What can we make of this team at this point? They look wonderful some nights and woeful others. You used to at least be able to say that they "got up" for big games and let the little dogs bite them. Now they are beating the Wizards of the world but dropping the big games against contenders. They used to own the Heat but got pwnd (as the kids say) by them yesterday.

Plenty of questions, few answers for Celtics - WEEI | Paul Flannery

All teams go through bad stretches of the regular season, but very few contenders go through a quarter of the season where they play like the Pacers. Making matters worse, the Celtics aren't just inconsistent from game to game, they're all over the place from quarter to quarter. How does a team that starts off making eight of its first nine shots, convert on less than 40 percent the rest of the way? How does a defensive-minded team get its doors blown off in transition and abused on the glass, while allowing one-dimensional players like Mario Chalmers and Anthony to succeed?

I would ask "what gives?" but there's no one answer to that question. There's a ton of issues with this team right now and not a lot of time to figure it out. Part of me thinks this is last year all over again but part of me worries that Bill Simmons and company are right and The Switch might not work this time around. We'll find out soon enough, even though it feels like this regular season is dragging on.

There's still an outside chance we could recapture the 2nd seed, but right now it looks like we've lost HCA for the first 2 rounds and we've got a date with the talented (but also inconsistent) New York Knicks in the first round.

(Oh yeah, and there's another game against the Wizards tonight)

On a "misery loves company" note, the Lakers lost again (to old friend Perkins and company).