This is the week we've had circled on our calendar since the Celtics' blistering start. We knew at least three of the four games would be tough, but now every team between the Mississippi and the Pecos has their eyes on the NBA Finals, and since the Celtics want to be there to meet them, these four games are huge. It starts tonight in San Antonio against the defending champs, who have a shocking 2-game......

Does anyone remember what the preseason over/under for the Celtics was? Because we're pretty sure it was about 48 wins, but it seems like all evidence has been scrubbed from the Internet. If anybody thought back then that Ghidorah would take a few months to get used to one another and the C's would struggle, they sure wouldn't want it on their record now. Because last night was win #50 for the Green, who look......

If your eyes flit down the NHL results and see "NYR 1, BOS 0 (SO)", you might dismiss it as another tough loss in a month that's been full of 'em so far. In other words...rats, they lost, what's next? But 1-0 doesn't tell the whole story. The B's were tired, they were drained after the Saturday slugfest with Washington, they were sans Zdeno Chara and Aaron Ward, and still scraped out a point in......

While the Celtics are floundering out West, the Bruins have just finished an honest-to-goodness stampede through the South. And attention must be paid. Last night, the B's finished off a 4-0-1 Southern swing with a 5-3 win at Tampa Bay. Glen Murray scored twice, with Milan Lucic and Mark Stuart also scoring early. P.J. Axelsson took a Glen Metropolit pass and scored a shorthanded goal to put the Lightning away for good. Alex Auld wasn't......

There's been a lot of praise heaped on Bruins goalie Tim Thomas this year, and it's all been deserved. The guy's been a huge reason why the B's are still very much in the playoff hunt. But man is mortal, and Tim looked anything but great last night in Florida, giving up four goals in 12 shots through two periods. His defense was far from blameless, but Tim's been great at covering for their mistakes.......

The good news for the Celtics is that the Timberwolf portion of their schedule is in the history books. After surviving a 1-point game against Minnesota at home a couple of weeks ago, the C's went to the Twin Cities and pulled out a 2-point win. It started with a polite Minnesotan reaction for Kevin Garnett, who of course didn't play again but got a huge ovation from his former hometown fans. It continued with......

Hope you sports fans were able to relax yesterday. The disappointing non-slaughter of the Jets is in the rear view mirror, the Dolphins game isn't quite as exciting since the stupid Ravens ended Miami's bid for a winless season, everything is sewn up in the AFC, and the Monday Night game wasn't that exciting. Plus, the Celtics and Bruins were off. But we've got some big games coming up in the next 48 hours, so......

We're really glad we're not the New York Jets. Especially today. First of all, if you were a Jet, you'd have to be outside for hours and hours in this weather. Second of all, you're not a very good football team, and you are playing today against a remarkably good team. Third, you're the team whose coach finked out Bill Belichick early this year, putting the Patriots on a mission to destroy everything in their......

Roger Clemens is an unhappy man today. At least, his lawyer is. Attorney Rusty Hardin responded to Roger's prominence in the Mitchell Report by saying, "He is left with no meaningful way to combat what he strongly contends are false allegations." We remember something in the report about Mitchell requesting an interview with Clemens and being turned down. Perhaps that was a mistake. For Clemens and the rest of the names on the list, it's......

Today has all the anticipation of postseason award announcements, with all the anxiety of a Law & Order episode. This afternoon, George Mitchell's going to go public with his steroid report. There's all kinds of stuff in there about making improvements to testing and recommendations for ways to keep this from happening in the future, but all anyone really cares about is the "naming names" part of the process. Who will be implicated? Sources say......

Seen on ESPN yesterday: "The Bruins are 8-4-1 in their last 13 games. Just thought you should know the fourth horse of the apocalypse is saddling up." The Bruins insist that Tim Thomas is not being Wally Pipped; he'll be the starter again as soon as he recovers from his groin injury. But for finding a backup goalie in the clearance bin, it's hard to beat what the B's have seen from Alex Auld, who......

TO: The Rest of the NBA (address not shown) FROM: The Little Nine (littlenine@celtics.com) RE:Remember Us? --- Hi everyone. It's the Little Nine here. You know, the "supporting cast" that was going to be the one thing holding the "Big Three" back from romping all over the NBA this year? Almost to a man, the papers and the Internet said that Pierce, Allen and Garnett would play well, but they had no support and no......