The Boston Celtics avoided their third consecutive loss yesterday against the Golden State Warriors, controlling the tempo each quarter at the TD Garden to eventually take the game 109-95. Rajon Rondo produced quite the statline, scoring 18 points with 12 assists and 7 rebounds. He definitely changed the momentum for the C’s with 12 points during their big run in the third quarter.

“He was terrific in the second half,” said Boston coach Doc Rivers of Rondo. “He came out in the third quarter and played with unbelievable speed and energy.” Former Celtics forward/center and new found Warrior Mikki Moore had some promising words for his old teammate, saying “That might be the only player in the league who can average a triple-double for a season.”

Kevin Garnett netted 12 points for Boston that included a thrilling quarterback pass drained from the other 3-point line to end the half. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kendrick Perkins all showed up to play scoring 19, 15 and 15. Corey Maggette led the Warriors with 23 points and eight rebounds. The Celtics are next set to host the defending Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic Friday, November 20th. Orlando is 9-3 so far this season and coming off a strong 108-94 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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The Golden State Warriors scored a remarkable 146 points to the Minnesota Timberwolves 105 last light at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA. The game wasn’t too out of reach for Minnesota until Golden State ran up the score in the final minutes of the second quarter to lead 74-55 at the half.  They racked up 22 steals as a team, which marks the most produced in a single game for the franchise since 1989.

“This is what we’re capable of doing,” said Warriors PG Monta Ellis. “We got a lot of deflections, got the fast break going. We did a lot of help defense, rebounded the ball and got out and ran.” Six players for Golden State contributed with double digit performances. Stephen Jackson played floor general with 10 points and 15 assists. Kelenna Azbuike led all in scoring with 31, followed by Anthony Randolph and Anthony Morrow with 23 and 20.

The Timberwolves at 1-7 so far this season will look more long term in regards to the future success of the organization. “We’ve maintained from the beginning this is going to be a process, this is not something that’s going to turn around in the first 10 games of the regular season,” said coach Kurt Rambis. “We knew we were going to take some lumps. Until we have an idea of a nice starting unit and a set rotation where guys can feel comfortable and when they’re going to play, we’re probably going to continue to play up and down and be inconsistent.” 

Minnesota will now look ahead to their matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers this Wednesday while the Warriors travel to Indiana to face the Pacers.

The Celtics and Bruins are at the top of their leagues, and Boston fans face a tough decision on which game to watch tonight. The Bruins are six points ahead of division rival Montreal, and share the Eastern Conference lead with the New York Rangers (with three games in hand). The Celtics have 5.5 games on the Philadelphia 76ers in the Atlantic division, and a 1.5 game lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference.

The Bruins will face off against the Sabres in Buffalo at 7:00pm. The Black and Gold look to continue their reign as the NHL’s best in goals against, facing a team that they have already dominated twice this season.

The Celtics tip off against the Golden State Warriors at the Garden at 7:30pm. The C’s have won their last five, and are looking to secure their second 6-game winning steak of the young season. Golden State looks to break a 3-game losing streak, and have bested the reigning champion Celtics 4 of the last 5 times the teams have met.

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For most of the season so far, the Golden State Warriors have been without Monta Ellis, Corey Maggette, and Al Harrington. The anemic Warriors offense will get a boost from the return of Al Harrington in tonight’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Minnesota hasn’t won since their season-opener, and has struggled in all aspects of their game. Stephen Jackson and Andris Biedrins have kept the well-rounded but relatively inexperienced Warriors team in contention while they deal with injuries.

Tip-off is at 10:30pm EST tonight. Golden State Warriors Tickets are available for every game this season!

Less then one month after the Boston Celtics captured their 17th NBA Championship, many teams around the league are already beginning to try and make some adjustments so that they can put themselves in contention for a title run. Many teams have begun to sign their lottery draft picks and several free agents are close to signing multi-year deals with new teams.

It is expected that the Golden State Warriors will sign Corey Maggette to a five year deal estimated right around $50 million dollars. Last season, Maggette averaged 22.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game for the struggling Los Angeles Clippers. At 6-foot-6, great speed and a soft perimeter touch, he would fit right into Golden State coach Don Nelson’s run and gun style of play.

The Philadelphia 76ers continue to make moves, freeing up salary cap space which many suspect is so that they can make a strong offer to Elton Brand to come and play for them. On Tuesday the 76ers traded away forward Rodney Carney, a future first round draft pick and reserve forward Calvin Booth to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a future second round draft pick and $2.8 million dollars. The Sixers now have another $2 million in salary cap space to add to the $11 million in space available that they hope will land them the post player in Brand that they desperately need to become a contender in the East.

First round draft pick O.J. Mayo (third pick overall) signed a multi-year contract with the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. The Grizzlies pulled off an eight player trade the night of the NBA draft to acquire the rights to the third pick and land Mayo. Memphis also announced the signing of Darrell Arthur, the 27th overall selection of this year’s draft.

The number one and two picks of this years’ NBA Draft have been in the spotlight in the early action of the NBA’s summer league games. Michael Beasley (2nd pick in the draft) scored 28 points in the first game of the summer season for the Miami Heat but then followed it up with only a 9 point outing in the second game a night later. Derek Rose of the Chicago Bulls (1st pick in the draft) scored 10 points in his NBA summer league debut against Miami and Beasley and then followed it up with 9 points in his second game against the Indiana Pacers.

In other league news, the NBA set the new salary cap at $58,680,000 for the 2008-2009 season. This year’s cap went up by more than $3 million dollars over last season’s, which was set at $55.630 million. The minimum team salary for 2008-09 was 75 percent of the cap, or $44.010 million.

Golden State Warriors guard Baron Davis has opted out of his contract for next year. Davis had reportedly been frustrated by the team’s inability to sign him to a long term deal, as well as their issues re-signing young guns Andris Biedrins and Monta Ellis.

“[Opting out] was a difficult decision, to say the least,” Davis’ agent Todd Ramasar said. “The past couple years, he’s had a lot of success with the Warriors, and I think they’ve had a lot of success with him. But he had gotten to the point that we were at a crossroads and it was something we had to address. … With no extension or deal in place … [opting out] was a bit unexpected but something that I advised Baron to do.”

Unless he does a “sign-and-trade” deal with Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers are the most likely new team for Davis. The only other teams that currently have cap room are Memphis and Philadelphia, neither of which has as urgent of a need at guard as the Clippers.

The Warriors have not commented on any future plans to negotiate with Davis.

Since the 2005-2006 season, Davis has an average of  20.2 points and 8.1 assists per game.