Sports Redux: Great Trip Ends In A Thud

If you'd told us a couple of weeks ago that the Celtics, slogging their way through a mediocre winter, would come back from this post-ASG Western swing 3-1, we'd have first checked to see if you'd just been hit in the head with a 2x4, then we would have been pleasantly surprised.

So we'll dwell on the overall record, and chalk up yesterday's loss in Denver to fatigue and whatever's ailing Paul Pierce. Because Ray's back to normal, KG showed more moves and offensive spunk than he has in a long long time, and the bench was...let's say adequate. The simple fact is Denver can shoot the lights out, and when you dig yourselves a 20-point hole in the first quarter, you're going to be gasping for air if and when you climb out of it. Especially if Pierce is 2-for-10, looks like his thumb should have the cartoon radiating pain lines coming out of it, and looks like he needs whatever they gave Ray Allen (a Bahamas vacation? Incessant trade rumors?) last week to break out of it.

It's hard to hate the Nuggets. We tried. They're the last best hope at keeping LA out of the Finals; they have Chauncey Billups, who we've always respected, and Carmelo Anthony, who's really grown into the superstar label he's always headed towards. And it's hard not to root for George Karl, who's going to coach Denver as long as he can while undergoing cancer treatments. But this was our first long look at the so-called &Birdman" and we didn't like what we saw. He looks like James Hetfield after a six-month meth binge, and made us decide on the spot that we'd wait until he was retired to embrace the HDTV revolution. He plays hard, though. Just keep him away from your kids.

"I still think we've got a long way to go," said coach Ron Wilson, but he's got to feel at least a tiny bit good about the US mens' hockey team upsetting Canada to move into a comfier position in the Olympic tournament. Ryan Miller, who's stuffed the Bruins a time or two, did a fantastic job in net for the Americans, surviving a 45-shot Canadian barrage and toeing the party line about not getting too carried away: "I don't think people should read too much into it." In that case, then, big deal. We're doomed.

Yesterday, Dan Shaughnessy complained that Red Sox training camp wasn't giving him any controversy to write about; today, he tries his best to stir some up, trying to get Josh Beckett to say something inflammatory that will lead us poor saps to believe he hates us and won't re-sign here at the end of the year. Beckett refuses to bite, but this is a subplot we're sure we haven't heard the last of.

Oh, and Johnny Damon signed with the Tigers. You can still boo him if you want, as far as we're concerned.