C’s play home opener tonight against Bobcats

The Celtics open the home portion of the 2009-2010 campaign tonight at The Garden. Expectations are at an all-time high with some players within the organization actually saying that they believe the Green are good enough to eclipse the 72-win total last captured by Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 Bulls team. The most impressive part of that particular Bulls season was their 39-2 home record, a record only bested by the 1986 champion Celtics.It is fitting that in a season where the Celtics will try to best one of Michael Jordan’s greatest achievements, “His Airness” himself will be in the building. No longer trying to lead his team on the court, Jordan’s expectations for his team are no longer about winning championships; Jordan the NBA executive would simply like to see his Charlotte Bobcats sneak into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.For Celtics captain Paul Pierce, facing a team like the Bobcats proves a reminder of how things were not too long ago here in Boston.”You wake up in the morning, and you know your team is 15 games out of the playoffs,” Pierce said. “The thing about me is that I’m always motivated because I love the game of basketball. I love the game so much that it rarely got me down when I was out there playing on the court. I take pride in that. I’m a competitor. I play this game to win.”Still, it was Pierce at the end of the 2006 season tired of the losing that quietly asked for a trade from the only franchise that he had ever known. The captain now cherishes every day that he spends with his club.”You don’t take these moments for granted, playing with guys like Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace, future Hall of Famers. You know, I cherish these moments because not a lot of people get that opportunity,” Pierce said.Of course the crowning achievement of the 72-win Bulls team was not the gaudy win total or the three-headed monster of Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman. It was their dismissal of the Seattle SuperSonics in the NBA Finals. Celtics coach Doc Rivers knows just how high the expectations are.”Other than winning a world championship, I don’t know what other expectations you can have, and that’s our expectation,” Rivers said. “It was that two years ago. It was that last year and it is that this year.”Great NBA teams defend their home court. If this edition of the Celtics is as good as they say they are, their title run will truly begin by defending the court that bears Red Auerbach’s name.