At Least We Can Beat The Pacers

I've taken a break from the Celtics this week, as the college basketball season heats up. As a result, I didn't watch much of our narrow loss in Milwaukee or the blowout loss to Memphis, nor did I catch but a few minutes of Friday's easy win over Indiana.

We've got Cleveland on Sunday (3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC). In previous years, matchups with the Cavs were must-see events. This year feels different. For starters, we're not realistically challenging them for the best regular season record in the East (and the home court advantage that comes with it). Second, we played these guys up in Boston a couple of weeks ago and they just ran past us in the second half. At their best, they are better than anything we've shown in a long time. Third, Cleveland definitely won't have Shaquille O'Neal, might not have Antawn Jamison, and haven't yet re-claimed Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

All this means that I might not feel too bad about watching Ohio St. and Minnesota in the Big Ten final and catching this one on DVR, sometime after the Selection Show. Hey, if the team can take a few games off -- and it definitely has this year -- so can I.