Let's give a hand, ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps even raise our Saturday morning coffee cups in a toast. To the new Celtics and basketball's new Big Three! Before we dive into Friday night's Celts season opener, we should take a quick trip back to May 22, when Boston gasped in horror over the hand fate had dealt. Fifth pick for what was then a terrible, wretched team. We were screwed. Ready to jump. Inconsolable.......

We don't watch Wheel of Fortune any more - once they started spotting people five letters in the bonus round, the thrilling intellectual pursuit seemed to be missing. But we remember from childhood the portion of the show where the winning contestant got to pick out their winnings; the disembodied head floated in the upper-left corner of the screen, smiling and beaming as the camera panned all the marvelous prizes up for grabs. Which is......

Wonder whatever became of the Pats? Well, they missed their target of 38 points, but still comfortably routed the Bengals last night, 34-13. On paper, it looked like the Bengals hung around - it was 10-7 until late in the second quarter - but it never felt like they were any closer than a long arm's length. With Laurence Maroney sidelined due to a groin injury, the spotlight shone on Sammy Morris, who made the......

Was there any doubt? The Patriots, good as they are, and now with the increased motivation of having the rest of the world hate them? Belichick, who is the smartest coach in the world anyway, now with the incentive to prove it? The wagons have been circled. You're either with us or against us. And the San Diego Chargers, who fancied themselves one of the elite teams in the NFL, got their butts handed to......

In the Saturday afternoon matchup between the Celtics and the New Jersey Nets, the Celtics enjoyed a 96-88 victory in overtime. The Celtics started off looking ugly, but then they just flipped a switch and played like a pretty good team. The show belonged to Al Jefferson. He reached a career high, and the announcers went wild calling him "Big Al." Sure, the Celtics are still in the basement, but a three-game winning streak feels......