DePasquale, Nick Varano, Angelo Vigliotta and Pasquale Trotta, along with the North End-founded Pastene brands. The festivities feature more than two dozen booths by local restaurants, free live music and DJs, celebrity emcees and more. The San Gennaro Feast winds down on Sunday with a procession of the saint followed by an outdoor mass (these are Catholic festivals, after all).
San Gennaro Feast Schedule
Friday, August 30
5pm- The Feast Opens to the public
6pm- Hot 96.9 Morning Show Host Melissa Eannuzzo welcomes guests
6:15pm- Vinyl Groove performs
8pm- Italian Connection performs
11pm- Feast closes for the night
Saturday, August 31
12pm- The Feast Opens to the Public
6pm- Kiss 108 Personality Gianna Gravalese introduces performers
6:15–7:15pm- Virgil the DJ
7:30–8:15pm- Canadian singer and disco great France Joli
8:30–10pm- The Midtown Men (Jersey Boys original cast)
11pm- The Feast closes for the night
Sunday, September 1
12pm- Outdoor Mass performed by the priests of Saint Stephens
1pm- Procession of San Gennaro
6pm- Kiss 108 Personality Gianna Gravelese presents Flutie Foundation with check
6:30–7:30pm- Virgil the DJ
8–9:30pm- Sal The Voice from America’s Got Talent
11pm- The feast concludes
Boston, MA
On the front lines of Boston’s Sept. 1 weekend moving chaos – The Boston Globe
![On the front lines of Boston’s Sept. 1 weekend moving chaos – The Boston Globe On the front lines of Boston’s Sept. 1 weekend moving chaos – The Boston Globe](https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/RXdiHjvsR-YRssuoWYXfrycNpP4=/506x0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/QDP4KTWTRDX27EGFYFUJGKISTI.jpg)
Fisher and Braun are two students moving this weekend, a notorious one in Boston when 70 percent of the city’s leases start on the same day. Trying to move in a cramped city at the same time as thousands of others is exasperating. Even those who aren’t moving feel stressed by the congested traffic and piles of junk on sidewalks.
Adding to the moving confusion is Allston Christmas, an unofficial Boston holiday during which Allston/Brighton students leave their unwanted goods out for people to take. The holiday has grown over the years, expanding well past Allston, and sidewalk piles pop in areas like Fenway, Mission Hill, East Boston, and other neighborhoods with high populations of students.
The holiday has a chaotic yet jovial atmosphere, with students walking the streets hoping to find free home goods or furniture treasure amid piles of junk. Though the city warns against picking up stuff from the street for multiple sanitation reasons, including the spread of bed bugs and the sidewalk piles being ideal for rats.
Other renters prefer listing their odds and ends on Facebook Marketplace.
Northeastern graduate Becca Miller carried her mattress down from her home to the SUV of a buyer she connected with through the online platform. The mattress was one of 13 items Miller sold on the app over the past three days.
Selling the items online was stressful. Miller estimated she talked to around 70 people, many of whom ghosted her or didn’t offer the right deal, before finding buyers for her belongings. She said the process was like having a full-time job.
She was trying to get the belongings sold by her move-out date. Her roommates were already gone, having left the country to study abroad in Indonesia. Miller is scheduled to meet them there in a month for a post-grad opportunity.
![Moving vans along Aberdeen Street took up parking spaces as students across Boston were moving in and out of apartments to get ready for the fall semester.](https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/23ID3Y77RRIMZFMZPODP34I6ZE.jpg?auth=2b62577605504cf5eee3aafdb651a7f3e43aa5c6e01e37fda3723e7174a4610e&width=1440)
Despite the stress, Miller liked the process of buying and selling used goods. Most of the items in Miller’s apartment were second hand because she and her roommates were environmental studies majors.
“Buying new stuff, I have a block around it,” she said.
For Ian Furst, 28, a project manager of a local biotechnology company, moving from the Fenway area was a family affair. His fiancée’s family; his parents, Andy, 60, and Samantha, 54; and his brother Nate, 27, came to help the couple move out.
Furst lived on the sixth floor of his building, something that wasn’t a huge problem until the elevator broke down. It hasn’t been fixed for 15 months, so his family helped him carry boxes, bags, crates, and bulky items down the stairs.
“We love the neighborhood, Fenway is very much our home, but Jamaica Plain was calling,” he said.
Samantha said that last weekend, when they got a head start on moving, her two sons did 110 flights of stairs each. This weekend, she said, it’s somewhere around 50.
“This sucks,” Nate laughed as he lugged three tote bags of stuff into their minivan before going back up to do it again.
![Forsyth Street in Boston near Northeastern University was a busy scene as students were moving in for the fall semester.](https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/NGD3STWZONKKVOOAVYVYVB376Y.jpg?auth=914f8f87a2ac4af6be384f3a95854141bb0c54d2928c46e1a5b4a84d2e7c11d8&width=1440)
Furst lived in Brighton in 2019. He bounced around apartments in the area before finding the Fenway spot that he’s currently leaving. His parents live in North Reading, but during their college and young adult years, they also rented apartments in and around Allston and Fenway. They were all familiar with the standstill traffic and double-parked streets that fill up this time every year.
“It’s an adventure,” said Andy, of the busy weekend.
Furst was grateful he had some help on that adventure.
“It takes an army to move out of an apartment on a Sept. 1 timeline,” he said.
Izzy Bryars can be reached at izzy.bryars@globe.com. Follow her @izzybryars.
Boston, MA
Next Weather: WBZ morning forecast for August 31
![Next Weather: WBZ morning forecast for August 31 Next Weather: WBZ morning forecast for August 31](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/08/31/be4b78d8-1e0a-422d-af1f-d4080f46f6fe/thumbnail/1200x630/c475c3a2b253e8405c4eff1d11eee9dc/057a66114a4312acccd2c508830eeafc.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232)
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