Celtics coach Doc Rivers would have been entitled to skip last night's game in New Jersey. Spending the day at his father's funeral, 1000 miles away from the Meadowlands, he was fully prepared to call it a day and watch his team on TV. But his mom told him that Dad would have wanted him on the sideline, so Doc caught a charter flight and walked into the C's locker room an hour before game time.

"Everybody perked up like little kids when their pops comes through the door. It was a cool moment," said Kevin Garnett. And the team responded, putting clamps, ropes and barbed wire around the Nets in the 3rd quarter for a 112-101 win and a 5-0 start.

Pierce: 28 points. Ray Allen: 27 points. Garnett: 18, with 14 rebounds. Villagers: fleeing from Ghidorah. Even Glen "Big Baby" Davis got into the act, getting quality minutes for the first time and using them to score six points and collect eight rebounds.

Doc immediately flew back from Jersey to Chicago to spend a couple more days with his mom, then will be back on the sideline Tuesday in Indiana. And this train will continue to be bound for glory.

The Bruins won! Tim Thomas, realizing that his allowing two goals per game wasn't cutting it, instead allowed only one goal. A shorthanded goal by Buffalo's Daniel Paille. Sheesh. We hope the Bruins' skaters take Tim Thomas out for steak after some of these games. But they picked him up, with Chuck Kobasew hitting the game-winner thirty-two seconds later.

BC? Forget it. They lost to Maryland. #1 Ohio State lost too, though, so college football this season makes even less sense than usual.

Image from Celtics.com.