Boston 104, Indiana 99

The Stephon Marbury era in Boston is off to a good start.

[recap] [box score]

His stat line won't blow you away: 13 minutes, eight points on 4 of 6 shooting, two assists, a rebound, a steal, and a +/- of -7. (For those of you not familiar with the +/- stat, this means that the Pacers outscored the Celtics by seven points when Marbury was on the floor.) But from the moment he entered the game, with 16 seconds left in the first quarter, his impact was noticeable. The home crowd rose to give the newest Celtic a standing ovation, and Steph drank it in, with a grin from ear to ear.

Pressed into playing time without even a practice under his belt thanks to the Tony Allen injury and Gabe Pruitt suspension, and playing in his first NBA game in more than a year, Marbury showed little of the rust that might be expected from someone who has taken so much time off. Marbury's ballhandling will allow Eddie House to move to his preferred position of off-guard with the second team, and Stephon's jumper and ability to get to the basket will provide the second unit with some much needed offense.

Marbury was also on the court during the most important stretch of the game, the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, when Boston extended its 80-75 leads to 92-79. Marbury played a crucial role during that stretch, too, assisting on two Ray Allen jumpers, drilling a 17-footer of his own, sliding over on defense to force Rasho Nesterovic to badly miss a layup, and then hitting a driving layup at the other end. If he plays the way he did tonight for the rest of the season, he will be what the doctor ordered -- exactly what Sam Cassell was supposed to do last year when we signed him.

Of course, the media hate Marbury. This column by Adrian Wojnarowski, for example, calls Marbury a loser, and while most NBA writers prefer to mince their words, there's no doubt that many of them have a similar opinion of Marbury. He's an easy target, the poster child for greedy professional athlets in a time of national economic crisis, a man who was paid $20 million by his former team to stay away -- not just not play, not just not practice, but to completely disassociate himself from the franchise. And now he'll be paid an additional $1.2 million to, as many think, ride the coattails of the defending champions to the ring he craves and one more lucrative contract before his NBA clock strikes midnight.

Marbury will wear Antoine Walker's number 8 as a Celtic, the green-and-white version of his preferred number 3 hanging from the TD Banknorth Boston Garden rafters in honor of the late Dennis Johnson. Whatever digit hangs on his back, however, Marbury will forever be number 3, that number being tattooed on the left side of his head. It's a stylized number 3, the logo of Starbury, his athletic shoe and apparel company. Marbury's detractors can perhaps point to it as a sign of his ego and me-first mentality.

But perhaps it can be something to rally around for these Celtics, a group that, now that it has a target on its back, needs something around which to rally. Those outside the team hope or expect (or both) that Marbury's famous ego will destroy the team's chemistry, a chemistry built by three superstars putting aside their individual accolades for Ubuntu and the good of the team. The challenge this season is to mesh with the unmeshable, to humble he who seems incapable of that feeling. In short, to prove everyone wrong.

So far, so good.

VIEWING ALERT: Next game is Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern on ABC. The opponent is Detroit, which snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 93-85 win in Orlando Friday night. Rip Hamilton, returning to the starting lineup in place of the injured Allen Iverson, keyed the victory with 31 points. Iverson went to Detroit Friday for treatment of his bad back, and his status is uncertain for Sunday.