Back to the Celtics

I've had a Celtics post brewing for awhile. Sorry, I'm still hooked.

First, they are kicking ass. No two ways about it. They're demolishing bad teams, and sucking the life out of would-be challengers (say hello, Detroit and Atlanta). They took care of business the right way against Indiana the other night, smacking around one of the two teams that beat them this year. They're 18-2, and the national NBA writers are busy loving LeBron and 2010, and Kobe. Let them love them. I'm not sure the Celtics are "better than they were last year," because they were very, very, very good in the Finals. But they are better now than they were at this point last year.

Interestingly, I think many Celtics fans though this would be The Year they broke through. Last year would be the transition year, and this year would be the year they went for it all. They were good enough to win it all last year, and look like (injury free) they'll be right there again this year.

A few observations: Ray Allen is playing great ball right now, and when he's playing well, he is just beautiful to watch. Just a joy to behold. Kevin Garnett hasn't lost an ounce of intensity, and that trickles down. When Rondo is playing well, the Celtics are probably unstoppable. Just too much. And Paul Pierce is playing at a whole new level. The guy takes over games now with the confidence of a champion. He's totally believes he can win a game when he needs to. It's pretty cool to see.

I finally got off the dime to write this one after reading S.L. Price's excellent, excellent story on Pierce in this week's Sports Illustrated. Some of it is old news to Celtics fans -- his yelling out the names of the guys drafted in front of him, for example -- but it's a better look at what makes Pierce tick than anything else I've read on him. Ever. He's clearly not a darling little angel, but he's also supremely driven and legitimately gives a damn. Can't ask for much more at this point. Love him or not, definitely worth a read.