Boston 118, Chicago 90

Has Boston improved since the playoffs, or has Chicago regressed?

[recap] [box score]

That's a totally unfair question, and just a cute way of asking whether the Celtics are as good as the score suggests, or the Bulls are as bad as the score suggests. And the answer, as it invariably is in these situations, is: A bit of both.

A 28-point shredding of a team that had just soundly beaten San Antonio sure looks good, but there are a few things about that that are deceiving. The Bulls' victory over the Spurs wasn't as impressive as it looked, as the Spurs played poorly, no doubt tired from their opening night victory over New Orleans the night before. And Chicago came to Boston for the second leg of their own home-and-away back-to-back, the victory over the Spurs coming Thursday night. And Derrick Rose is battling an ankle injury that kept him out of the final seven preseason games and has coach Vinny Del Negro trying to limit him to around 30 minutes per game to start the year.

At the same time, boy, did the Celtics look good. After a so-so first quarter in which the Celtics found themselves in a bit of foul trouble, the bench gave us space to start the second quarter, and the starting unit hammered the coffin shut by early in the third.

When the Celtics shoot well and defend well -- and they did both against the Bulls -- they may be the most entertaining team in the league to watch, at least at home. Their momentum builds with every steal or long rebound off a missed jumper, and the team is off to the races: The ball quickly finds its way into Rajon Rondo's hands, and the big men run the floor, clearing space for Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to spot up behind the three-point line. Rondo's decision-making itsn't always impeccable, but he makes the right choice far more often than not, and tonight, that choice was to pitch it to the wing for the three. When Paul or Ray tees one up in this situation, you just know it's going in, and the crowd does too, its hum getting louder until erupting as ball meets net.

Other elite teams don't have the same combination the Celtics do. The Lakers certainly have the offensive firepower, but they don't defend as well and lack a Rondo-like distributor to push the ball up the floor; the Spurs prefer to play at a much slower pace; the Cavaliers' Lebron James adds an explosive, acrobatic element that the Cs don't have, but he doesn't have the supporting cast. Orlando comes closest, but Jameer Nelson doesn't have the same speed and knack for setting his teammates up that Rondo does.

This isn't to say that Boston is better than all these clubs, although they certainly have been the most impressive team so far in this very, very young season. And you don't win any championship rings by being the most entertaining team. But stretches like the one the Celtics went on from 11:14 to 6:50 of the third quarter are what make a long regular season worth watching night in and night out. In the course of extending a 15-point halftime lead to 27, Boston scored on eight of nine possessions, with Rondo assisting on all but one of the baskets (a three-pointer by Pierce on which he took one dribble to let a defender go by after receiving a pass from Rondo). Soon thereafter, I got a Gmail chat message from a friend who's a Lakers fan: "Your team is good."

Yes, it is. Maybe not quite as good as they look right now, but good.

Quick bullets:

• Rondo's statline: two points, eight boards, 16 assists. Nine of those dimes came in the third quarter. There's one other guy currently in the league who has influenced a game the degree that Rondo did tonight while only taking two shots, and he's third on the list of all-time assist leaders. (And his current team just smacked the Lakers at Staples).
• I get on Doc Rivers for not managing minutes, so to be equitable, I should praise him for limiting the time on the floor for Rondo (30 minutes), Ray (23), Pierce (31), Garnett (25), and Perkins (19).
• Ten points, ten boards, and two blocked shots in a second consecutive strong game from Shelden Williams. If he keeps this up, he just may command minutes even when Glen Davis returns from injury. Williams is more willing than Big Baby to do the kind of things power forwards are supposed to do.
• KG hasn't shaken all the rust off, but after missing one earlier in the game, he finally connected with Rondo for an alley-oop in the the third quarter. A welcome sight for those worried that Garnett's lost all of his explosiveness. He may never be the same he was pre-injury, but with every game, he's looking more and more agile.
• Lester Hudson made one of two free throws and hit a jumper late (which I missed, as I had flipped over to catch the end of Sacramento at New Orleans), but was stil too tentative on offense. I know he's trying to prove he can back up Rondo at point guard, but he's a scorer, and we aren't going to be able to evaluate him as one if he doesn't play like himself when he's on the court. On one typical sequence, Hudson rubbed his man off a high screen on the left wing and rather than take advantage of the open space by firing a jumper or going to the basket, he threw the ball to Marquis Daniels just a few feet away. This was a completely useless pass, as Daniels was just a few feet away and not particularly open, and he's not a dangerous outside shooter. There aren't many games for Hudson to show what he can do before he goes down to the D-League, and he needs to use these minutes more productively.
• However, Hudson looked better and more comfortable than J.R. Giddens, who still hasn't shown me that he belongs on an NBA court.

NEXT GAME: vs. New Orleans on Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern. The game's on NBATV, which means it won't be available on any League Pass free preview.