Pre-game hype for tonight's big matchup

Larry Brown - the guy who almost coached this team instead of Doc Rivers - weighs in with his thoughts (nba.com)

Boston’s schedule has been much more favorable than Detroit’s. Though neither has played any of the Big 3 teams in the West yet – San Antonio, Dallas, or Phoenix – Boston has played more home than road games while Detroit has done the opposite. If you look at the league right now, Detroit, Boston and probably Orlando are the teams in the East that stand out. The fact that Boston got out to such a huge jump on everybody, I think Detroit has to make a statement in this game even though it’s early in the season.

The Sporting News chimes in (sports.yahoo.com)

Like the Celtics, the Pistons have a veteran core, except theirs has already won a championship. Like the Celtics, the Pistons have grabbed a comfortable division lead and rank among the league leaders in scoring defense and opponents' shooting percentage. The Pistons are No. 2 in points allowed.

The Pistons, however, are going about their business without much fanfare. "They remind me somewhat of the Spurs, just laying low in the weeds," says Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni, whose team was steamrolled by Detroit last week.

To see why the Pistons are superior, look no further than the starting lineups. The Celtics have their terrific trio, but the Pistons have a fab five. The Pistons, in fact, have the best starting five in the game, a lineup that happens to match up very well against the Celtics'.

ESPN's Daily Dime (sports.espn.go.com)

Tipoff for the Game of the Season is 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, the NBA's newest, hottest commodity going up against a franchise that has proven itself over the past six years to be the class of the Eastern Conference.

"Detroit has been in everything imaginable: Game 7 of the finals, Game 7 of the conference finals, huge games both on the road and at home," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "Every imaginable situation, they've been in. We've been in nothing."

Actually, nothing is taking it a little far, but we get your point, Doc.

But we're 22 games in, past the quarter-pole for the 2007-08 season, and though Rivers feels the Celtics have played well 10 times, less-than-well 12 times, the body of evidence is indisputable. Yes, it's early, but the Celtics have undergone an unprecedented one-year transformation and have turned themselves, through two major trades and other key moves, into a juggernaut that has put together the strongest start we've seen in the NBA in a dozen years. Nobody is quite ready to put them in the same class as the last team to open 20-2, the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, but no one seven short weeks ago could have ever predicted we'd even be talking about those two teams in the same sentence, which we just did.

So is this a truly great team? Or is this a very good team off to a great start?

We're about to start finding out.

Marc Spears chat transcript (boston.com)

celticsboy34__Guest: Do you feel like tomorrow's game is the Celtics first real test?

Marc_Spears: No. There have been other tests already that haven't got the attention probably deserved. The big win over the Nuggets, the top team in the Northwest Division. The losses at Orlando and Cleveland. The two wins at Toronto. Beating up Washington opening night. Beating up on two playoff teams in Golden State and the Lakers, who have winning records. I think we're not giving the Celtics enough credit for their wins. Hey man, 20-2 is nothing to sneeze at. Maybe Celtics fans are getting spoiled by all the blowouts.

Time to "measure up" against tested Pistons (bostonherald.com)

The last time the Celtics [team stats] played Detroit, they were taken about as seriously as a Carrot Top memoir might be by the Pulitzer Prize review board.

With a playoff berth wrapped up entering the final game of the 2006-07 season, the Pistons sat Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton and Chris Webber, allowing the far end of the bench to play against the Eastern Conference’s worst team. Amir Johnson had the best game of his career (20 points, 12 rebounds), and Flip Murray sank the winning jumper with less than a second remaining in a 91-89 victory that further kicked sand in the collective face of a Celtics squad already smeared by indignity.

It is almost unfathomable to consider how much matters have changed during the past eight months. When the Pistons tip off against the Celtics tonight at TD Banknorth Garden, they will be doing so against a completely rebuilt team that has taken control of the top spot in the East. In fact, the C’s are the only team in the conference with a better winning percentage than Detroit.

After tying a franchise record by improving to 20-2 with Saturday’s victory at Toronto, the Celtics can stake claim to the best start in team history by winning tonight’s showdown between the NBA’s top two defensive teams.

Regardless of the Green’s incredible run, outspoken Pistons star Rasheed Wallace maintained this week that all Eastern Conference teams still have to measure up to perennial power Detroit.