"Half the guys in our league couldn't shoot 15-for-21 if they were in a gym by themselves," said Doc Rivers. The man would know, having coached Kedrick Brown, Gerald Green, and Brian Scalabrine over the years. But 15-for-21 were the numbers Toronto rained down on the C's from 3-point-land, dropping the C's to their first division loss of the season. It was perhaps the Celtics' poorest defensive game of the year; the Raptors shot 58%......

We could choose to be disappointed. We figured (and we weren't the only ones) that the combination of crappy weather, boisterous fans and motivated personnel would mean the Patriots would kick the Jets' butts up and down the field for three hours. We figured that, even though we're better than New York in every sport right now, yesterday would be a cathartic blowout to soothe any lingering anti-NY feelings around here. Well, not quite. The......

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......

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,......

The Celtics are pleased to announce that they've added an extra level to the bandwagon, and it's poised to start its run tonight at the Garden against Washington. This is the original bandwagon, mind you; not the auxiliary bandwagons the team expects to roll out over the course of the season. Naysayers (and there are some) point out that the supporting cast around Ghidorah is untested and unreliable. OK, whatever. So their starting point guard,......

In the bid to make 2007 the first season when all four LDS's were sweeps, the National League took care of business yesterday. The Rockies bid adieu to Philly, while the Diamondbacks went to Wrigley and broke Cub fans' hearts for the 99th straight season. Which, if you're a Red Sox fan, at least means that when we win the World Series, at least we won't do it on the back of long-suffering Philly or......

Tom Brady is awfully busy even though the Pats lost to the Colts. He's a star witness, and he's been wooing Gisele Bundchen. The Globe wonders what the two have in common other than their superhuman bone structures, and they come up with right-wing politics: The New York Post reported yesterday that Gisele refused to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez when she and the Marxist leader were both in Rio last week. Brady, meanwhile, was......

Celtics 86, Raptors 95. With six men out with injuries, including the latest casualty Tony Allen, the Celtics hardly had the manpower to overcome a team in good health. The game started sloppy and it wasn’t until the second half that the crowd got into the game when. The Celtics were able to take control of the scoreboard by a few points here and there, but the night was a game of catch-up for the......