Welcome to the Garden ...

Welcome to the Garden, where the Boston Celtics will take on the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals at 9 p.m.

What’s different about the Finals? To start, James Taylor is warming up for the national anthem at center court at the same time that Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are warming up for the game. LA radio DJ’s are screaming into their mics on the sideline. And Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is just milling around.

Taylor practiced the anthem twice, then tooled around on his guitar for a few minutes before talking to Celtics assistant coach Clifford Ray.

In short, there’s a lot going on.

Pierce and Allen are shooting on opposite ends of the court right. There’s usually less than 30 people in the arena when Allen comes out to shoot. There are about 200 people in here now, including various media members, staff members, and coaches from both teams.

The shooter’s backdrop is a little weird in here right now with the “Beat LA” t-shirts draped over every seat. It’s not bothering Pierce, who’s just draining threes. During games, Pierce doesn’t look like a pure shooter. When he’s by himself, it’s nothing but net.

Glen “Big Baby” Davis just walked onto the court to get some work in. Still no Lakers on the court.

We’re going to cover the heck out of this game tonight. Stay tuned.