This was borderline ugly. And for about fifteen minutes, there was no borderline. For much of the first half, the Celtics looked like every dire prediction about them was going to come true: they were bound to let a home game slip away, nobody had the guts to take a shot, LeBron was eventually going to step up and start carving through them. But late in the second quarter, Ubuntu kicked in. Rajon Rondo, who......

"...full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." - Shakespeare, Macbeth Matt Walsh had his moment in the sun, and it turned out to be a whole lot of nothin'. The ex-Patriots employee promised tales of treachery and devious deeds, and hinted that he had shelves full of damning evidence. Just before the Superbowl, the Herald bit, and published Walsh's claim that the Pats taped St. Louis' final walkthrough before Superbowl XXXVI. Yesterday, Walsh met for......

It was a bleak night for the teams from Boston. The Celtics lost again in Cleveland and the Sox lost in Minnesota. Clay Buchholz gave up 7 runs in 4 1/3 innings last night, and that was enough to give the Twins a 7-3 edge over the Sox . Remember the good old days when he threw no-hitters and we had our panties in a bunch over the idea of trading him. *sigh* Manny......

With all the recent sterling performances by Red Sox pitchers, for some reason they decided to try something different last night. Tim Wakefield didn't finish three innings, as he gave up homers to Craig Monroe and Adam Everett to help stake Minnesota to a 7-1 lead. But the Sox don't go away that easily. They scratched out three in the fourth, and the suddenly-red-hot Coco Crisp's homer in the seventh cut the lead to 8-6,......

It might be important to remind yourself this morning that the Celtics have home-court advantage, and they could still go 16-12 in the playoffs, 0-12 on the road, and still hold up a trophy in June. But the sad and sorry fact remains that they're 0-4 on the road in the playoffs, and last night they committed the worst sin of all: they were defensively rotten and just plain uncompetitive. With LeBron James still way......

I believe it was the poet laureate, Adam Sandler, who said it best when he exclaimed. ‘YOU BLEW IT!’ Jonathan Papelbon blew his second save situation of this season, when the Twins beat the Sox 7 – 6. The water cooler community breathed a sigh of relief this time around since no coolers were harmed after this game. The struggling Mike Lamb got his chance to prove his worth and drove in two runs......

Hey, remember when the knock on the Celtics was their depth? Remember when everyone assumed Ghidorah would play great and then all hell would break loose when the second unit came in? Think Cleveland is remembering those predictions wistfully? The first quarter last night was a hangover from Game One. Ghidorah was still struggling (we were ready to call for a wheelchair to escort Ray Allen off the floor, if not a gurney). LeBron James......

Yesterday, we gleefully noted that Yankee superstar Joba Chamberlain blew the ballgame on Tuesday night. Well, the wheel of karma moves swiftly and decisively, so today we must report a blown save and a loss for Jonathan Papelbon. Stupid wheel of karma. It was a roller-coaster of a game, with the Tigers chasing Clay Buchholz out early. The Sox hung around though, as homers by Kevin Youkilis (twice) and Mike Lowell eventually tied it all......

There were four multi-time All-Stars at the Garden last night. The three heads of Ghidorah, you know about already, but with Cleveland in town for Game One, LeBron James and all his accompanying hype and presence were there too. Four All-Stars, two MVP candidates, probably a great game, right? Um. No. Kevin Garnett was the only one of the marquee names to live up to the billing (28 points, 8 rebounds); in fact, KG was......

When you hear that Dice-K walked 8 last night, you might assume that the Sox lost the game. And that the win might have gotten Detroit’s manager Jim Leyland to cut down on his daily smoking habit. Unfortunately for Leyland's lungs, the Sox beat the Tigers, 6-3, despite his juggled batting order and call to Triple A. In addition to his 8 walks, Dice-K struck out 1 over 5 innings of work. Francona blamed......

People deal with grief in different ways. 22 years after the 1986 World Series, and a month after Bill Buckner's public homecoming to Fenway, Quincy's Josh Mitchell wants to make a movie about Buckner. And not just any movie - a musical where Mitchell's character road-trips to Idaho, talks Buckner out of seclusion, and brings him back to Boston to star in a revival of "No No Nanette". Oh, that age-old plot. Mitchell's Wickid Pissa......

Well...that was fun. If anticlimactic. Pushed to Game Seven by a hungry Atlanta team - or dragged to Game Seven by their sporadic ineptitude, depending on which you believe - the Celtics turned on the gas and utterly annihilated the Hawks yesterday, 99-65, at the Garden. This was in every way what a big game between a 66-win #1 seed and a sub-.500 #8 seed should have looked like. It was thorough, and it was......

We honestly don't have much new to say about this afternoon's game. Win, and everything's forgotten and it's 0-0 against Cleveland. Lose - the unthinkable - and God only knows how ugly it's going to get in this town. Doc needs to coach like he's NOT being mugged, coaching a playoff game and watching his house burn down at the same time. Pierce needs to be smart and not give the refs a reason/chance to......

As good as their starters have been all week, the Red Sox are not a team built to rely on their pitching. In the American League, their starters are (for the most part) good enough to keep them in the game, and let this vaunted offense do its vauntable thing and score bushels of runs. Now would be a good time to start. There were no last-second heroics for the Sox last night, no timely......

With their backs against the wall, responsible for a sudden regionwide crisis of confidence, the Celtics responded with one of their best, most balanced games of the season to punch Atlanta 110-85 and regain control of the first-round series. The C's put on a virtual clinic of how to spread the ball around, rely on your stars, let the bench guys contribute, and never really let the other guys into the game. Garnett set the......

Don't listen to the so-called experts. Kids LOVE pitchers' duels. Go up to any schoolboy and mention some of the great mound rivalries of the past - Koufax/Marichal, Gibson/Seaver, Palmer/Hunter - and, well, you'll probably get a blank look. But maybe you'll find a kid who knows what you're talking about, and chances are that kid appreciated the gem last night at Fenway. For the Sox, Jon Lester was throwing strikes (yay) and inducing groundouts,......

Some thought the road to the Celtics' 17th title was going to be a cake walk. But if the sports fans in Boston know anything, they know that it’s never that easy. The Celtics dropped another game last night to the Atlanta Hawks 97-92, tying the series at two games a piece. Ray Allen led the team and scored 21 points, and KG racked up 20. Garnett got into a little tussle after elbowing......

Two great outings by Red Sox starters...two perplexing losses. Maybe the Rays are for real. Josh Beckett, trying to stop the Sox' freefall back into a pennant race, pitched almost as well as humanly possible. He went seven innings, striking out thirteen, giving up only two runs - one unearned on a JD Drew throwing error, one on a home run by Rays wunderkind Evan "No, I'm Not Married To Tony Parker, Please Stop Asking"......

It wasn't a very good night at all for Boston teams playing south of the Mason-Dixon line. Not a very good night at all. We'll start in Atlanta, where the Celtics again brought their C+ game to the playoffs, and were shocked and discouraged to see the Hawks playing way above their heads to take Game Three of the first round. Atlanta was doing everything right - running a fast, efficient transition game, draining long-range......

The Red Sox continued their slide last night, losing to the Tampa Bay ‘Please Don’t Call Us The Devil Rays’ Rays 5- 4 in the 11th . But the most painful part of last night’s game wasn’t the 11th inning single that Mike Timlin gave up, but was the injury backup first basemen, Sean Casey. Casey tweaked his right hip flexor coming running home after Jacoby Ellsbury hit a single in the second inning......

Justin Masterson deserved better than this. Plucked from AA Portland to fill in for the plague-ridded Red Sox, Masterson sparkled in his big league debut, giving up just two hits and a run in six innings. He should have been sent home with a bag of souvenirs, a "see you in August" promise, and most importantly, a W. Well....not so fast. The Sox' 3-1 lead got turned over to the bullpen. When the bullpen's good,......

Maybe, in retrospect, it's not the best idea for a guy to mouth off before a game everyone know he's going to lose. In four years, remember, Freddie Mitchell went from Super Bowl trashtalker to disgraced Indiana substitute teacher. Who knows what the future holds for Atlanta Hawk point guard Mike Bibby, but you've got to wonder why he's still talking while he utterly and completely fails to back it up on the court. Not......

Someday, when Johan Santana and Jacoby Ellsbury are on the same Hall of Fame ballot, we're going to think back to the time when one was almost traded for the other. And then we're going to remember nights like last night, and no matter how many wins, K's and Cy Youngs Santana racks up over his career, we're going to thank Theo Epstein for keeping Ellsbury in Boston. Jacoby ruled the day last night in......

Since the Red Sox have had recent success in Game 7 situations, the Bruins were probably hoping that it would rub off on them, allowing them to shake off a history of constantly losing Game 7. Sorry, try again. Last night brought a close to the hockey season in Boston, when the Bruins lost to the Montreal Canadiens in a 5 – 0 shutout. Habs rookie goalie Casey Price won his second shutout of......

If we had to pick one favorite moment from the Celtics' rout of Atlanta last night... Contenders would be Pierce's opening flurry of 3-pointers, or Ray Allen confidently taking over in the third quarter, or Rondo's patented "huck the ball off the other guy while falling out of bounds" move. Or any of numerous blocks, dunks, defensive shutdowns that made the 104-81 final not really even as close as that. But the greatest moment of......

We're big microcosm fans here at the Bostonist Sports Department. So we're even more excited by the Bruins than we'd ordinarily be. The story arc for their whole season has been overachievement, resilience, and good old-fashioned grit. They weren't supposed to be in the playoffs. They weren't supposed to hang with the mighty Canadiens. And they sure aren't supposed to be heading back to Montreal for Game Seven. But they are. In a game that......

He says he feels better. He says he's actually felt pretty good for a couple of weeks now. But David Ortiz must feel great today, after his season-long slump ended with a Monster shot grand slam off the hapless Rangers to spark a 11-3 whupping. It was such a rebirth for Papi that his teammates gave him the "silent treatment" in the dugout usually reserved for rookies hitting their first homer. Other offensive highlights: a......

Some people do their best work under pressure. Maybe that was the key to the Bruins 5-1 win over the Habs last night in Montreal. Phil Kessel, who has spent the majority of the playoffs on the bench, was the spark that got the B’s going in the second period, scoring the first goal for the team. It was the 3rd period when the Bruins decided to show the Canadiens that they weren’t going down......

We'll just say pitching was a factor in the Sox-Yankees game last night in New York. To be more specific, the Red Sox pitching - and complete breakdown thereof - allowed the Yanks to run amok, and while the Sox got plenty of offense, it wasn't enough, as the Sox got smacked 15-9. Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez homered off Clay Buchholz in the first to give NY a 2-1 lead. There was a little......

Time to bring in the big guns. We need what's left of the 2004 Red Sox to make a conference call from the Bronx. We need Terry Francona talking to Claude Julien, David Ortiz talking to Zdeno Chara, Curt Schilling talking to Tim Thomas. Call Dave Roberts and Kevin Millar and get them involved, too. Maybe even Curtis Leskanic is available. Because the '04 Sox are about the only team who knows what the Bruins......