Sports Redux: The Winter of Our Discontent Continues

The good news? The toughest three-game stretch of the season is over...three games against three legit contenders (yes, Atlanta, we hear you). The bad news? The Celtics fell short in all three. We won't see three games in a row like this until the playoffs, but the way things are going right now, how long do we really think the playoffs might last?

The scoreboard and the summaries will say only that Kobe Bryant's shot with seven seconds left gave the Lakers a 90-89 win at the Garden yesterday. True, but not the whole story. The real story is that the Celtics' Big Three right now consists of Rondo, Perkins, and maybe someone else who has a surprise big game (step on up, Tony Allen, with your 14 points that kept the game from becoming a blowout in the second quarter). We'll forgive Garnett, since he did come up with 10 points and nine rebounds, even though he's clearly not himself.

And we'll let Pierce's game slide yesterday, since he was knocked out of his rhythm by two fouls called on him in the first three minutes by Bennett Salvatore, who's about as welcome around these parts as the Ebola virus. Just to further rub it in, Pierce was called for an offensive foul down the stretch for an arm movement that only seems to get called in Lakers games when there's less than a minute to go. But whatever; we knew as soon as Salvatore showed up that we'd be complaining about something.

But that neccessarily brings us to Ray Allen, whose winter slide has become An Official Problem. Ray was 2-for-10 shooting, missed all six threes he attempted, and missed the final shot of the game, with a lineup out there that made us think Doc maybe didn't realize it was only a one point game (No Rondo? Really?). ESPN asks the uncomfortable question: are the C's better off with someone else right now? They pitch a big deal involving Ray, the Bulls and Kirk Hinrich; frankly, we like better the rumor that bubbled up out of MakesNoSenseLand that gets Monta Ellis from the Warriors.

The team, not surprisingly, is saying nobody should panic. "It’s easy with losing teams to point the finger when you go through a tough stretch, but we’re not that team. We’re in the locker room, we talk about it, and we move forward," said Pierce. Added Perk: "I know a lot of people are turning their backs on us, which is cool, fine with us." Which kind of makes us feel bad feeling so negative this morning, but c'est la vie. At least this week brings us games against the Wizards and the Nets.