Do You Still Believe?

As they wait for the real games to start, Rivers admits nobody is afraid of his team anymore. But like his galaxy of fading stars, he believes they can put it together in the playoffs.

And I’m still buying.

I don’t care if the Celtics are 2-9 against the Cavaliers, Magic, and Hawks. Seeing them lose at home to the New Jersey Nets doesn’t discourage me. Getting whupped by the Grizz by 20 at the Garden is OK. Sometimes you’ve just got to see the glass as half full. This is one of those times.

--Dan Shaughnessy

It’s a completely different team. All of them are different. They’re better, they’re healthier. They’re feeling better.

--Doc

That was a hell of a season. We ended up six wins short of where I said we'd end up. Not bad in light of other talk we heard about 70 wins and above.

At the end of the day, this team was, well, not a team. They were a collection of parts that never got assembled. Squisy did this and that. Nate Robinson did this and that. Pierce and KG were hurt. Sheed was fat. Doc got tuned out or something akin thereto.

Needless to say, I'm not optimistic about the playoffs. We might sneak out of the first round. And you can count on the locals to have their fists up for round two, should they make it that far. But to succeed in the playoffs you need to be able to dig deep, draw on past success, and the current group has not had much success as a group. They've had as much bad as they've had good. Strike that, I'm not sure the good rises to a high enough level to offset the bad.

So when push comes to shove at a critical juncture of the playoffs, the Celtics will be struggling with what to do as a team, and that doesn't bode well for the green.

Fast Eddie Felson Still has Believers

This can’t be easy for Doc Rivers. He claims he is having fun, but it’s got to be a nightmare to motivate these guys as they wait for the real games to start.Rivers admits nobody is afraid of his team anymore, but like his galaxy of fading stars, he believes they can put it together in the playoffs.

And I’m still buying.

I don’t care if the Celtics are 2-9 against the Cavaliers, Magic, and Hawks. Seeing them lose at home to the New Jersey Nets doesn’t discourage me. Getting whupped by the Grizz by 20 at the Garden is OK. Sometimes you’ve just got to see the glass as half full. This is one of those times.

--Dan Shaughnessy

What do I think?

I still like our bench a whole bunch. The starters are trying to turn the corner. In the end, though, my opinion is unchanged.

The Ultimate Hustle: The Boston Celtics and Fast Eddie Felson

Way back when the season started, Doc Rivers told us that the Celtics only had time to put in five or so plays during the exhibition schedule, and, even if he had more time, he wouldn't have put in more plays because he didn't want to tip his hand.

Before that we heard conflicting accounts about KG's knee surgery. One account said he only had bone spurs removed, with no damage being done to the tendon. A different account said the tendon had to be stapled to knee following the surgery. All year long, the Celtics have played hot and cold, cold and room temperature, really, with talk of flipping the switch when the appropriate time came. To further whet our appetite, KG has shown flashes of his old self, and the team has played exceedingly well for ten-minute stretches.

Meanwhile, most of Celtics Nation has given up on the Green's chances of landing championship 18 this year, including your author. KG has no lateral movement. Far from being as productive as Bill Walton, Rasheed Wallace is barely living up to the standards set by Brad Lohaus. Paul Pierce shows up about 25% of the time, and when he does, it doesn't always make a difference. Marquis Daniels finds ways to get shots from 12 feet and in fairly consistently, yet rarely proves to be a difference maker, either.

Still, if you believe Rajon Rondo, the Celtics have gas left in the tank. They have tricks left up their sleeve. Rondo expects the real Boston Celtics to show up when the playoffs start.Doc Rivers adds fuel to the fire by suggesting that he will start holding the veterans out of games so they can practice what they'll play in the post-season. Maybe he'll add those other 15 plays to the playbook. Perhaps KG the senior citizen will take off that knee support and the KG of hold will run out of the tunnel.

If you piece all these disparate clues together, then, one might conclude that the Celtics don't stink as bad as we think they do. That 17-18 record since the end of December is all just so much deception. The Celtics are playing Paul Neuman's Fast Eddie Felson to a league eager to believe they are old and tired.

Are you buying? Does it look like the Celtics have been lying in wait, hustling the leauge by playing at half-speed? Do you believe the Celtics have another gear?

I say no.

If the Boston Celtics are fooling anybody, they are only fooling themselves. Kind of like Fast Eddie Felson in the above clip.