Yet another way to realize the complete 180 undertaken by our local basketball organization presents itself to us today. Not only are some of us trudging back to work after a holiday break, but we also must accept that we're going to be bleary-eyed for the rest of the week. The reason? The Celts are on a road trip out West. Four games between now and Dec. 30, with three in Pacific Time and one......

Bostonist is looking back on the year in weird, silly, or just plain creative crimes. We'll be counting down the top 10 over the next few days so you can find out just how wild it gets around here. Today's list includes produce, assault-inducing donuts, and Big Lebowski references galore. 10. Making the Onions Grow. The Northeastern Crime Blotter is chock-full of youthful indiscretions, and one young man peed all over a stack of onions......

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......

Given that there were no local games to be had on Tuesday evening, we here at Bostonist wanted to dig below the surface, uncover some little-known facts about the local sports scene and its ripple effect. And did we* come up with some gems for you! -- Mike Ditka Doesn't Like the Pats! As we mentioned Tuesday afternoon, Ditka spoke out after Sunday's Pats win and said that Tom Brady was as wrong for acknowledging......

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......

If Anthony Smith has learned anything this week, it's that guarantees are best left to Cajun chefs and the Men's Wearhouse guy. Because when you're an inexperienced safety trash-talking a 12-0 juggernaut, you can bet they'll listen. And listen the Pats did, toasting Smith twice en route to a 34-13 pasting of the Steelers. First, Smith misplayed Randy Moss, which is almost always good for a highlight, as Brady hit Moss for a TD while......

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......

Come on, it wasn't as if anyone thought that the mighty Toronto Raptors would snap the Celtics' unbeaten home streak. Sure, they could have - insert your "any given team, any given night" coaching adages here - but it wasn't a match up that was highly anticipated. You didn't hear any of the Raptors guaranteeing victory. We're just sayin'. So it was with a pleasant little lack of surprise that the Celtics took an early......

The baseball winter meetings are over, and the Red Sox find themselves without an ace. Except for the one they have. And the Japanese guy who might yet become one. And the old cowboy back for one more year. And the two or three promising kids who might be a couple years away. But they haven't landed Johan Santana, which is either a failure (if they really were after Santana) or a success (if their......

Who knows what makes New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick tick? Something's going on behind that frosty façade, but it could be too horrifying for anyone to comprehend. Last night, while on the sidelines bracing for battle against the unexpectedly tough Baltimore Ravens, he looked like a man ready to explode. Better to just let the man win games, right? Well, John Tomase of the Herald couldn't resist a little Belichick Analysis. Instead of calling......

We've praised the Celtics up and down over the course of 14 games. Given the fact that they won - again - on Friday night, this time defeating Shaq and the Miami Heat, we're going to give them the Belichick once-over. You know, give 'em a taste of what Randy Moss and Tom Brady deal with every week. You guys feeling good? Feeling confident because you beat Miami by 10 points? A 95-85 win, fellas.......

We're not the biggest Japanese-movie-monster buffs in the world, but we honestly can't remember an entry in the series when the monster got to go home early because Tokyo didn't even make a token effort to defend itself. But Ghidorah was sent to the bench early last night; the "Big Three" were no longer needed amid the Celtics' utter annihilation of the listless Knicks last night. It was a 23-point lead at halftime, and when......

Any objective observer would agree that last night's game was a game the Celtics honestly didn't deserve to win. They didn't shoot well, they looked tired after the Laker game, and they were facing a Bobcat team that may have no identity whatsoever, but played with spunk and energy the whole time. Things looked especially dismal down two with five seconds to go. Paul Pierce missed a game-tying shot, and Charlotte got the rebound. Boston......

Does the venue make the team or does the team make the venue? And what happens if the venue has two teams, two games, and one day to pull it all off? The two host teams win, venue staff deserve medals, and a lot of people walk out of the place happy. There wasn't much of a battle on the boards of the TD Banknorth Garden on Friday night. The Celtics, doing what has become......

Remember when Celtics-Lakers games used to mean something? In the Sixties, the Celtics championship road seemed to always end with a victory over LA. In the Eighties, the Bird-Magic schism divided the NBA right down the middle, but the Lakers took two out of the three Finals in which they went head-to-head. The rivalry even has its own Wikipedia page. Alas, for the last 20 years or so, the cachet has been long gone. While......

Where do you start when giving Thanks to everyone in the local sports scene who's made the past eight months or so almost perfect? Not to beat a dead turkey, but the Red Sox are world champs, the Celtics are rejuvenated and playing great basketball, the Revolution made the Finals again, BC is headed for a bowl game you've actually heard of, the Bruins are playing better than expected and are fun to watch, and......

The Sox got the message. After making decisions that led to the breakup of the 2004 champs, like letting Pedro (which we grudgingly understood) and Johnny Damon (hey, how's that working out for you anyway, Johnny?) leave, Sox fans stood as one and declared that if they didn't bring back World Series MVP, great fielding, clutch hitting, hard working, popular Mike Lowell, we'd...be pretty unhappy. So Mike Lowell will be right where he belongs next......

The Celtics extended their undefeated streak on Friday night to eight games, but fans of the Bill Belichick School of Gloat-Free Victories can take heart in the fact that the team wants to take it to the next level. "We are nowhere near where we want to be," is the quote, provided by Paul Pierce, that sums up Friday night's game at the Garden, which ended with a 92-91 Boston advantage over Miami. Yes, the......

TGR "Lost and Found" Screening With Bang Camaro and the Marc-Andre Belliveau Band For Labels Are for Jars Friday, November 16, 7:00 pm The Roxy, 279 Tremont Street, Boston $20, Tickets TGR Official Site Labels Are for Jars Teton Gravity Research is in town, combining extreme snow sports, massive rock, and philanthropy. TGR, as they call themselves, will be screening "Lost and Found," which is a compilation of what the company calls the "sickest skiing......

Tim Thomas has been a rock in goal for the Bruins; even when they've been floundering offensively - and make no mistake, they have - Thomas has played well enough to keep them in the game. But last night against Toronto, another team struggling to put the biscuit in the basket, the B's found their rhythm and controlled the tempo, punishing old friend Andrew Raycroft for a 5-2 win. (Your humble correspondent was there, doing......

Bill Belichick wins football games, and he makes it clear that he's not looking for affection from the masses. But one comedian has decided it's time Belichick worked on his people skills. Michael Showalter rhymes "Belichick" with "Surly Dick," and he proceeds to knock Belichick around for numerous offenses, such as wearing a "Flashdance sweatshirt" and blowing off Tony Dungy after the Patriots-Colts game. Showalter then launches into a fantasy about what Tony Dungy should......

We're the most starry-eyed, green-Kool-Aid-guzzling optimists anywhere, but even we never thought it would be this good, this fast. Even on a night when two-thirds of Ghidorah wasn't quite up to snuff (Ray Allen 4-for-14, Kevin Garnett missing his usual double-double), the Celtics still had enough to put the clamps on Jersey and win their seventh straight. Any time you defensively hold a team to 69 points and 33% shooting, you're doing something right. And......

Josh Beckett got to hoist the championship trophy, ride down Boylston on the duck boats, and will get a huge ring in the spring. He earned the Sports Illustrated commemorative issue cover, the champagne and beer showers, and the reputation for serving as the ace among aces in October. He had a rich season, so we're hoping that such a reminder helps as C.C. Sabathia is toasted as the American League's newest Cy Young winner.......

Celtics coach Doc Rivers would have been entitled to skip last night's game in New Jersey. Spending the day at his father's funeral, 1000 miles away from the Meadowlands, he was fully prepared to call it a day and watch his team on TV. But his mom told him that Dad would have wanted him on the sideline, so Doc caught a charter flight and walked into the C's locker room an hour before game......

While you, and we, have been fixated on the Red Sox and the Patriots and the Celtics, the Revolution have quietly made their way back to the MLS Cup. And it's time attention is paid. The Revs are in the Finals for the third straight year, and fourth since 2002. They got there by outlasting Chicago 1-0, with Taylor Twellman scoring his second goal of the playoffs. Which was also the team's second goal of......

We already know they must hate us in Minnesota. Once, they had David Ortiz, Randy Moss and Kevin Garnett. Now they don't. But they must really hate us in Denver these days; less than two weeks after their Colorado Rockies were vaporized in the World Series, the Nuggets came to Boston and fared just as badly. The Celtics (who said they'd need time to adjust to one another?) annihilated Denver almost from the opening last......

For a day that featured not a single Boston professional sports team in game mode, Tuesday was jam-packed with sports news. And what made things even more ridiculous was the fact that, for a good portion of the day, one faced difficulty figuring out what news was legit and what was a sports scribe's attempt at an exclusive gone wrong (Tom Brady exclusive, anyone? Don't worry, we'll get it to it). We're going to sort......

Somebody is getting kicked out of the bowling league. Erin Smith at the Cambridge Chronicle tells the story of a rumble at Lanes and Games that sent one employee to the hospital on Sunday night.* Seven people were boozing it up (no word about their game) and grew pugnacious when the owner tried to toss them. The suspects left, but they returned to kick some bowling-alley-employee butt. Believe it or not, the suspects left and......

In the first half of the Patriots' perfect-so-far season, there were a few scary moments. There was the time Dallas took the lead in the third quarter, and....well, that was about it, actually. For eight games, the Pats picked the tune, and the opponent either danced along, or more likely, got flung out of the way. We've had our scary moments now. Yesterday was a game when the Pats not only didn't pick the tune,......

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......