It wasn't a very good night at all for Boston teams playing south of the Mason-Dixon line. Not a very good night at all.

We'll start in Atlanta, where the Celtics again brought their C+ game to the playoffs, and were shocked and discouraged to see the Hawks playing way above their heads to take Game Three of the first round. Atlanta was doing everything right - running a fast, efficient transition game, draining long-range shots from everywhere, and forcing the C's to adjust to their pace, which the C's never did. End result: 102-93. Fitting, since it seemed like the Celts were trying to claw out of a 9-point hole for the whole game.

The winners: Josh Smith, who dunked all over every Celtic who tried to guard him. Mike Bibby, who finally looked like a competent point guard. Kevin Garnett, the only Boston player hitting much of anything (although much credit to Ray Allen for two sweet drives in the final Celtics run of the game). Joe Johnson, who led the 3-point barrage. The losers: Paul Pierce, a dismal 5-13 from the field. Eddie House, who maybe, just maybe could have come in the game earlier to try to spark the sluggish offense. The Atlanta A/V club, for losing power to the shot clock in the third quarter until they finally brought in the experts. And Mike Bibby, whose reward for winning this game is another trip to the TDBN Garden.

Even farther south, the Red Sox offense also sputtered, and it meant Clay Buchholz' gem was ruined by one bad pitch. While the Sox could only manufacture one run (Coco Crisp scooted first-to-third, then scored on an Ellsbury single) off Tampa starter Edwin Jackson, Buchholz was cruising through seven. Sent out to start the eighth, he got one out, but then surrendered a single to Dioner Navarro and a monster home run to Akinori Iwamura that accounted for all the Devil Ray runs in the 2-1 loss.

The revolving door for the Sox continues: Sean Casey's hurt, Ortiz skipped the game but might be back today, while Mike Lowell made a rehab start for Pawtucket. The Sox will turn to Josh Beckett today (where have we heard that before?) to stop the four-game losing streak. Also, congratulations to Kevin Youkilis for his MLB-record 1,701st consecutive clean play at first, ending Stuffy McInnis' stranglehold on the record book. If you want to start calling him Stuffy Youkilis, we won't object.

As you saw yesterday, the Pats picked up hard-hitting Jerod Mayo from Tennessee with their first-round pick. We'll admit it; some of the highlights we saw of Mayo crunching various SEC QB's eased the pain of last night's double-whammy. They nabbed quick Terrence Wheatley from Colorado, who will hopefully replace Asante Samuel in the secondary.

Photo by Gregory Smith/Associated Press.