Sports Redux: We'll Always Have Charlotte

As wildly inconsistent as the Celtics have been this season, there's one great truth: they love seeing the Charlotte Bobcats appear on the schedule.

Charlotte coach Larry Brown said, "I don't buy all this stuff that they're in trouble," but he may not be the best source, because the C's have shown an ability to throttle the Bobcats the way they throttle no others. Last night was case in point, as the C's did what good teams do, which is mess around for a while, then vaporize their inferior foes, blowing Charlotte out 104-80 for the first Garden Gino sighting in ages.

Paul Pierce scored nine of his 27 in the third quarter as the C' took their halftime lead from nine to 21. The only other guysin double figures were KG with 12 and Nate with 16. They also held the 'Cats to 36% for the game, got lots of garbage-time minutes, and for one day at least, felt like they could control their home court like good teams do. "This is the place that we have to start establishing ourselves and make it a place....where teams don't want to play," explained Pierce, who can't explain why the C's are better than almost anyone on the road, but worse than almost anyone with even an inkling of playoff dreams at home.

The NHL trading deadline came and went, which seems weird to us that they'd schedule it so everybody had days and days off for the Olympics, then came back and instantly could be traded, but whatever. And the Bruins weren't particularly active, though they did send Byron Bitz to Florida for Dennis Seidenberg (already a part of Bruins lore, and dumped Derek Morris on Phoenix. So no big offensive pickups, GM Peter Chiarelli? "I know the fans want more scoring and they want us to have success. I know that. There’s my frustration - that I didn’t put that into place."

The Red Sox didn''t embarass themselves yesterday, sweeping their collegiate doubleheader by a total score of 21-1. Casey Kelly made a quick efficient debut, and youngsters Che-Hsuan Lin and Jose Iglesias provided some offensive spark to whet some appetites, at least until they're thrown into a deal with Mike Lowell.