As a long time Celtics fan [ since the days of Larry Bird and co.] I looked forward to the opening game against Cleveland, with a great deal of anticipation and some measure of trepidation. After all, when was the last time that our Celtics managed to take a game away from them in their own home? It's hard to remember when.

 When Rasheed Wallace joined the Cs, I wrote about how great a fit he would be, and with the projected signing of M.Daniels, I wrote about how our second unit would now rival many of the other teams first units.

As the preseason wore on,  it looked more and more obvious that my perception was right, and that we would be putting a formidable double team on the parquet this season, for the first time in so many years.

While Pierce and Allan did not have a great shooting night between them, it didn't mean that the team suffered, as it has a number of times in the past, when one or both had an off shooting night. What happened is that the second unit helped pick up the slack during crunch time, and at least for this match, one of the more important ones [ to be proven as the season goes on ] of this young season, clearly demonstrated the combined firepower and overall team effort in bearding the lion in his den.

Lionel Gaffen/Fotomix

Lygafe