Boston, MA
In an era when home court means less and less, the Boston Celtics are 16-0 at TD Garden
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.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
It’s going to be a little while longer before Roman Anthony returns to action.
The Red Sox outfielder has suffered another setback in his recovery from a sprained right hand and will be shut down from swinging for a couple of days.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Cleveland that Anthony tried hitting off a tee Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury on May 4, but that he found doing so to be painful.
“He hit off the tee (yesterday) and had some discomfort, so we’re going to slow play it,” Tracy said, per MLB.com’s Henry Palattella. “It’s going to be day-to-day, or even the better way is ‘action-to-action.’ (We’re going to be asking), ‘What did he do today, is that uncomfortable and do we have to wait?’ ”
Originally thought to be a minor issue that might not even require a stint on the injured list, Anthony has now missed 21 games and likely won’t be back until early-to-mid June.
The recovery process has also been halting. Anthony has continued doing most other baseball activities, including running and throwing, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that he could swing a bat free of discomfort.
Once he was able to comfortably take dry swings — or swing a bat without hitting the ball — the next step was hitting off a tee. Now he’ll be given a couple more days to heal and likely won’t try again until the Red Sox return home from Cleveland and are back at Fenway Park on Tuesday following Monday’s off day.
Tracy acknowledged that the recovery hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, but emphasized that isn’t because of anything Anthony’s done wrong.
“That’s not Roman’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault,” Tracy said. “It’s just he got hurt, and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit.”
Speaking to Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast prior to Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Anthony clarified the exact nature of his injury, which was officially announced by the team as a right wrist sprain. Anthony said he has a partially torn ring finger ligament, specifically his ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal).
The sprain versus torn verbiage has generated some confusion among fans, though medically there isn’t a meaningful distinction between the two.
“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things, and I don’t know what to say other than any of those are a tear,” Tracy said. “You strain a hamstring and that’s a partial tear; fibers let go a little bit and they need to heal.
“I don’t think anything is portrayed differently or wrongly. If a guy strains his hamstring, I won’t come out here and say he tore his hamstring. That’s not how that works.”
Prior to suffering his injury, Anthony was batting .229 with one home run and a .675 OPS through his first 30 games this season.
Surprise: Another weekend and there’s more rain on the way. It’s bad enough we’ve had to post a First Alert.
For now, we’ll watch as clouds thicken today. We’ll squeeze out some drops later this afternoon and evening.
A weather maker is winding up in Canada, wrapping in cold air. All of that is going to dive down to New England.
We’re in the thick of it tomorrow. Rain will be coming at us in bursts with some dry time in between. Winds will likely push past 50 mph in Boston.
Those winds will eat away at temperatures; with wind chills barely above freezing. And no – not just in the morning – but the afternoon, too!
It’s so cold there’s the threat of snow as that rain bumps into colder air over the Berkshires, Worcester Hills and southern New Hampshire right up to Mount Washington.
The snow isn’t going to pile up but just know there could be some flakes flying over our highest hills.
The blue on our Futurecast map marks the spots where snow could mix with rain.
Rain spins out by Saturday evening but not before dumping about half an inch over Boston.
We’ll try to salvage the rest of the weekend with temperatures in the upper 60s by Sunday. Still, there’s the threat of bits and pieces of rain.
By the way, this isn’t any weekend, it’s the last weekend of spring. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
The first day of summer remains drab and dreary with more rain chances and temperatures in the low 60 on Monday.
Federal immigration demands are once again centered on Massachusetts.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sent three letters to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins and Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden demanding, among other things, information on how many ICE detainers BPD has received and declined to honor from 2022 to 2026 and any communication between the three departments related to immigration.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement that “releasing repeat criminals back to the streets solely because of their immigration status is crazy, and that’s exactly what Boston is doing.”
But Democrats push back on that framing.
“You’re familiar with Jim Jordan and his antics,” said Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. “This is more circus, it’s more theater and it’s not making our community safe.”
A spokesperson for the City of Boston wrote, “the city has provided this information many times…” going on to say “…these policies are part of keeping Boston the safest major city in America.”
The letters call for the documents to be sent to the House Judiciary Committee by June 10th at 5:00 pm. District Attorney Hayden’s office told NBC 10 they are reviewing the letter, neither Commissioner Cox or Sheriff Tompkins responded to requests for comment.
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