Cleveland 88, Boston 87

[recap] [box score]

The Celtics just gave this one away.

After sort of sleepwalking through the first half -- understandable, perhaps, given all the minutes everyone has had to play due to injuries -- the Celtics finally put some space between them and the young Cavs in the third quarter, and led by 11 with 4:24 to play.

From there, the Boston offense went completely stagnant. The closest the Celtics came to scoring was probably when Paul Pierce got a Cleveland defender up in the air, drew contact on a 16-footer -- but didn't get the whistle. The league is trying to clean up that kind of play this year, sick of offensive players getting to the line by leaning into defenders and drawing contact. So they've emphasized that if the defender goes up and the contact comes from the player with the ball leaning in after the defender lands, there should be no call. This, however, was a missed call; the Cavs defender clearly had not landed by the time he hit Pierce.

It's tempting to blame one play in a one-point loss, and there were others, besides that missed call, that probably would have won the game for the Celtics. Up one with less than a minute left, a Ray Allen three-pointer rimmed out, but Kevin Garnett grabbed the rebound. Rather than going back up, he looked to kick it back out to run some more clock -- and traveled when he couldn't find anyone immediately open.

On the ensuing Cleveland possession, Kyrie Irving missed a drive, but Anderson Varejao grabbed the offensive rebound and found Antawn Jamison open at the top of the key. Jamison missed the three-pointer, and Brandon Bass grabbed the rebound. But a Cav -- I think it was Alonzo Gee -- poked it away, and Varejao pounced on the loose ball, calling a timeout with 22 seconds left.

Anyone one of those plays might have secured the game for the Celtics. But instead, Cleveland had one possession to win, and Byron Scott decided to win it or lose it on that final trip down floor, instructing Irving to dribble out most of the clock at half court. Varejao came up and set a high screen, which Boston defended well. Irving drove right, over the screen, and Bass hedged nicely. But Irving, the top pick in last summer's draft, spun back left, ripping the ball through Avery Bradley's steal attempt. Irving continued to the bucket, and lofted a pretty left-handed layup over a recovering Bass that dropped through with 2.5 seconds left.

Boston still had a chance to win, of course. They advanced the ball to half court with a timeout, and inbounded to Pierce, who was immediately fouled by the Cavs, who had one to give. After another timeout, Boston again inbounded to Pierce, who was rushed by most of the Cavs defense. He had to double-clutch, and the ball was still in his hand when the buzzer went off. (The shot missed short, anyway.)

Time to move on. The Celtics have their chance for revenge on Tuesday, in Cleveland.

Boston 112, Cleveland 95

[recap] [box score]

The Celtics sent the Cavs to their 18th straight loss blah blah blah blah...

Kendrick Perkins returned to the lineup!

Forgive me for skipping to the important part. But a win against the hapless Cavs, even one that avenges, as this one does, an early-season loss, is nothing to write about. The return of big number 43, just seven months after tearing his ACL in the opening minutes of Game 6 of the NBA Finals, is.

I knew Perk was close to coming back; reports had established February 4 against Dallas as his target return date. But seeing him suit up Tuesday night, a week and a half early, was certainly a surprise.

Perkins' return has to be considered a big success. First and most importantly, he showed no real ill effects, physically, from the injury or the surgery to repair it. He moved laterally. He ran hard up the floor -- his familiar, loping gait providing reassurance that all was well. He challenged shots, fought for rebounds, and finished at the basket.

He played so well, in fact, and the atmosphere surrounding his return was so positive, that one has to pause to remind oneself that this is Kendrick Perkins we're talking about. No one recognizes the value of what Perkins brings to the floor more than Boston fans do, but he doesn't suddenly make the Celtics an unstoppable force. He had eight points and six rebounds in limited minutes against a pathetic and undersized Cavs front line, and those totals are more or less in line with what we can expect from him as he works himself into better shape and plays against stiffer competition.

But Perkins is a big piece of a title contender, and it's reassuring to have him back out on the floor. His absence may have cost the Celtics a title last year. His return may win them one this season.

Boston 106, Cleveland 87

[recap] [box score]

I didn't get a chance to watch this game because I was at school and forgot to tape it, and it was on NBATV, so I couldn't watch it via League Pass Broadband. It looked from the gamecast that after a slow start, we got rolling in the second quarter, then put it away in the third. Rajon Rondo had a bunch of his points in the first, and it looked like he took over the game for a stretch in the third, as well, driving for a couple layups before assisting on three straight baskets.

Those of you looking at the box score may be a bit alarmed by Paul Pierce's lack of minutes, but fear not: It was due to early foul trouble and the fact that he wasn't needed in the fourth quarter. He did play and contribute in the key stretches in the second and third quarters.

It also looked like we got some good performances in extended minutes from the bench. Nice to see that.

Portland tomorrow night. I'm going to try to watch that one, so I'll have a little more substance.

The Next Lamb: The Cleveland Cavalieres

Game 17: Boston (12-4) at Cleveland (7-9)

Tuesday, November 30

7 p.m. Eastern

NBATV

Last meeting: @Cleveland 95, Boston 87 (10/27/10)

The last time the Celtics faced the Cavs, it was the night after the big opening win over Miami -- looking back, it doesn't seem so big, does it? -- and after Boston blew a double-digit second half lead, everyone was quick to blame the hangover from the night before.

Since that time, however, the Cavs have played a bit better than nearly everyone expected they would, emerging as a contender for a low playoff seed in the East. They play hard and are well-coached, and teams with those characteristics are tough to beat.

J.J. Hickson did the most damage to the Celtics in the earlier meeting, and he's again the guy to watch -- he's mobile, active, and has a good jumper. I mentioned last time that offensively, he reminded me a bit of Kevin Garnett, and that's the kind of player that can give Boston trouble if Garnett doesn't stay at home.

The ever-pesky Anderson Varejao mans the middle for the Cavs, and his mobility could give Shaquille O'Neal trouble. Varejao is the kind of player whose value you don't recognize until he goes off the floor and you realize how much easier everything is without him on it. As such, I'd like to see Boston try to ride Shaq's recent hot hand in the early going and maybe get Varejao in foul trouble.

Mo Williams is the starter at point guard. He didn't play in the first Boston game, and while he adds some scoring punch, he's missed five games this year and it's not at all clear that Cleveland suffers too much with him in street clothes. The other change in the lineup is that Joey Graham has recently replaced Jamario Moon in the starting lineup, which really matters very little in the grand scheme of things.

Cleveland's bench had a nice game the last time we played them. They've got some pretty good second-unit weapons, as second-unit weapons go. The most obvious is former All-Star Antawn Jamison, a versatile forward who we can hope decides to content himself with launching perimeter shots. Daniel Gibson is legitimate three-point sniper. I'm not a Ramon Sessions fan, but he has his moments; a big key to defending him is letting him take all the crazy shots he seems willing to take, rather than over-reacting to his penetration and leaving someone else open or by bailing him out with a foul call. None of those guys has a reputation for defense, however, and while the other two bench guys -- Ryan Hollins and Moon -- are decent on D, I think the Celtics bench could do some damage.

It's a game Boston should win, but to reiterate, they'll have to do more than just show up.

Cleveland 95, Boston 87

To paraphrase Dwyane Wade, apologies to anyone who thought we were going 82-0.

[recap] [box score]

For the first time since April, the Boston Celtics played a meaningless meaningful basketball game (meaningless in that it was against an opponent that doesn't figure to be in the title hunt, but meaningful in that the game counted, unlike preseason). And coming off the high of the opener against Miami the night before, this loss to the Cavs was a reminder of how frustrated a regular season basketball game can make yours truly.

In truth, I shouldn't be surprised, and I wasn't really. Coming off an intense game the night before, in Cleveland against a Cavaliers team eager to prove itself without LeBron James, it stands to reason that the Celtics might have a little bit of a letdown. And I expect us to struggle with back-to-backs early in the season, as everyone -- but particularly Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal -- finds his sea legs.

Still, this was frustrating. We had an 11-point lead in the third quarter, but were outscored 27-14 in the fourth.

Good bullets:

• Glen Davis and Marquis Daniels both played well off the bench for the second consecutive night. It is going to take some getting used to, but those guys seem to be becoming legitimate offensive options, guys you can isolate or throw it to in the post.
• Rajon Rondo had another superb game. Against Miami, he was primarily a distributor, racking up 17 assists. Against Cleveland, he still set the table with nine assists, but he looked for his own offense more, particularly early, and finished with 18 points.
• Kevin Garnett still looks healthy, though it's not showing up in his stat line. The one thing you can point to as a negative from KG are his turnovers; he had seven against the Heat and another three against the Cavs. Quite a few of those have been travels or plays where his brain doesn't seem to be moving at the same speed his body is. It's interesting, because last year, the thing about KG was that he had to learn how to play with the bad knee. Now, it seems like he has to re-learn how to play unhurt. He'll be fine.
• On one play in the third quarter, Rondo led the break and pitched it to KG trailing. Garnett was running at full speed and caught the ball in stride at the foul line. Aware of the defense sliding over and clogging his lane to the bucket, KG hit Rondo, who had continued to the rim, with a perfect give-and-go pass for an easy layup. Every other power forward in the history of the game goes to the rim in that spot and either travels, throws up a wild shot, or commits a charge -- and the point guard gets criticized for setting up his big man for failure. KG is a treasure.

Bad bullets:

• Boston commits its share of fouls, but one thing that has been key to their defensive success over the past three seasons is allowing the opposition to take difficult, contested shots. At least once tonight, Shaq committed a needless foul that bailed out the opposition. We know he's a liability defending the pick and roll, but he needs to realize that he's so massive that he can disrupt a shot without blocking it. The play I'm thinking of was when Anthony Parker came off a screen and drove across the lane to the basket. Shaq was right there, and Parker would have had to take a very difficult running shot over O'Neal. But Shaq bailed him out with the foul.
• Nate Robinson still looks like he's pressing a little bit. I noticed it mostly in the second quarter. I think a big part of why we're seeing Rondo play more with the second team (as opposed to Ray Allen or Paul Pierce) is to try to get Nate comfortable, at least until Delonte West comes back. Robinson was paired with Von Wafer in the second quarter, but made a positive contribution when sharing the backcourt with Rondo.
• Our end of quarter offense is still terrible. Against Miami, I think we had two bad possessions and one good one. Against Cleveland, we just had two bad ones. At the end of the first quarter, Rondo dribbled in place at the top of the key as the clock wound down, juking himself more than any Cleveland defender, trying to get a good rhythm to step into a jumper (which isn't his shot anyway). At the last second, he thought better of it and threw a shot pass to Davis, who actually drilled a three-pointer. Glen Davis from 23 feet is not what we want in that situation, first of all, and second of all, Rondo wasted so much time that after reviewing the play during the commercial break, the officials determined the shot had come after the horn and took the points off the board. At the end of the third quarter, Nate more or less walked the ball upcourt despite there being only four or so seconds left in the period. The only shot he could muster was a long, awkward three-pointer. We need to find something better at the end of periods, and our guys need to be more aware of the clock.
• We became, as we are wont to do, needlessly obsessed with the three-pointer late in the fourth quarter. Down 89-84 with 2:17 remaining, our next possession revolved around finding Ray Allen for a three-pointer, which he missed. After a stop on the other end, Boston was lucky that a loose ball found Davis, and Baby laid it just as the shot clock buzzer went off. Garnett rebounded a Parker miss with 1:04 remaining, and on the resulting possession, Allen missed another three. Boston got yet another stop, and this time Pierce missed a 15-foot jumper, after which Cleveland put the game away at the free throw line. This happens a lot; we get enough stops to come back and win games down the stretch, but we don't execute offensively and end up taking low percentage shots. Going for three too early is a lot like going for two too early in football; if you fail, you force yourself into going for it again.

Cavaliers bullets:

• The game was on NBA League Pass, and the feed was of the Cleveland broadcast. It was interesting, though perhaps not that surprising, to hear little mention of James -- who would obviously been the major storyline had the game been covered by a national, unbiased broadcast team. The franchise really seems to be rallying around James' departure; the team's slogan this year, judging by its intro video, is "All for One, One for All." Not a bad start.
• J.J. Hickson, Cleveland's young power forward, reminds me a bit of Garnett. He moves well and has a great stroke. He's several inches shorter than Garnett and therefore can't hit turnaround jumpers with quite as large a degree of difficulty as KG can, but he seems ready to become a real solid player. He also has some of KG's little tricks, like jumping the point guard after a made basket to slow the opposition down.
• Ramon Sessions, who started tonight in place of the injured Mo Williams, had 14 points, but he also had four turnovers and took a game-high 16 shots. The fourth-year guard out of Nevada really came onto everyone's radar screen at the end of his rookie season with the Bucks, when he closed the campaign with five consecutive double-digit assist games, including an incredible 24 dimes in a 151-135 loss to the Bulls. But he really hasn't lived up to that potential. I have it out for Sessions a little bit, because he backed up Jonny Flynn in Minnesota last year, and as Flynn struggled to learn a system that didn't fit him or his teammates particularly well, many were calling for Sessions to get more minutes. But Sessions' decision-making wasn't any better then than it was tonight against the Celtics. He goes up in the air too much without a plan, and plays very out of control. His turnover rate would be higher, but he often just flips the ball at the basket when he finds himself in trouble. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but he gets himself into that spot too often. I'm beginning to doubt he'll ever be more than a streaky role player.

Back at it on Friday against the Knicks. The free preview of League Pass will still be running then, so check your local cable schedule for the channel.

The Next Lamb: The Cleveland Cavaliers

Date: October 27, 2010

7 p.m. Eastern

TV: NBA League Pass (free preview going on this week!)

Last night's opponent wasn't the only franchise transformed by LeBron James' decision to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. The King's departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers instantly turned a title contender into what appears to be one of the league's worst teams.

Many believe that LeBron's inability to win a championship in Cleveland was not his fault, but was a byproduct of the players around him simply not being good enough. Whether or not you subscribe to that particular theory, you have to admit that a team built around LeBron's former "help" -- Mo Williams, 34-year-old Antawn Jamison, J.J. Hickson, and Anderson Varejao -- promises to be a pretty sorry outfit.

We really have little indication as to how the Cavs are going to play. Like most NBA teams, they were idle Tuesday night, so Wednesday night's game is their opener. Additionally, Byron Scott takes over this season as head coach, and it remains to be seen what changes he'll make from Mike Brown's tenure. Williams was a scoring point guard in Milwaukee during the early part of his career, and I suspect we'll see him back in that role this year, though he should pile up a fair number of assists simply by virture of being the one who initiates the offense, as he did with the Bucks. Hickson is a promising young power forward, and Jamison may play a lot of three to make room for Hickson at the four. Beyond that, there's very little to talk about re: the Cavs, at least until we see them play a few games.

Celtics-Cavs was very recently a marquee matchup, the opening game of the NBA season each of the last two seasons. With James' departure, it's now nothing more than a trap game for a contender, coming on the road the night after an adrenaline-sapping win over, of all teams, James' new squad. For the the Cavs and the city of Cleveland, it's the chance to show LeBron -- and the rest of the basketball world, but mainly LeBron -- that life goes on without him, at least for a night. There will be nights this season that a half-assed effort will beat the Cavs. Tonight is not likely to be one of them.

Cleveland 104, Boston 93

[recap] [box score]

I had said I was going to skip this one, but Evan Turner turned the Big11Ten championship game into a formality and so I ended up watching a good chunk of the second half, right up until the Selection Show. I basically watched until our bench played us out of it in the fourth.

Last time this happened -- when Cleveland just ran by us in the second half last month -- I wrote here that I wasn't sure that we were deep enough to beat Cleveland. To elaborate a little on that, consider the lineups at the start of the fourth quarter, with the Cavs holding an eight-point lead:

Cleveland: Delonte West, Mo Williams, Jamario Moon, Antawn Jamison, Leon Powe

Boston: Nate Robinson, Marquis Daniels, Michael Finley, Glen Davis, Rasheed Wallace

That's a complete bench unit for the Celtics, while the Cavs had two starters -- Jamison and Williams -- on the floor. One-by-one, Lebron James, Anthony Parker, and Anderson Varejao replaced Powe, West, and Moon, leaving them with effectively their starting lineup on the floor for the rest of the game.

Mike Brown can get away with this for a few reasons, including the fact that his studs are younger, so he can play them longer minutes. But his older stars, like Jamison, can go a whole fourth quarter because they can rest for a chunk of the third, more than capably replaced against the opposition's first unit by guys like Varejao and J.J. Hickson.

I may be over-emphasizing the effect of the benches on this particular game; both teams were extremely cold to start the fourth quarter, and it was only a ten-point deficit when Doc brought KG back about three minutes in. And even with the big guns in the game, Boston went the first five minutes of the period without scoring. But watching our overmatched second unit really drove home what I felt so discouraged about last time these two teams met.

I hate writing this, but it's almost as though the Cavs, and Lebron in particular, were toying with us. King James took just four shots in the first half, then exploded for 24 points in the second half, getting to the basket (and often the line) at will. We were right there at the start of the fourth, and then Cleveland just coasted away from us. Tough to watch. Something -- health, focus, attitude -- is going to have to change if we have any chance of beating these guys in a seven-game series.

Cleveland 108, Boston 88

[recap] [box score]

Let's get one thing clear from jump street: The Cavaliers may very well be too good for the Celtics this year. They have ten guys who would crack the Boston rotation right now, and it will be 11 once they re-sign Zydrunas Ilgauskas. They have the world's best player in Lebron James. Joining him in the frontcourt are two guys who have made a combined 17 All-Star Game appearances -- Shaquille O'Neal (15) and Antawn Jamison (2). They have an underrated lead guard in Mo Williams, himself an All-Star last year, the perfect scoring point for a team that runs its offense through its small forward. Their backup bigs have size, and they do everything backup bigs are supposed to do -- rebound, defend, and scrap for loose balls. As a team, they are excellent both offensively and defensively.

For a half, Boston -- even without Paul Pierce -- looked every bit their equal. The Celtics played the opening 24 minutes the same way they played their entire championship season; dictating the pace, making open shots, protecting the paint and forcing the opposition into jumpers as the shot clock wound down. But the second half, in which the Cavs outscored the home team 60 to 32, told an entirely different story. Cleveland got whatever they wanted offensively, and Boston's scoring dried up.

It's a defensible position to say Boston just doesn't have enough to get through the East this year. For the first time since Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen arrived, I'm prepared to assert that a completely healthy Boston team isn't the best one in the conference.

The thing is, though, we can't say that for sure yet. Boston wasn't healthy on Thursday. By the midpoint of the second quarter, Cleveland wasn't, either, but at this point, Pierce means far more to the Celtics than Shaquille O'Neal means to the Cavs. Pierce's absence was a double hit, really; not only was the first team missing his offense, leadership, and defense on James, but the second team was missing its facilitator in Marquis Daniels, who replaced the captain in the starting lineup while battling the flu himself. And you can consider Boston being down yet another body if you think that Nate Robinson is going to improve after a slow start to his Boston career. Robinson was 2-of-6 on Thursday after going just 2-of-7 in his Celtics debut on Tuesday. Although Cleveland had come nearly all the way back from a 13-point deficit by the end of the third quarter, it was at the start of the fourth where this one really got away from Boston. The Cs desperately needed a spark off the bench to stop the bleeding, and it may be that in a week or two, Robinson is comfortable enough in his new surroundings to provide that spark. As it stood, however, Robinson provided little, and Rajon Rondo -- who played the first 45 minutes of the game before sitting the final 2:50, had tired himself out too much to attack the basket the same way he did in the first quarter (when he scored or assisted on each of the team's first 21 points).

Again, there's a distinct chance -- probably even a likelihood -- that the Cavs are just too good for us. We'll know for sure before the regular season is out; we're in Cleveland on March 14 before hosting the Cavs on April 4. As close followers of these pages know, I'm generally pretty optimistic about the team -- and the first half of this one was very encouraging -- but truth be told, I'm not very confident right now.

Boston 95, Cleveland 89

A rocky start. An excellent first half. A great beginning to the third quarter. A bit of a lull. A bit more of a lull. And then just enough plays to take it home.

[recap] [box score]

The first half was surprisingly smooth given that it was the inaugural 24 minutes. After the break, however, the game took a noticeable turn for the worse, a combination of offensive stagnation, sloppy play and carelessness with the ball, and good defense. But the Celtics got it done down the stretch, stemming the tide just when they needed to, as they've done so often the past couple of seasons.

A game this choppy doesn't deserve one of my elegant, flowing narratives (cough). How 'bout some bullet points?

• I'm happy overall with what I saw out of Kevin Garnett. He played 33 minutes overall (a few more than I and the coaching staff would have liked) and didn't seem like he was limping or anything like that. I noticed in the first half that he wasn't as quick to loose balls and rebounds as I'm used to seeing. The only bad sign we saw in the second half was a missed dunk on a break, however. I think it's probably him just getting his legs back.
• I wasn't quite as happy with what I saw from Rasheed Wallace, even though he hit three of six three-pointers and finished with 12 points. His play was fine; he just didn't look very good. TNT announcer Doug Collins said that 'sheed was out of shape, maybe 10 pounds above ideal weight. I didn't necessarily notice that, but I did notice that Wallace got almost no lift on his jumpers and on his way up for rebounds. I haven't seen much of him the last few years, so I can only hope that this is just him working into game shape and we won't see him play so ... geriatrically for long.
• Doc Rivers' substitution patterns were markedly different tonight than we're used to seeing. Wallace checked in for Kendrick Perkins with about five minutes remaining in the first quarter, with Marquis Daniels spelling Ray Allen a minute later. Garnett sat for Shelden Williams with 2:31 to go in the period, and Eddie House came in for Rajon Rondo with just over a minute left. It was pretty common for the starting five, save Garnett or Perkins, to play the whole first quarter last year, with one of Pierce or Allen starting the second stanza as well to provide offense for the second team. There had been a lot of talk in the offseason about having a true second unit, but in this game Doc seemed more focused on gradually transitioning to the second string from the first and back again (Allen started the second for Paul Pierce and played the entire quarter, while the rest of the starters came back at the six- and four-and-a-half-minute marks). Whether this was Doc experimenting or dealing with a depleted bench -- remember, Glen Davis, Brian Scalabrine, Tony Allen, and Bill Walker missed this one with injuries -- or a new philosophy remains to be seen.
• Doc used a similar substitution pattern in the second half, but he had the starters back in earlier, with 8:03 remaining. However, our offense was stagnant and Doc replaced Perkins with Wallace with 4:16 to go to spread the floor and force the Cavs to guard every position. Who gets the frontcourt minutes in crunch time alongside KG will be something to watch all season.
• Marquis Daniels is a career 23.7 percent three-point shooter. I mention this for the benefit of RwH readers who are largely unfamiliar with Daniels and who may have heard the TNT announcing team of Kevin Harlan and Doug Collins imply that Daniels was dangerous from behind the arc. Daniels hit a triple early in the fourth quarter, and Collins mentioned that the lineup on the floor at the time -- with Allen, House, Wallace, and Daniels -- was a good three-point shooting lineup (which it is, but not because of Daniels). Seconds later, Harlan mentioned how Daniels is the kind of player Doc likes, because he can defend and make the three-pointer. C'mon, fellas. Do your homework.
• Daniels, by the way, played very well on both ends of the court. Nothing spectacular, but very solid.
• Even with Shaquille O'Neal around, Cleveland is a one-man band offensively. There's so much standing around in that offense, it's ridiculous. Rarely do they have more than one thing going on at a time.

I don't want to say this was a statement game, because we didn't play well enough for it to be a statement. But it's our first win in Cleveland since 2004, and a road win is a big leg up in the head-to-head should we need it for playoff tiebreakers.

***

NEXT GAME: Boston's back in action Wednesday night at home against Charlotte in the opener for the Bobcats. A potential letdown game if played at a different point in the season, but there's no such thing as a letdown game in your home opener. Especially when it's KG's return to the parquet.

VIEWING ALERT: The game against Charlotte isn't on national TV, but NBA League Pass is running its free preview through November 3rd. If your cable company doesn't offer League Pass, try League Pass Broadband's free preview. The game's at 7:30 Eastern.

TMJF: Minnesota hosts New Jersey in the opener for both teams tomorrow night, but Jonny Flynn might not play. He's missed two practices in a row with an illness. If he does go, he'll have his hands full with Nets point guard Devin Harris, one of the league's bright young stars at the position. Harris is super-quick and has a few inches on Flynn. If it materializes, it's a tough assignment for an NBA debut.

While I'm talking about Flynn, though, I do want to make a few additional comments to the ones I made the other week. While I expect great things from him long-term and think he'll have a strong rookie season, I do expect him to experience some ups and downs. Any point guard who is immediately handed the keys to an NBA team will have encounter some bumps in the road, particularly if he's as reliant on Damien Wilkins and Corey Brewer as Flynn has to be. Flynn will have his share of high-turnover games and nights where his shot isn't falling. His size will leave him vulnerable against certain point guards. His work ethic, competitive nature, and ability to get to the free throw line should be insurance against any truly disastrous games, but I didn't want my glowing comments from before to be read that I think Flynn's just going to hit the ground running and never look back.

Cleveland A Lot, Boston A Little

I didn't even bother watching Sunday's bloodbath in Cleveland. A great final round of the Masters was underway, and with the score 31-9 after the first period, I couldn't justify it. The skirmish between Ray Allen and Anderson Varejao was of mild interest (and which will cost Allen one game), and it sounded like Cleveland did some flexing that wasn't unnoticed on the Boston bench. At any rate, it's not something I'm too worried about.

I'm still worried about Kevin Garnett, with the news that he won't play tonight vs. Philadelphia or Wednesday vs. Washington. The way his return has been aborted and then continually pushed back just makes me feel uneasy.

Speaking of tonight's game in Philly, the result could have serious implications for who Boston plays in the first round. The Sixers are currently a half-game back of Chicago for sixth place, meaning they'd face Boston if the playoffs started today. Should the Sixers and Bulls end up with the same record, however, Philadelphia has the tiebreaker by virture of a slightly better conference record (the teams split four matchups during the regular season). A Philly win tonight means they control their own destiny on Wednesday at Cleveland (the Cavs have already clinched homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs); a loss and Chicago can claim the #6 seed (and a first-round playoff series with the banged-up Orlando Magic).

As I've previously mentioned, I'd rather play Chicago in a first round series. The Sixers have some recent playoff experience and actually play a little defense, two things that don't describe the Bulls. I'm not saying that we should or will go out and try to lose, but keeping the starters' minutes down at the expense of a loss tonight wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Boston 105, Miami 98

The Celtics were once again a little shaky in the fourth, but made the necessary plays in the final minutes and won their sixth straight.

[recap] [box score]

Cleveland's win over Philadelphia clinched home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs (and LA's loss at Portland gives them a leg up on securing homecourt for the Finals, should they get there). However, Boston's win combined with Orlando's surprising loss to New York in the Magic Kingdom gave the Celtics a leg up on the second seed in the East. Boston leads Orlando by two games, and if I understand my tiebreakers correctly, the "magic number" is one: Any Boston win or Orlando loss in the season's final three games gives Boston the #2.

Next game is Sunday, Cleveland, at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC. I have a feeling that Doc Rivers is going to play this game down, as he has with any "big" matchup all year -- for Doc, all regular season games are worth the same. I think that's probably the smart play, particularly in this case. The Celtics likely won't need the game for seeding purposes. It's best not to over-extend this late in the season, and there's some psychological risk in going all-out in this game and not quite getting there. On the other hand, a victory, on Cleveland's home floor, without Kevin Garnett, could be damaging to the Cavs, especially if the Celtics are treating it like any other game. The Cavs have been nearly invincible at home, losing only to the Lakers so far, and realizing their own basketball mortality might have a negative impact.

Or it might not. I'm grasping at straws a bit. Cleveland's really good this year.

Speaking of Garnett, the word is that he'll play in the season finale on Wednesday.

Boston 104, Atlanta 92

So much for the Hawks.

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After a young Atlanta took the eventual world champs to seven games in the first round of last year's playoffs, the Hawks were lauded as up-and-comers in the East. And while they still have a pretty good hold on the fourth seed and thus a first-round playoff series at home, they hardly seem like a team that can challenge any of the Eastern conference's best three teams when the playoffs begin in a couple weeks.

Friday night's win over the brooding Hawks marked a season sweep for the Celtics, and came (again) without the services of Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe. The final margin was only 12 points, but it got to 20 in the fourth quarter, and it was the kind of game where the outcome never seemed in doubt in the second half.

Major credit goes to our undermanned frontcourt. Our three frontcourt players had great games: 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 blocks for Kendrick Perkins; 19 points for Glen Davis; 9 points and 6 boards off the bench for Mikki Moore. These guys played Al Horford and Josh Smith to a stalemate, and Perk anchored a defense that held Atlanta to 35.6 percent shooting. Defensively, let's also give some credit to Ray Allen, who did a great job of checking Joe Johnson. Johnson, you may recall, gave the Celtics all sorts of problems in last year's postseason.

Four days off now until our next game on Wednesday against New Jersey. The peculiarities of the NBA schedule give us a very light slate the rest of the way. So while the other teams are beating each other up, we can rest a little bit and try to get everyone healthy.

Speaking of "beating each other up," third-place Orlando clobbered first-place Cleveland on national TV last night, the kind of loss that made the Cavs, now losers of two straight after a franchise-best 13 consectuive wins, seem mortal in a way they hadn't before. The Cavs still have a vise grip on the Eastern Conference's top seed, so Boston would actually like to see Orlando losing more down the stretch than Cleveland.

Speaking of the playoffs, I've been thinking for a while now that with Detroit's struggles this season, the Celtics might have to go through Detroit, Orlando, and Cleveland to reach the Finals, quite a gauntlet. This group of Pistons have a championship ring, have gone to six consecutive Eastern Conference finals, and now have Allen Iverson, the kind of player you never want to go against in a playoff series.

Or, I should say, had Allen Iverson. The Pistons announced yesterday that Iverson would miss the rest of the season with his back injury, though there's plenty of speculation that The Answer's discontent at coming off of the bench played a role in this decision. Whatever the reason, Detroit now induces less fear, and Boston may not even have to worry about them; Saturday's loss to Philadelphia (in which the Sixers clinched a playoff spot) put the Pistons in eighth place in the East, half a game back of Chicago and two ahead of Charlotte.

Boston 105, Cleveland 94

Best win of the year.


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In a game that Boston essentially needed to win to stay alive for home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs, they could not have played much better on either end of the floor.


Defensively, they frustrated LeBron James, holding him to 5-for-15 shooting and forcing him into four turnovers. Beyond those numbers, though, James looked uncomfortable the entire evening, unassertive. It was the same defensive scheme more or less contained James during much of last year's epic Eastern Conference finals. I can't remember watching a game where James played this ineffectively.


Offensively, they shot better than 54 percent against what was the league's stingiest field goal percentage defense (Boston is now a tenth of a percentage point better in that category), and assisted on 31 of 45 baskets. Paul Pierce led the way with 29 points and nine assists, but it was Leon Powe's best game of the year -- 20 points, 11 rebounds off the bench -- that keyed the victory.


Powe, along with Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis, just played harder and tougher than Cleveland's frontline the entire evening. It was the same kind of thing we saw against the Lakers in last year's Finals. The difference, however, is that guys like Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, while highly skilled, have something of a "soft" reputation. Cleveland's frontline, especially Anderson Varejao and the newly-reacquired Joe Smith, is a physical group that doesn't get outworked very often. Yes, the Cavs were without a key piece of that frontline, Ben Wallace, but his absence is more than balanced -- much more than balanced -- by the fact that his opposite number, Kevin Garnett, was missing from the Celtics' lineup.


No Garnett. His replacement (Davis) ejected in the third quarter for a flagrant-two on Varejao. A Rajon Rondo slowed by an ankle injury suffered early in the game. Twelve free throw attempts to Cleveland's 38.


And a relatively comfortable 11-point victory.


Boston's next game is another big test with playoff implications, a home date with Orlando on Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern (no national TV).

Boston 115, New Jersey 111

It's good to pull out a win in a game we almost gave away, but we really can't be happy with the way we're playing right now.

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Boston's defense tonight was as bad as I've seen it in last season-plus (and I've seen nearly every game during that time). The numbers don't quite show it -- New Jersey shot just under 50 percent from the field -- but trust me, it was terrible, at least until the last couple crucial possessions. In particular, there were several occasions where Nets, notably Vince Carter, encountered nary a green-jerseyed help defender on drives to the basket that originated from outside the three-point arc.

Three offensive stars for the Celtics in this game -- four if you count Ray Allen, who tied the game at 111 with a three-pointer on a well-drawn up play after Boston had squandered a 12-point fourth quarter lead:

-Paul Pierce had 31 points on 12-of-14 from the field, and contributed another cold-blooded game-winner;

-Rajon Rondo, who had 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter; and

-Kendrick Perkins, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds in his first really strong game since Kevin Garnett was injured on February 19 against Utah. Perk had nine points in the third quarter -- he and Rondo did most of the scoring in that period -- and recorded his lone block of the game on a Devin Harris layup attempt with 45 seconds remaining and the score tied after Allen's three-pointer.

Boston escaped in this one and will have to play worlds better when they host Cleveland on Friday (viewing alert: 8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN). The Cavs, who like the Celtics clinched a playoff berth with a win Wednesday night, lead the Eastern conference by one game. The teams have split two meetings thus far, with a fourth and final showdown (until the playoffs, and probably the Eastern finals) scheduled for April 12 in Cleveland. It's bad luck that it appears that the Celtics won't have Garnett -- not to mention Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine -- in the home leg of those two games, as the Cavs are nearly unbeatable at Quicken Loans Arena (27-1 on the year, and the tiebreaker for home court advantage, should the teams finish the regular season with the same overall record, is head-to-head record. Since Boston, even at full strength, cannot reasonably expect to win in Cleveland on a given night, home court may be at stake on Friday night.* And given that Boston, even at full strength, cannot expect to win in Cleveland on a given night, home court advantage might very well decide who represents the East in the Finals.

So yeah, Friday's kind of a big game.

*I don't know what the next tiebreaker is if two teams end up with the same overall record and split the head-to-head series. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate hearing; it may be that it's something that Cleveland has the advantage in, anyway.

San Antonio 105, Boston 99

Kind of a surprising game yesterday.

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I'm not used to seeing that kind of intensity, particulary on the defensive end, from San Antonio on the defensive end. I'm not used to the Celtics -- not these Celtics, anyway -- losing games when they're up three and the ball with a minute to play. And I'm certainly not used to seeing Matt Bonner score 23 points.

As always, I'm (reluctantly) impressed with the Spurs. So good defensively when they apply themselves like they did against us, and a seemingly endless roster of unflappable players who step up in big moments. Rookie George Hill, out of IUPUI, had all seven of his points in the fourth quarter. Bonner pulled the Spurs to within one late, after which Roger Mason Jr. - who is making a habit of these things - drained a leaning three-ball to take the lead for good.

The one thing I didn't like too much about this game was that I thought Paul Pierce really forced the offense, particlarly late in the third and early in the fourth when he was playing with the second string. He's obviously the man in that spot and we need scoring from him, but he's gotta recognize that teams are focused on him in those situations, and a good defense team like the Spurs won't let him get in the lane. I also with we'd stop running that set where he posts up on the same latitudinal line as Rajon Rondo, 15 feet from the basket on the opposite elbow, and Rondo loops the ball to him. That's a pass that's just waiting to get stolen in a big moment. It's long, slow, loopy -- and wost of all, easy to see coming.

We lost a chance to pick up a game on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the race for Eastern supremacy (and homecourt advantage through the Eastern Conference finals). The Los Angeles Lakers dealt the Cavs their first home loss of the season, and this is about the only time it's' acceptable to be happy about a Lakers win. LA picked up another win against us for home court should we both make the Finals, but I still think that the loss of Andrew Bynum is enough to keep up with the win pace of the elite Eastern teams.

Two off days now before a New Orleans-Dallas back-to-back in advance of the All-Star Game. It's the start of a six-game road trip. The Mavs game is on TNT on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. Eastern.

Cleveland 98, Boston 83

Hopefully, this is rock-bottom.

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The Xs and Os of basketball are what I find most interesting about the game, but the Celtics' recent struggles are as much about what is going on inside their heads as what is happening out on the court. So today, after an embarrassing loss to our chief Eastern Conference rivals dropping us to 2-7 over our last nine games, we're talking about psychology.

Not that I'm terribly qualified to do so. I only know what I know about the psyches of professional athletes from watching and reading about sports. Also, you should know my own mindset. While I've had some hysterical moments during this stretch, the more I think about it, the less concerned I am. If we were favored to win the East or the NBA this year at all, it wasn't by much, and I ultimately don't think that's changed much -- we're certainly not favored now, but I think the true odds really haven't moved, other than Cleveland being a bit better than expected. In other words, I don't think this game has revealed a fatal flaw in the team. We're just not playing well right now.

It is uncontroversial to say that professional athletes are some of the most confident -- and probably over-confident -- people in the world. No one is successful every time out, and athletes' failures are broadcast across the globe, their missteps and disappointments broadcast for millions to see. In order to succeed as a professional athlete, you cannot think you will fail. Every time out, you need to think you'll win.

A natural consequence of this, then, is that it sometimes takes athletes a long time to acknowledge when something is wrong. Because a drop in confidence can be so devastating, pro athletes are often reticent to admit when things aren't going well. On those ubiquitous NBA ads with snippets from many of Kevin Garnett's press conferences last year, you do hear KG talking a lot about the Celtics' imperfections: "We're not a flawless team, we're a team in progress." Easy to say when you're on your way to 66-16 and a championship. It may appear to be a paradox, but you'll hear that sort of self-evaluation from teams far more often when things are going well than when things are going poorly. It's a guard against over-confidence, just as stubbornly pushing aside concerns with "We'll be fine" when the chips are down is a guard against, well, under-confidence.

Keeping that in mind, it's a bit easier to understand the team's recent struggles and not panic. After the Christmas Day loss to the Lakers, I'm sure there were many who thought that the Celtics would come out the next night against Golden State and take their frustrations out on the Warriors. If Boston was a college or high-school team, that might well have been the case; the coach would have lit a fire under the kids on the practice floor the next day, and they would have come out ready to pulverize the other team.

Alas, the Celtics are in the NBA, and in the NBA, you follow up a Christmas Day loss in LA with a short evening flight to Oakland, away from home for the holidays, and you don't get a chance to practice before the next day's game. And maybe you come out and the other team gets hot and you give away a late lead and now, after winning 19 in a row, you've lost two straight.

At that point, you might get concerned, except that you go out two nights later and beat Sacramento by 45 on their home court. Sure, it's Sacramento, but still, it's 45 points. Everything seems back to normal. Sure, it's concerning when you drop the next game at Portland, but another blowout win, this one vs. Washington by 25 points, gets rid of those concerns, at least temporarily.

Losses at the Knicks and Bobcats are puzzling, but those teams are pests, annoyances not worth worrying about. You won't have to worry about them down the road. Besides, none of these losses have come at home.

Then, the very next night, you're out there on your home floor, playing a good Houston team, and you have a lead heading into the fourth quarter, and even though you can't throw it in the ocean during that period, you have a one-point lead and the ball late, but you don't score, and then someone named Von Wafer his a three, and you don't score again, and you lose.

Hmmm.

And then last night. Outworked and outplayed for 48 minutes (save a short stretch at the start of the third quarter) by the team that took you to seven games in last year's Eastern Conference finals and is your likely opponent in that series again this season.

The point I'm trying to make -- and I'm not sure I'm doing it well -- is that while a lot of observers have spotted that something was lacking in the team's effort and intensity earlier (perhaps prematurely), it makes sense that the team might not have recognized it as quickly. It's easy to explain away losses to New York and Charlotte in the middle of an 82-game season; no one is perfect every night, and anyway, the wins over Sacto and Washington prove that everything's fine. It's harder to write off the home loss to Houston and the blowout loss to Cleveland.

To wrap this up, then, perhaps now is the time that the team acknowledges that something's a little bit off. Something clearly is off; we aren't playing with the swagger we used to have, nor the energy and intensity. The swagger probably won't come until the wins come again, which won't come until we get our energy and intensity back (and start making a few shots). Our next game is Sunday, at Toronto, and that the Raptors are playing well, having won four of their last five, is probably a good thing. We'll have to play well to beat them, and we know that. A close, hard-fought win would be better than a blowout win, in my opinion. We need to come out and win a game in the way we should have won against Houston, I think, in order to get back on track.

And now for something completely different...me bitching about one officiating thing (which had no effect on the outcome of the game), because I didn't get it out of my system yesterday:

LeBron James goes 6'8" and a listed 250 pounds (he's probably heavier, and it's all muscle). He moves like a guard. He can put it on the deck, and he can shoot the jumper. He has a combination of power and quickness that is unparalleled, not just in today's NBA, but in league history.

He's as unguardable a guy as I have ever seen or ever anticipate seeing. But he will really be unguardable if officials keep letting him get away with carrying the basketball the way he does.

NBA rules have evolved -- or devolved, as the case may be -- over the years. It's no secret that the traveling rules, for example, aren't enforced nearly as strongly as they are written.

I remember carrying -- or palming -- being controversial back when guys like Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson were young. The way those two violate this rule is different than the way LeBron violates it, though. They use a hesitation dribble -- Marbury's is the best I've ever seen -- and in doing so, they let the ball stop on one hand while they shimmy their bodies to fake out the defender, then explode forward once they have the defender leaning. That's an unfair advantage, but they aren't advancing the ball while they do it.

LeBron, on the other hand, carries the ball on his crossover dribble. The risk of a crossover is, of course, that you have to put the ball out in front of the defender, where he might poke it away. LeBron gets away with not having to do that, putting his hand under the ball and bringing it all the way across his body before dropping it to the floor again. (I'm sure other players do this, too, but they aren't as difficult to guard as LeBron is). I have a friend whose crossover looks like this, and it's a good thing he can't finish, because you can't call palming in a pickup game, but you can't really stop this move, either.

I haven't noticed the hesitation stuff as much lately, which suggests to me that the league has made the necessary moves to eliminate it. This is the next step.

*I've been using ESPN.com links for recaps and boxscores. I've switched to Yahoo!, because ESPN recaps have a highlight reel that 1) may surprise people who are reading Rhymes With Hondo at work with the volume on their computer up and 2) being ESPN, has an advertisement at the beginning. However, the highlight reel has value, so I've decided to make a third link to the ESPN.com game story a regular part of my recap postings from this point forward. If you want the highlights, click that one (you can get to the box score easily from there); if you want to avoid the sound and the ads (or ESPN.com in general on principle, a defensible position), use the other two links.

Viewing Alert

Huge game tonight, as Boston travels to Cleveland to take on the East-leading Cavs. It's on ESPN at 8 p.m. Eastern. This has major implications for our mindset, as well as the Eastern Conference in general.

I didn't watch Tuesday's overtime loss at Charlotte. I had been out with some old co-workers and when I got back, I couldn't bear the thought of two-and-a-half hours of us losing to the Bobcats. I did catch Tuesday's 89-85 defeat at home against Tracy McGrady-less Houston.

I'm stumped as to why we're losing suddenly, six of eight after such an incredible start. I haven't been watching as much or as closely over the past few weeks because of all the running around I've done on winter break, but I'm coming up empty trying to think of reasons why we aren't scoring and aren't stopping people. I really thought we had the Rockets after Garnett made that great dish to Rajon Rondo (you can see it at the end of the highlight reel in the game link, above) and then blocked a shot on the other end. But we couldn't take advantage on the other end, and Houston's Von Wafer hit the game-winning three.

I was disappointed in our effort down the stretch in that one, partially because we failed to protect homecourt, and partially because we got outplayed by an inferior team down the stretch (for the last few minutes, the Rockets were without McGrady and Ron Artest, who fouled out). It's especially concerning because the game was an intense one; a couple typically hard Artest fouls on Paul Pierce made sure of that.

I really don't know what to expect tonight out of the Cs. I want to say they'll come out and play a great game, but there's something going on besides mindset. They can't still be in a funk from the loss to the Lakers. They've had plenty of opportunity over these last eight games to rebound, and they haven't done it. It's not a matter of just showing up and willing themselves to play well. It's more than that. And they're going to have to bring their very best tonight if they want to win in Cleveland.

Boston 108, Sacramento 63

Not a whole lot to say substantively on a night when the Kings couldn't hit Mexico if they fell out of Texas.

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I don't take much joy in embarassing hapless Sacto on its homecourt, not when two of my favorite non-Celtic NBA players, Beno Udrih and Donte' Greene, play for them. They are without Kevin Martin, who is clearly their best player, and his backup, Francisco Garcia, didn't play the second half because of an injury. Neither guy is likely to have mattered tonight, but still, as blowouts go, given that we had just lost two in a row, this one could have been expected.

However, I will note the following: With 3:12 to go in the game and the score 104-58, Kings rookie Jason Thompson went to the line for a couple of free throws. At that moment, it occurred to me that Sacramento had not yet scored the number of points that Boston had scored in the first half (it was 59-34 at the break). When Thompson missed both freebies, I allowed myself the thought that perhaps the Kings would go scoreless the rest of the way, and we'd have scored all the points we needed to score in the first half. Alas, 34 seconds later, Quincy Douby knocked down a couple from the line, and there went that.

Still, it got me thinking a little bit about this, and whether it's ever happened in NBA history, or, say, the shot-clock era, to make it easier. More specifically, I noted that when Kevin Garnett knocked down a 22-footer to make it 64-34 with 10:38 left in the third quarter, Boston had scored every point it needed to score the rest of the game. The Cs could have gone scoreless for more than 22 and a half minutes and still theoretically have won.

I'm keenly interested in this stat for some reason, at least for the time being. Preliminarily, let's call it Time To Winning Points (TTWP). The Celtics' TTWP against the Kings was 25:22. Because I have no way of going back and figuring it out myself, I'm calling it a record and will be monitoring it via NBA boxscores for the rest of the season, and, perhaps, eternity. If someone with access to the Stats, Inc., database wants to check to see where Boston's accomplishment ranks all-time, or wants to email John Hollinger and bug him to do it, I'd be very interested in the results.

Note: After I wrote this, I went back and read some old posts, and realized that last year's 104-59 win over the Knicks was a good candidate for a game with a better TTWP than this one. However, a Ray Allen triple with 10:04 left in the third quarter gave us a 60-31 lead, making our TTWP for that game 25:56, 34 seconds longer than tonight against Sacto. The record stands!

-I want to take a moment to reflect on the Golden State loss, which came as a disappiontment, though not necessarily a surprise, when I saw the score in my grandmother's living room on Saturday morning. I was worried about that one, because I figured we'd have a big letdown after the Lakers game and maybe wouldn't be all that "up" for the Warriors, who like to go up and down and whose arena can be a nightmare for visiting teams. I figured we might get behind early and never really challenge, or maybe keep it close (Golden State's defense is horrible, so it's hard to fall too far behind) but not have anything left for a big push.

I was not expecting, however, to lose an eight-point fourth-quarter lead that had been as big as 14 in the second half.

Everyone seemed to chalk it up to being tired, but I just don't know. It's hard to say for sure without having watched the game, but it seems just as likely to me that this was just one of those days, one of those games that happens over the course of an 82-game season. And I know Perk didn't play (he aggravated his shoulder injury against LA), but you don't need a lot of size against Golden State, and it seems that it wasn't their inside guys who hurt us; the damage was done on the perimeter.

I said at the beginning of the season and have reiterated throughout that I don't mind losing to teams we won't have to worry about during the playoffs. I was taking for granted, however, that we'd earn home court advantage. After all, we just set the record for best 29-game start in NBA history; who'd have thought that Cleveland would match us nearly win-for-win and we'd gain all of one game on the Cavs during our 19-game winning streak? The bottom line is that these losses against the Woyas and the Pacers and the Nuggets become increasingly important now that the Cavs, who stand at 26-4 to our 28-4, seem poised to make their own run at history. The Cavs are good enough this year that home court advantage could well decide a playoff series with them, so every game matters.

To that end, then, it would be nice, rest of the NBA, if you'd stop giving away games to the Cavs at home. Cleveland beat Miami Sunday night to move to 16-0 at the Q; the Heat had a nine-point lead heading into the fourth quarter and lost by seven. And this came on the heels of the Christmas Day game with Washington, when the lowly Wizards couldn't hold on to a seven-point lead with 1:39 to go, surrendering the game's final 11 points in a 93-89 loss. Watching that one after seeing Boston lose to LA was pretty sick.

-Speaking of the Warriors, which I was a few paragraphs ago, I'm sure there are some Lakers fans who would like to point out that those Warriors got crushed at Staples Center tonight, 130-113. Lest they get too excited, however, I'd like to remind them that LA's third loss of the season was to...the Kings, 113-101, and Sacto didn't have Martin in that one, either.

Next game is Tuesday, December 30, at Portland (10 pm Eastern, no national TV). I'll be in Atlanta for a wedding, but should be able to watch the game and post about it at some point on the 31st.

Viewing Alert

Thursday if the first night of a national TV back-to-back for the Cs. Eight p.m. Eastern at Washington, on TNT.

The Wizards suck -- to be fair, they've had some injuries -- but they sucked last year and that didn't stop us from going 1-3 against them (after blowing them out in the season-opener). We never play well in Washington, but hopefully last year caught our attention and we'll come out focused and do what we need to tonight.

Those who don't follow the NBA should know that the Cleveland Cavaliers, our chief rivals in the East, are apparently playing out of their minds right now. Sure, they only have a ten-game winning streak to our twelve-gamer, but over that stretch, they are just eviscerating people, winning by an average margin of 20 points per game. Granted, the nine teams they've beaten over that stretch (they had the Knicks twice). That's a huge margin in this league, and people are taking notice. My daily newsletter from NBA.com had this story that mentioned the Cavs as contenders for the magical 70-win mark.

Allow me, however, to temper Cavs' fans enthusiasm just a bit: Of the nine teams the Cavs have beaten during their streak (they had the Knicks twice), only one (Atlanta, at 12-9) has a winning record. Collectively, the group is 72-116, a winning percentage of .383. While the Celtics' victims during their current streak haven't exactly been world beaters (.438) winning percentage, we have beaten Orlando (third-best record in the East); Portland (fourth-best record in the West); and Detroit (11-9).

We've had some close games; Cleveland hasn't. The streaks are comparable. I'm not ready to hand over the crown yet, nor am I prepared to say that either team has a good probability of 70 wins. There's a reason it's only happened once. Too much has to go right, and you have to bring it every night. Just a few weeks ago there was talk of the Lakers getting 70, but they went out and lost to the Pacers and then the Kings. The league is too good right now, in my opinion, for a team to hit that mark.