The C's will take the floor on Wednesday night against the Chicago Bulls and Bob Cousy will receive a second honor in as many weeks.
The Boston Celtics host the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night in the final game before the NBA All-Star break.
The Celtics enter play at 34-19 and in second place in the East, 5.5 games back of the Detroit Pistons. They are 0.5 games up on the New York Knicks for third place and 1.5 up on the Cleveland Cavaliers for fourth.
It's been a remarkable first 53 games for the Celtics, who have played this well in the absence of Jayson Tatum, out all year with injury. Furthermore, the Celtics traded Jrue Holliday and Kristaps Porzingis in the offseason, but have still found a way to overcome and thrive.
As for this matchup...
Chicago comes in at 24-30 and in 11th place in the Eastern Conference. Because of the NBA's 7-10 seed play-in structure, they are just one game back of a potential playoff spot. They just traded big man Nikola Vucevic to the Celtics last week, meaning he'll get to go against his old team for the first time.
Also of note tonight...
The Celtics are running an incredible promotion at this game, with the first 5,000 fans receiving a Celtics Bob Cousy bobblehead. It's the second big honor for Cousy in as many weeks, as he also just had the court named after him at his alma mater, Holy Cross.
About Cousy in the pros
With the Celtics, Cousy became a legend. One of the best players in team history, he spent 13 years with Boston, amassing 13 All-Star Game appearances, 12 All-NBA selections and two All-Star Game MVPs.
He won six NBA titles with the C's and was also MVP in 1956-57. A member of the NBAs 75th Anniversary team, he averaged 18.4 ppg and 7.5 assists. He led the league in total assists in eight different seasons.
He was inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 1971, nearly immediately after he quit playing for good. Ironically, Cousy retired after the 1962-63 season, took six seasons off and then came back for seven games with the Cincinnati Royals. He was also the head coach of the Royals at the time.
As a coach
Cousy spent five seasons as head coach of the Royals and Kansas City-Omaha Kings who are now the Sacramento Kings. He went 141-207 in that tenure, winning a season-best 36 games twice.
One more note on the Celtics...
They'll be back in action on Feb. 19 after the All-Star break. The All-Star Game is coming up this Sunday, Feb. 15. Jaylen Brown was named a starter for the first time.
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