29-4

Ah, Charlotte.

I remember them well.

Chances are you do, too.

Sat, Nov 24   @ Charlotte   W 96-95
Wed, Jan 9    Charlotte     L 83-95
Fri, Feb 29   Charlotte     W 108-100
Sat, Apr 5    @ Charlotte   W 101-78

One loss, one near loss, and two dog-fights.

All four games last year had one thing in common:

Talk of mismatch problems.

Most Celtics fans dismissed the talk, much like they did when the same discussion was had during regular season games against Atlanta.

But as the first round of the playoffs proved, where there's smoke, there's fire.

Another interpretation of the four Celtics-Cats contests suggests that there were scheduling issues that favored the Cats.

The Celtics first game against the Cats last season, a last second win, followed the first Celtics-Lakers tilt at the Gahden.

The Celts second game against the Cats, a 12-point loss that prompted a special editorial from Bill Walton (pictured giving that editorial above), dropped the Celtics to 29-4. The loss followed a nine game win-streak that included a five-game West Coast sweep and victories at home over Houston and Detroit. After the loss to the Cats, the Green lost two straight to the Wiz.

Can you spell L-E-T-D-O-W-N?

The Celtics handled the Cats more easily in the next two contests, largely because the vagaries of the schedule finally favored the C's.

The C's are due for a letdown again here sometime soon. With a big game looming on Monday against the 12-4 Magic, let's hope the Green is focused on the game at hand tonight.