You'll have to forgive the Celtics if they felt like they arrived in Portland having lurched their way up the Oregon Trail. Three losses in a row doesn't quite compare to running out of buffalo meat and spilling a wagon into the Big Blue River, but combine that with the debacle in Phoenix, and you can understand why some of the team felt like they died of cholera.

Things reached the lowest of the low points early in Portland; the C's trailed by 16 after one quarter and 17 midway through the second. But then something happened. The defense tightened up big-time. Pierce and Allen started hitting everything. And it was down to seven at halftime. Then the C's blew the Blazers off the court in the second half, beating them 32-17 in the third (almost a reversal of the first). Pierce led the team with 30, and Posey and House played the kind of sterling benchwork that got the Celts cruising in November. The East is getting very interesting; the Pistons incinerated Phoenix yesterday, trail the C's by a game and a half, and come to Boston next Wednesday.

It's not quite Skipper For Life, but Terry Francona got a very nice vote of confidence from the Sox yesterday, signing a three-year extention that will keep Tito in comfy red sweaters through 2011, if all goes well. "He's the only one I want to play for," says Dustin Pedroia; he's driven us crazy a few times over the years, but you can't argue with the work Francona's done in October. Congratulations, Tito. The Sox also inked Bartolo Colon to a minor-league deal, which is an intriguing low-cost gamble.

On the other end of the coaching spectrum, Bob Ryan is halfway convinced that Bill won't be in Foxboro next year. Weird.

Image from Wikipedia. Caroline Roberts contributed to this post.