For the Ward 4 Councilor

For months, Kevin Starr has been on me to write about the Celtics. Here you go. If you don't care, we'll see you later.

After last night's beating of the Clippers, the Celts are 43-12. Good lord. I was a pretty strong advocate of the over (50.5) going into the season, but I didn't expect 43-12 after the West Coast trip (2-3).

Obviously, the Celts got off to a ridiculous start. Ridiculous enough that local fans still full of Red Sox glory and obsessing over the unbeaten Pats took just enough time to realize the Cs were playing crazy ball. Contrast that with the Bruins, who are giving away Montreal tickets (!), and at least local fans realize something's up with the Celtics. Not enough to, you know, actually watch some games and realize the NBA is significantly better and more watchable than its been in 20 years, but whatever.

We've learned a few things this year: Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen meant it when they said they weren't in it for themselves, they just want to win a championship. Rajon Rondo was well worth keeping. Glen Davis is a very good seventh or eighth guy on a very good team. Posey, House and the rest of Ainge's reject pickups have been very savvy moves. Tony Allen is getting better, and is absolutely a very good player. In short, this is a very good team.

What we haven't learned is, how good, or can they win a title? I'm leaning toward "no," but I have a lot of hope.

Consider: Games with the Pistons have been all-out wars, and both teams won on the road. That portends to a fantastic potential playoff series, but not one you'd be very confident in the Celtics winning. In the meantime, the Cavs are starting to put it together, and LeBron James is just ridiculous. Look at what he did last spring, and you have to think he can will the Cavs to the Finals again, no? The East playoffs are no cakewalk for the Celts, but they are winnable.

It's tough to see the Celts winning the Finals, although you'd have to give them a punchers' chance. The West is so, so good. The Spurs are the Spurs, Phoenix is looking for harmony, and the Lakers are very tough after getting Gasol (and you'd have to think Kobe would be super-human if he could drag the Lakers back to the Finals).

There are teams in the West 10 games over .500 who might not make the playoffs. There teams in the East that might get in 10 games under .500. That shows just how much better the West is. The Celts recovered to go 2-3 on the western swing, which is merely OK. Losing three in a row didn't do them any favors, and shows they are mortal. But they did go 2-3 in a five-games-in-seven-days stretch, and won the last two, which shows they are good and mentally pretty tough.

If the Celts can survive Detroit/Cleveland/both, you'd have to think at the very least they're going to get a chance to win. They haven't been blown out this year (absolutely amazing), so you'd have to think they'd have a chance to win every game. The biggest problem with Garnett would probably making sure he didn't get too excited. You'd have to think after sucking for long, Pierce would be out of his mind in the Finals. I don't like Rondo against a number of West points (Nash, Parker in particular) in terms of talent and experience, and while Davis has been very good, can he handle the big stage? How about Tony Allen? And they have to get a real all-star performance from Ray Allen, who has been good/very good but rarely great this year.

But here we are at the end of February, and we're talking about whether or not the Celtics can win the NBA Finals. I still think they're a year away, but this year is most certainly not out of the question. Nice.