Sports Redux: In Which We Try To Sum Up Our Current Situation Using PG-13 Language

First, let's get the good news out of the way. Paul Pierce isn't hurt as badly as we anticipated when we were completely freaked out about the possibility that we couldn't even beat the Wizards without sacrificing one starter. Nothing's broken, say the Celtics, and Pierce might be able to go as soon as tonight against Miami.

So short-term, that's good. Long-term, though, the team can't hide the fact that they just lost three games to three of the top...let's say six...teams in the league. Not blowouts, which would be cause for a whole different kind of concern, but just because critical flaws manifested themselves down the stretch. So all of NBALand is buzzing about whether it's time to break up the nucleus. Complicating things is the fact that there are kind of two nuclei, the obvious KG/Ray/Pierce triumvirate, and then the young kids (Rondo and Perk), that they want to build around for the next few years, inasmuch as one can build around Perk. The always interesting Adrian Wojnarowski breaks it all down, in a column that basically confirms that we shouldn't get too attached to Ray Allen. We did find out, though, that Golden State heard those Ray-for-Monta Ellis rumors and "literally laughed [them] off" We'll see what happens tonight when Miami, who's not one of the six best teams but acts like they think they are, comes to town.

If that paragraph seemed long, it's because we're trying to put off talking about the Bruins for as long as possible. Suffice it to say that after last night's 4-1 loss to Washington, they've lost eight in a row (longest winless streak since the Eisenhower Administration), they couldn't score on an empty net, and Marc Savard is openly talking about sacrificing a chicken to turn things around. Jobu no help with power play efficiency.

We'll end on some cautiously good news; Wes Welker reportedly had surgery on his mangled knee, and "a person with knowledge of the surgery" said everything seemed to go fine. We wonder who this unnamed person is, and whether they were up in the spectators' balcony or closer to the action. And whether they still have spectators' balconies in operating rooms.