Indulge the Guilty Pleasure

The Celtics, who are 5-0 and are outscoring opponents by an average of 22 points per game, won easily without significant contributions from Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Kendrick Perkins. Both Garnett (23 minutes) and Perkins (20 minutes) had 3 points and six rebounds, their teammates jokingly accusing them of taking the night off.

The Sixers pulled within 15 after three quarters, but the Celtic reserves turned it into a rout. Eddie House and Rasheed Wallace hit 3-pointers in the first 5:53 of the quarter, and a Lester Hudson trey increased the advantage to 95-61 with 4:59 remaining. “They take a lot of pressure off us,’’ Paul Pierce said. “We saw it early, the potential of our bench. Hopefully, they’ll continue to do the things to make them play great. “The more rest the better. That means we’re playing well, and, knowing it’s a long season, it’s going to pay off late in the season.’’

Pierce said the intrasquad scrimmages have improved both the starters and the second unit. “It’s tough to stop them, actually, and that’s why I think our defense is so good,’’ Pierce said, “because if we stop them, we can pretty much stop anybody.’’ Wallace scored 20 points and was 6 for 8 on 3-pointers.

“The best part is, when one guy has it going, they make a concerted effort to make sure that guy is getting the next shot until somebody stops him. You don’t see that a lot from a lot of benches. “They’re veterans, they understand the game, they’re playing to win, they have no agendas. Those three guys [Marquis Daniels, House, Wallace] kind of set the table.’’

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Go ahead. Admit it. The thought has crossed your mind. The Boston Celtics' bench is better than their starters. There's nothing wrong with this guilty pleasure. It's not even a four-letter daydream, depending on how you go about comparing the effectiveness of the first and second units. There is no doubt the second-unit plays every second on the floor like the starters played every second of the 2007-08 season.

Let's get a couple of things straight. The 2009-10 Boston Celtics' bench is ahead of schedule. If the barometer is the 1985-86 bench, then the 2009-10 bench is way ahead of schedule. Look here and you'll see how Bill Walton embarrassed himself in the first game of the 1985-86 season. Look here and you'll see that the bench was still underperforming and disappointing as late as December 11th, 1985. It wasn't until the end of December 1985 that the 1985-86 bench started to gel and show some promise.

So my question is if the 2009-10 bench is playing this well now, what will they look like come December and January, especially as we start to prepare to play that one team from the other coast?