The Live Story of James Harden and Jeremy Lin

It was a foggy, rainy night in the middle of January.  The small of amount of snow that we had left was slowly dripping away.  It seemed electric in the air.  I suppose I should have known that something special was going to happen when it's raining and 50 degrees in January.  And something special was happening.   A limo into the City, dinner paid for at the Courtside Club, yeah it was going to be a good night.  And we haven't even gotten to the interesting match up yet.  The Houston Rockets, and the Thunder castoff, James Harden.

Yup, James Harden, Jeremy Lin and the new and improved Rockets were coming to play the Celtics.  The Rockets haven't been relevant since Hakeem Olajuwon was on the team (and Yao Ming does not make a team relevant, it just makes them awkwardly tall).  Besides, Lin and Harden haven't appeared in Boston as Rockets this year and I have to admit that I'm excited about the prospects.  These are two of my favorite players who don't wear green.

And with the seats that we were fortunate to have, it was going to be a great night.  Some Courtside Club buffet food, some Harpoon beers, some funny stories from the other coaches and some KG vulgarities were in store for us; we were in for a great night.  Harden himself was in for a long night as Avery Bradley was primed to stop his streak of 25 point games and Rajon Rondo was looking to stop Jeremy Lin his tracks.  (Get it, or is the joke too old now?).  When this game is over, I will now have seen as many games from Courtside as my 8 year old son.

Houston started off strong, but the Celtics took the First Half , leading 53-45.  The bench again was on fire as Jared Sullinger, Courtney Lee and Jeff Green led the Celtics offense in the half.  Harden and Chandler Parsons (I don't know the guy either) led the team in scoring in the First Half. 

Harden and Lin couldn't stop us from going to the Courtside Club with Jo Jo White, Jason Varitek (although on second thought maybe Varitek was just in the stand next to us) and Brandon Lloyd.  Despite being in the midst of athlete celebrity, all I could think about was whether we could hold off Harden and Lin in the second half.  They were both notorious second half players and the lead was only 8 at the time.

The second half started off slowly as the Rockets closed to within 1 point.  The Celtics looked flat and seemed to be relying on their outside shot too much.  Tommy Heinsohn would not be happy.  But strong second halves by the elder statesmen Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett would make the difference for the Celtics.

As I slap Varitek on the back after a great win (see the name dropping?) I look over to the guys went to the game with and celebrated a hard earned win.  The Celtics have won 5 in a row and appear poised to come storming back in the Eastern Conference.  It may be one of the last times we see this kind of game so we might as well enjoy it.