Sports Redux: A Good Time In Hartford

The Celtics returned to more-or-less full strength, and in their first game in Hartford in over a decade, mauled the Raptors 106-90 in their finest preseason outing yet.

Everyone significant played except for Rasheed Wallace, who sat out to nurse his sore ankle (nobody thinks it's that serious). In limited minutes, Pierce and Garnett led with 17 and 16 points, respectively, while Big Baby scored 13 off the bench and Lester Hudson 12. Garnett also dazzled Doc and the boys with some converted alley-oops, leading to the midseason-form expression seen on his face here.

Ray Allen only scored eight points, and most of that on free throws, but he can be forgiven (it's preseason), because he was starry-eyed about his first trip to the mall Hartford Civic Center XL Center since his days as a UConn standout. "The whole time I was shooting, I was just thinking about seeing the student section." Good thing that's out of the way, then. The C's rematch with the Raptors on Sunday in Toronto.

The U.S. soccer team overcame their heavy hearts and came back to tie Costa Rica on a very late goal by Jonathan Bornstein. The team also got a look at who was going to try to fill the on-field gap left after Charlie Davies' car accident.

There's still baseball to be played, believe it or not, and ESPN Page 2s Jim Caple outlines the next six weeks of the postseason schedule. Usually we think of Caple as a guy who eats up innings while we wait for Simmons to actually remember where his keyboard is, but this one's pretty good.

The Bruins are getting ready for a short road trip, and the Pats are getting ready to face the winless Titans. Hope you're ready too.

Photo by Jessica Hill / Associated Press.