Sports Redux: The Garden Has An Up And Down Day

What a day at the Garden. A little depression, a little mania. A loss, a win. A soul-stealing episode, and a moment of triumph.

Let's start chronologically, which happily lets us get the worst news out of the way. The Celtics lost. It wasn't a Bulls blowout, which would have been bad; no, it was a game that exposed everything the C's can do wrong when they set their minds to it, which is worse. In a way. From the moment Chicago scored the first two of the game, on a Joakim Noah dunk that exploited the C's' sloppy defense, to the final miss in overtime, taken by Ray Allen - who visibly fossilized over the course of the afternoon - it was a cavalcade of inconsistency, failure to make adjustments, and once again scratching their heads over what could have gone wrong.

At least Rondo played well. Ray was an abominable 1-for-12, while Doc stubbornly refused to switch him out for Eddie House, who didn't shoot very well, either, or Tony Allen, who might have at least provided token resistance to the Bulls' jumpshooters. As long as we're complaining, can we all agree that seeing Bennett Salvatore show up on the court is right up there with waking up and seeing the Grim Reaper hovering over your bed?

So someone needed to air the stink out of the Garden, and the Bruins rose to the occasion admirably, smacking the Canadiens around, 5-1. Marc Savard scored twice for the B's, who kept Montreal goalie Carey Price flailing all night, and kept the rest of the Canadiens frustrated and trying to start extracurriculars up to the point where even mild-mannered Patrice Bergeron picked up a fighting penalty. Guess the Habs have to get into the stat sheet somehow. Tim Thomas stopped 30 shots for the Bruins, who move on to Montreal up 2-0 and not feeling any lack of confidence.

Across town, free of playoff pressure, the Red Sox got another win, beating the Orioles, 6-4. Josh Beckett, living on borrowed time (he eventually dropped the appeal of his suspension when they cut it to five games) chugged through six innings for the win, while Kevin Youkilis put another layer of polish on his MVP resume, going 4-for-5 with a homer and 4 RBIs. He's hitting .467. Fenway fans got additional delight as the scoreboard posted results from the Yankees' 22-4 shellacking at the hands of Cleveland. Total score at the New Yankee Stadium: Foes 38, Bombers 11. And the Sox don't visit there for a few weeks.

Photo by Greg Mackay, from photos tagged "Bostonist" on Flickr.