Sports Redux: Takin' Care of Business

If we had to pick one favorite moment from the Celtics' rout of Atlanta last night...

Contenders would be Pierce's opening flurry of 3-pointers, or Ray Allen confidently taking over in the third quarter, or Rondo's patented "huck the ball off the other guy while falling out of bounds" move. Or any of numerous blocks, dunks, defensive shutdowns that made the 104-81 final not really even as close as that.

But the greatest moment of the game came from Leon Powe and Kevin Garnett. Powe slammed it over Josh Smith and Mike Bibby, fell to the floor, then saw KG come up not to help him to his feet, but to punch him repeatedly in the chest (Cassell helped too), then scream in Leon's ear all the way back to the bench. And you were worried that Garnett wouldn't turn it up a notch for the playoffs.

Atlanta, for their part, was game, and hung around for the first half, but clearly wasn't ready to be on the same floor as the C's last night. "I'm glad we got it out of the way," said Joe Johnson of the Game One atmosphere, as if things will be a lot different in Game 2. The C's crowd also got to cheer some of the Red Sox who came over for the game, and the news that Detroit had fumbled its opening playoff game against Philly.

Speaking of the Red Sox...remember last spring, when it became clear that this team was never out of any ballgame? Well, it happened again. After spending most of the game stranding people on base (and seeing Manny get tossed and leave a big hole in th lineup), the Sox were down 5-0 going into the seventh. They punched out two runs off Texas starter Kevin Millwood.

Then, with two out and nobody on in the eighth, the Sox got to work. Ellsbury singled. Jed "Double Machine" Lowrie doubled him in. 5-3. David "Speed Demon" Ortiz hit a grounder deep into the shift, and legged it out for an infield hit and an RBI. 5-4. Dustin Pedroia (pinch-hitting into Manny's spot) doubled in Ortiz. Youk, Drew, and Casey all walked to bring in the go-ahead run. Papelbon sailed through the ninth. 6-5. Game over.

TODAY: Matinee action at Fenway: Clay Buchholz against Kason Gabbard, who you may remember was the promising Sox hurler who got traded last year for that 240-pound bag of lawn fertilizer. Also, a whole bunch of people will be running for hours and hours. Better them than us, we say. TONIGHT: Bruins, Canadiens, Game Seven. Watch it.