Does this even count?

Fielding a team with only nine healthy players (including six who have played in the D-League this season), the Miami Heat didn't put up much of a fight against the Celtics last night at the Garden, losing 88-62.

Miami (13-60) was held to 17 field goals, a record low in the shot clock era. 18 points in the third quarter was the high for the Heat in this one.

Boston (58-15) played well early and got the starters out before anyone was hurt. Leon Powe came off the bench with a game-high 17 points and 13 rebounds. Kevin Garnett had 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists in 22 minutes while Paul Pierce and Ray Allen both scored 10 points. Sam Cassell had nine points and Rajon Rondo added eight.

Ricky Davis and Chris Quinn (8 assists) led the Heat with 14 points apiece while Blake Ahearn notched 12 points in the loss.

The Celts magic number is now three, to secure the top seed in the Eastern Conference and home-court throughout the playoffs. Boston is six games up on Detroit with each team having nine games remaining.

This contest was never in question as Boston jumped out to a 32-13 lead after the first quarter and 50-30 at the half.

The Celtics travel to Chicago tomorrow night to take on the Bulls, who are out of the playoff picture and most likely will stay that way.

Bring on the Washington Generals

With last night's 112-92 win over the New Orleans Hornets at the Garden, the Boston Celtics (57-15) have now beaten every team in the NBA this season. They join the Utah Jazz as so far, the only two teams to have accomplished that impressive feat.

Paul Pierce flirted with a triple-double, 27 points, nine assists and six rebounds, Kevin Garnett had 21 points, 13 rebounds and four assists. Rajon Rondo scored 17 points with four assists, once again holding his own against MVP candidate Chris Paul.

The Celts blew out New Orleans (49-22) in the second half, outscoring them 56-32. Paul led the Hornets with 22 points, 10 assists and three steals. Peja Stojakovic had 17 points, David West was held to 14 (after torching Boston for 37 last Saturday), Tyson Chandler had 11 points and eight boards while Bonzi Wells had 13 points and seven rebounds.

New Orleans actually led 60-56 at the half but completely fell apart in the second half and couldn't match the C's superior defense.

Leon Powe was still hot with 12 points and seven boards while Ray Allen added 12 points.

Boston shot 59.5% as a team, holding New Orleans to 43.6%. The C's were great at the line (20 of 22) while the Hornets (15 of 26) left something to be desired. The glass was owned by Boston (40-29) and they had nine more assists (26-17). Amazingly, New Orleans had only seven turnovers for the game and Boston had six.

This was the last marquee game of the regular season for the Celts. The remaining ten games are against mostly weak teams in the Eastern Conference. The Miami Heat-who can hardly be termed an NBA squad these days-limp to the Garden on Sunday for their expected beating.

Celtics smoke Suns with spectacular second half

The Boston Celtics proved once again that they're the best team in the NBA, defeating the Phoenix Suns, 117-97 last night at the TD Banknorth Garden.

A game that was tied at 57 at the half was blown open as the Celts (56-15) locked down the Suns (47-24) in the second half, outscoring them 60-40.

All five Boston starters scored at least 13 points, led by Kevin Garnett's 30 points, six assists, two steals and two blocks and Paul Pierce's 27 points, six rebounds and four assists. KG was the constant force all night while Pierce heated up in the fourth to put it away.

Ray Allen added 14 points and eight assists while Rajon Rondo notched 14 points, six rebounds and six assists. Kendrick Perkins did a good job guarding Shaq and posted 13 points and 10 boards.

For Phoenix, Amare Stoudemire led the way with 32 points (22 in the first half) and six rebounds while Boris Diaw had 15 points, five rebounds and five assists. Shaq was actually pretty decent with 16 points and seven boards while Steve Nash was held to 12 points and nine assists. Raja Bell (5), Grant Hill (4) and Leandro Barbosa (2) were all MIA as they combined for 11 points.

Even with the addition of Shaq, the Suns still don't stand much of a chance of winning that elusive title. They have too many terrible defenders (Nash and Amare) that they need out there for their scoring.

The difference between the teams was pretty clear as the Celtics can play some defense while the Suns can't. That's one of the C's greatest strengths, they can adapt to whatever style they face this season and still win.

Phoenix shot 55.9% and still lost by 20 which is hard to do. Boston was 52.3% but they made five more free throws and outrebounded Phoenix by 14 (41-27), including 13 more offensive boards (17-4). The Suns also turned it over 21 times leading to 30 Celtics points. You're never going to beat Boston when you turn it over that much.

It was a nice win for Boston after two consecutive losses. Next, New Orleans comes into the Garden Friday. The Hornets are the only team the Celtics haven't beaten this season (although they've only played that one game). New Orleans won another close one last night in Cleveland as David West hit a jumper with less than a second left. Tomorrow night should be great.

Harden excels before inevitable DL trip

The second Red Sox-A's game in Japan wasn't much of a contest as Rich Harden completely outpitched Jon Lester in a 5-1 A's win.

The injury-prone Harden pitched six innings, giving up only three hits, one run, three walks and striking out nine. When healthy, he is one of the top pitchers in baseball but that has been a big if as he's missed most of the last two seasons with injuries.

Lester (as he is prone to do) got into too many jams, walked too many guys and eventually left too early. Hopefully, he can curb this problem early in his promising MLB career but this is almost all we've seen since he debuted two summers ago. Lester went four innings, giving up five hits, four runs, three walks and four strikeouts.

The big hit of the game was provided by Emil Brown (surprise!), who cranked a three-run homer of Lester in the third. Manny had a solo homer in the sixth off Harden but that was about the only highlight for the Sox from the game.

Former Red Sox Keith Foulke and Alan Embree combined to pitch the final two scoreless innings for the A's, kicking a little more dirt on the Sox's grave. Oh well, the odds of both of those guys lasting through the year without getting injured are slim at best.

So now, the teams come back to the United States and have another exhibition series with other teams before meeting in Oakland next Tuesday for another Opening Day, kind of. The memories from the last two days will last Red Sox fans a lifetime, or maybe until next week. Who knows.

A Manny For All Lands

It figures that Manny Ramirez seemed to be least effected by the change in scenery for the Red Sox season-opener in Japan. We've known for a long time that Manny is not from this planet.

Down 2-0 to the A's in the first then 4-3 going into the ninth, the Sox were bailed out by rookie Brandon Moss, who hit a tying home-run off closer Huston Street. Moss was a last minute addition to the lineup after J.D. Drew hurt his back in warmups (too easy).

That laid the groundwork for a crazy 10th. First, Manny added his second two-run double of the game (but thinking it was gone, he stood and admired it at home plate). Papelbon came on for the save but was shaky as the A's kept getting on. He lucked out when Emil Brown doubled but tried to advance to third. He was promptly gunned down.

Oakland's next batter got a hit (meaning Brown would have tied the game) but Papelbon eventually got Kaz Suzuki to ground out to end it.

Not surprisingly after the game, Manny was named MVP-which in Japan is accompanied by a check for a million yen (10,000 dollars). A man could get used to that.

Dice-K was brutal through two innings, needing 60 pitches to get the weak A's lineup out. He somewhat settled down, going five innings, giving up two runs, two hits, five walks and six strikeouts. He gave up a solo homer to Mark Ellis.

We'll give him a pass since it was opening day and the pressure he faced coming back to Japan was insane.

Dustin Pedroia-hitting leadoff-had two hits and Moss had two hits and two RBIs. The home run was the first of his major league career. Jacoby Ellsbury made a sweet catch in center in the eighth.

Oakland third baseman Jack Hannahan hit a two-run bomb off Kyle Snyder in the sixth, giving the lead back to the A's.

Hideki Okajima got the win after pitching a scoreless ninth before his old home fans.

The win was a nice, albeit strange way to start the 2008 season.

What the phuck!

I admit, I didn't see much of the Celtics-Sixers game last night. Every time I paid attention, Boston seemed to have a comfortable 6-12 point lead. I thought it was in the bag.

Obviously, I was surprised when I looked up late in the fourth and saw the Celtics were down eight. The Sixers held on to win 95-90 at the TD Banknorth Garden. Philly (36-35) put it away by going on a 19-0 run in the fourth that the Celts (55-15) couldn't recover from.

The 76ers love to run and they've been playing really well lately with Andre Iguodala (game-high 28 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals) and Andre Miller (20 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists) setting the tone. Rookie Thaddeus Young (16 points, 9 rebounds) and Samuel Dalembert (12 rebounds) also contributed to the win.

Amazingly, this is the first time all season Philly has been over .500. They could be dangerous in the Eastern Conference playoffs (something you can't say of some of the teams jockeying for the 6-8th spots). The Sixers could end up as high as fifth seed.

Kevin Garnett (18 points, 5 rebounds) played well but the same can't be said for the rest of his teammates, except for Leon Powe (16 points and 7 rebounds in 22 minutes). Ray Allen was held to 14 points (6 assists) and Paul Pierce only managed 12 points. Rajon Rondo had seven assists and three steals but just six points, way down from his recent scoring binge. Eddie House added 11 points in the loss.

The C's led 28-22 after the first quarter and 52-48 at the half. After beating the Sixers in all three of their earlier meetings, the Celts seemed to be in good shape. Boston outscored Philly, 19-18 in the third but they crashed and burned in the fourth, getting dominated, 29-19.

The stat of the game was the 76ers advantage at the line: 15 more free throws made (30-15). Philly also outrebounded Boston by eight (42-34) which nullified the Celts crisp passing (28 assists on 34 baskets).

Boston has now lost two in a row, a rare occurrence this season. They'll have their hands full on Wednesday too as the Phoenix Suns (who had won seven in a row before losing to the Pistons in OT last night) come to Boston. The C's will be looking to knock off the Suns after Phoenix beat Boston on its West Coast trip (right after they acquired Shaq).

Are you ready for some baseball? Me neither.

With March Madness heading into the Sweet 16 and the NBA regular season ending soon, who has had time to notice baseball?

The fact that the Boston Red Sox won the World Series last fall and start this season with two games in Japan vs. the A's (tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.) makes it feel like the off-season flew by.

Don't get me wrong, I love baseball. It's just that it doesn't feel like baseball time on March 25. I think baseball really arrives when the weather in the barren Northeast cracks 60 degrees regularly and every other sport has wound down.

Nothing says summer like watching a baseball game on TV with your favorite beverage. Or even better, attending said game in shorts and a t-shirt (what a concept). Although, the first month of the baseball season is truly the only time you care about your fantasy team until you quickly realize they're hopeless.
I'm not going to do a straight team preview-mostly because I'm sick and my mind is too clouded to think of anything half-original.

I will say that I think baseball is the hardest professional sport (currently) to repeat as champions. Sure, the NFL-the model of parity-can make that claim too but no season is as chock full of unexpected injuries, slumps and breakout seasons as baseball. We can agree a 162-game regular season is crazy, right?

With all that said, the Sox enter this season with probably the best chance in my lifetime to repeat. They brought back nearly every influential piece of last season's team while addressing minor needs (getting rid of Mirabelli and picking up Sean Casey).

It seems to have the perfect blend of youth (Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Bucholz), superstars (David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Josh Beckett) and veterans (Mike Lowell, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek).

Sure expectations are at a nearly unreachable level (World Series or bust!) but how many times do you go into a season this loaded with so few questions. The Boston Red Sox enter the 2008 season as the team to beat in MLB. It's all come full circle.

With cold medicine hopefully in full effect, I probably won't make the 6:07 a.m. first pitch tomorrow morning with Dice-K on the mound but when the Sox come back to the States on April 1st (for the A's home-opener), give me a call.