January 7, 2009: Houston Rockets

What It Means: Shane Battier’s already been ruled out. Ron Artest and Tracy McGrady will probably join him. The Rockets have lost five of their last seven games and are likely to trot out a starting line-up that includes names like Brent Barry and Von Wafer.

All this, and I’m terrified. My gut says that no matter how badly the Celtics are struggling, the Garden cures all. I want to think that they’ll be empowered by the energy of crowd—like they were in the Playoffs after poor outings in Atlanta and Cleveland. But honestly, who knows?

If the C’s have any real aspirations of beating the Cavs on Friday, they need to put forth some semblance of a team effort tonight.

Player to Watch: Luis Scola

A couple years ago, the Spurs gave Scola to the Rockets for basically nothing, because he didn’t fit into their scheme. Guess it’s hard to question any move that The Pop makes, but Scola’s legit. He’s averaging 11.5 points and eight boards a night, and has brought down 10, 13, 11 and 17 boards, respectively, in his last four games. He’s also a classic flopper which ranks him very high on the Hateablity Scale, and happens to look a lot like Opera Man. (copyright N.A)

Match-Up to Watch: Kendrick Perkins vs. Yao Ming

There really isn’t another match-up that looks overly compelling (although I guess Garnett/Scola is OK). The goal for Perk tonight is to just stay on the floor. He needs to be aggressive with Yao, but not so much that he ends up in foul trouble. If that’s the happens, brace yourself for a new batch of "OMG, WE NEED A BACK UP CENTER!!" message board posts on Thursday morning. How much would it cost to rent Dikembe Mutombo for the night?

Fun Fact: Yao has career averages of 19.1 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game, but somehow—despite the fact that the Celtics haven’t employed an All-Star center 1991—the big man’s career averages against Boston are only 13.1 points, 8.3 boards, 1.4 blocks a game.

Random Old Celtics/Rockets Box Score: January 18, 1996—The Dream drops 51 points and grabs 14 boards for the defending champs, but the Celtics—with seven players in double figures—win in an upset, 108-106. The aforementioned seven Celtics were Dino Radja, Rick Fox, Todd Day, David Wesley, Eric Montross (can you believe that was the starting five?), Dana Barros and Dee Brown. Pervis Ellison scored only two points in a reserve role, but showed zero signs of nervousness over 21 minutes of action.

Prop Bet: Dikembe Mutombo Montage (-5 seconds of laughter) vs. Chuck Hayes shoots a foul shot

Headline You Won’t Read Tomorrow: Tony Allen puts team on his back; Celtics cruise to victory

Headline You Might Read Tomorrow: Tony Allen puts team on his back; fumbles them out of bounds.