Dallas 90, Boston 85

[recap] [box score]

After four days off, going against an opponent who had played the night before, the Celtics nonetheless looked like the more tired team Wednesday night against Dallas.

The explanation, it turns out, is rather simple: Boston was the more tired team. Word is that Doc has been pushing the guys in hard in practice in an effort to use this rare opportunity to get the team in shape after the shortened preseason. Paul Pierce even reportedly did an hour-long sprint workout on the treadmill after today's shootaround.

If this seems implausible to you, or if you're ticked at Doc for maybe costing us a win by pushing too hard, I urge you to consider the alternative. It's either this, or we get four months of the sluggish play we've seen so far from Pierce and Kevin Garnett, followed by an early playoff exit. (Remember how playing into shape worked for Rasheed Wallace two seasons ago?) And if not that, then a realization that is far more unpleasant, if one we're going to have to come to soon: these veterans don't have it anymore.

So, yeah, given these alternatives, I'm going to go with the most pleasant option, the options that affords the most reason for optimism. It's going to be a weird season, and it's too early to start worrying about our playoff spot. We're gonna have to be patient, particularly in the early-going.

We're gonna have to be patient even if the losses come due to infuriating things like the defensive glass and blown defensive assignments. The Pacers killed us with offensive rebounds on Friday; though it wasn't as big a factor Wednesday, especially in the second half, the Mavs did have 13 offensive rebounds (compared to two for the Celts). And while I think that Boston's defense has been quite good over the past six games, Pierce blew a crucial rotation on a late Dirk Nowitzki drive (a mistake he atoned for by drilled the game-tying three with 25 seconds left). And then, on Dallas' game-winning possession, Garnett was in Nowitzki's shorts with no help behind him. Dirk easily drove around KG and made a circus shot while being hammered by Brandon Bass, who was waaaaaaaaaaaaay late on the play. Either Bass blew it or KG did -- there's no way the plan was to defend Nowitzki that way.

So I'm remaining patient, even as we sit a game below .500, having not yet beat a playoff-bound team with three games against such teams (Chicago, Indiana, and Oklahoma City) in four days looming on the weekend, starting on Friday.

Notes:

Rajon R-ndo has been brilliant this season, and on Wednesday (Ray Allen's first off-night of the young season), his aggressive offense has been the only consistently good thing for Boston so far. Yet he's made some crucial mistakes, as well; he's already committed a couple of rally-crushing turnovers this year, and Wednesday night he made a bad gamble for a steal on a Nowitzki drive, leaving Jason Terry wide open for a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock. He also threw away Boston's last shot at a tie by delivering an inbounds pass to Ray too low; Ray couldn't corral it and it went out of bounds, sealing the game ... Avery Bradley has shown that he's one of the most tenacious on-ball defenders in the league, but he also has the worst jumper of any guard I can think of. He had a wide-open 20-footer from the top of the key on Wednesday that he rocketed off the backboard, a foot high and a foot right. It's almost inconceivable that he could miss a shot that badly ... Mickael Pietrus made his Celtics debut against the Mavs, making the first shot he took in the green and white, a three-pointer. He made some nice defensive plays but also took a very bad three-pointer in the fourth quarter. Still, it'll be nice to have a more competent offensive player to spell Pierce ... Marquis Daniels didn't play, though I think it was because he's recovery from some sort of bug as much as it was the presence of Pietrus ... ESPN's announcers noted that part of Boston's rebounding woes are due to the fact that the guards aren't going to get the ball off the glass. That's true, but it's only part of the story. Our bigs are being pushed around by the other team's big bodies ... Dallas coach Rick Carlisle was ejected in the third quarter, charging out onto the court to protest a play in which Garnett grabbed Nowitzki as the big German tried to free himself up around a screen. It's the second time this season an opposing coach has elected the rather unusual remedy of storming onto the parquet to protest a relatively innocuous play at a non-crucial moment; Flip Saunders was tossed less than two minutes in to Boston's home win over the Wizards earlier this month.