All right, fess up. Who went to bed at halftime? We confess, we spent a good chunk of time planning to ditch the bar (sorry the liveblog didn't work out, but the first hour would have just been a steady stream of cuss words anyway), as the Celtics played a first quarter that would have shamed the 1997 "let's get Tim Duncan" team. The offense was inept, the defense was inept, Doc stood there watching......

We, to be honest, had the exact opposite of high hopes for last night's game. The Lakers were going to be in front of their home crowd, energized, with the referees desperate to be on their side to avoid another four-hankie Phil Jackson press conference. And if you'd told us before the game that Paul Pierce would be a train wreck, KG would be way off his shot, and Rondo would get hurt, we'd assume......

When an athlete gets famous, his or her image will be slapped on everything in sight. Remember Kobe Bryant's pre-scandal days when he was on jars of Nutella? Well, Red Sox Monster and BevNET are reporting that Kevin Youkilis has signed up to market a new energy drink entitled--ahem--"SlumpBuster." BevNET euphemistically stated that "SlumpBuster" was a "term widely recognized by athletes and fans." Indeed. According to the Urban Dictionary, a "SlumpBuster" is A promiscuous and/or......

Hey, wasn't this West Coast trip supposed to demonstrate that the Celtics weren't quite as good as everybody thought? The last hope for the rest of the NBA to stop the Celtics in 2007, the Lakers dug into the history books, coming out in '80s-style short shorts (they ditched them at halftime) to shake things up. They also came out swinging, opening a nasty bloody cut on Kevin Garnett's forehead (KG got called for the......

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......

We sure hope Josh Beckett found time during yesterday's off-day to watch High Noon. If you haven't seen it, the plot is that Sheriff Gary Cooper has one day left until retirement, and a pack of mean outlaws are coming to town to wreak havoc. He tries to round up a posse to meet them, but everyone in town has a dentist appointment, or their hair is drying, or they don't roll on Shabbos, or......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

The good news is, they got some hits. The bad news is, they didn't translate into nearly enough runs. Terry Francona tried drastic measures, moving the struggling (to put it charitably) J.D. Drew to the leadoff spot, possibly to cut down on his left-on-base numbers. That sure didn't work. Francona stuck with the scuffling (again, we're being kind) Julio Lugo, which means that either Alex Cora doesn't know how to play shortstop or is trapped......

The Red Sox have been living large off of the Foes' inferior bullpens all season. Sadly, what goes around came around last night. The unstoppable Okajima and unbeatable Papelbon were respectively stopped and beaten by the Yankees, who took 2 out of 3 from the Sox for the second straight series. This one was a typical Sox-Yankees seesaw affair. Josh Beckett pitched well, but spotted the Yanks a 4-0 lead. But the Sox got it......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

Harry Doyle and the Friends of the Feathered are breathing a sigh of relief this morning. After two losses at Fenway, Chief Wahoo's Tribe turned on the juice Wednesday night, pounding out a season-high 18 hits and smacking the Sox 8-4. Boston gave Daisuke a 2-0 lead after four innings, but Dice had been living dangerously all along, and Cleveland finally started to make him pay. And pay and pay. The Indians score two in......

Trot Nixon's homecoming game at Fenway was one to remember. Not so much for Trot (1-for-3), but for the fact that this game had a little bit of everything. An inside-the-park home run for Kevin Youkilis (shhh...20 game hitting streak...shhh). A conventional home run for Manny, tying him with former teammate Jim Thome for 25th place all time. A controversial third-strike call in the ninth that brought both managers out for some earnest discussions with......

6-0. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, it looked grim for a while for Josh Beckett and the Sox. Dan Johnson broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the sixth with an RBI single, but the Sox rallied off 2 off the Oakland bullpen in the bottom of the inning. Then Okajima and Timlin shut the A's down, and just like that, Beckett became the majors' first six-game winner in the 6-4 triumph. Bostonist hearts......

There are two types of people in the world: those who are willing to slog through rain, wind, possible snow (hey, you never know) and agony to complete a marathon, and...the other kind. Bostonist freely admits to being the other kind. But to everyone who wills their way through this, we tip our hats, raise our glasses, and count our blessings that we'll be home watching you on TV. If you have time to fiddle......

Last night, the Garden saw some serious ugly. After winning a few, Celtics fans had cause for optimism. However, they were facing the Houston Rockets, fifth in the West and fully stocked with Yao Ming. Even though the Rockets didn't exactly deliver a pitch-perfect performance, the Celtics collapsed quickly and never caught up. The final score was 111 to 80, and the Rockets made 15 three-pointers. The performance was so bad that we thought we......

The Celtics have a chance to make history tonight, but it's not the kind of history that will make anyone proud. As you're probably aware, if the Celtics lose to the Clippers tonight (completing the L.A. Sweep), they will be the owners of the longest losing streak in franchise history. 14 in a row. How...Clipper-esque. But the C's will make their presence felt at the All-Star Game; there are rumors that Gerald Green may......

Ah, finally, a break from Aqua Teen Hunger Force … When the chips are down for the local sports teams, it's time to talk about what players, coaches, owners, and GMs are doing in their spare time. They're getting busy. In what would have been a major local story were it not for a certain cup, cluster o' fries, and a "meat wad," word leaked out that Red Sox GM Theo Epstein got hitched -......