1) Who Won the Cleveland/Boston Trade?

You know. The big one. Semih Erden for Ryan Hollins in a one-year delayed-reaction deal. After taking several weeks to adjust, all of a sudden Ryan is doing a fine Semih imitation of adequately filling minutes while the Celtics win. That's all you can ask.

(Did you see Ryan Hollins last night? OMG, he was adequate! I've never seen a guy be so adequate!)

*

2) Who Won the Milwaukee/Boston Trade?

That was bodyless name Albert Miralles for Keyon Dooling and a nonexistent flash-paper second rounder.

As unexpectedly as the emergence of Hollins, Keyon Dooling is suddenly PJ Brown invaluable. He nailed two crucial threes keeping the Celtics in the game last night, and in his spare time is mentoring Rondo between contests.

Here's a Dooling quote via Chris Forsberg: "We did this for [Rajon Rondo] tonight. This is a tribute to Rondo; we got his back."

3) Shhhh

So stop yelling at Doc. When he played Keyon and Ryan in the regular season, it was because he knew what he's doing.

Memo to the internet: Doc is smarter than you.

*

4) RonDo's and RonDon'ts

There have been countless entries in the Do column. And... there's one for the Don't column.

*

5) Phew

No matter. As it turned out, thanks to Pierce's uberheroics, the Celtics won anyway. If you think about it, winning without Rondo was better than winning with him, because it gave him time to rest that aching back.

*

6) Injuries

Ray, Rose, Shumpert, Smith. The Eastern slope keeps shifting. If Ray was healthy, I'd consider the Celtics favorites in the conference right now. Unfortunately Ray isn't healthy.

*

7) All That Regular Season Thinking...

...for nothing. It was needless effort. Remember all that jockeying for position teams did trying to avoid Chicago? Now look. Chicago is still formidibull, but they're no longer invincibull.

Still, should both teams advance, they continue to match up pretty well with Boston. The Bulls rebound, while the Celtics don't like doing that one bit. Their bench is strong while the Celtics without Ray are thin on the pine. Plus, Chicago still plays that great defense, (which is really the Celtics' defense and probably subject to licensing fees).

*

8) Then There's Miami

No one likes Miami. They have some beautiful players, but are sadly unloved by basketball afficiandos everywhere. That's the way of things I guess. I know the rest of you will join me in deep and sincere empathy for the plight of Pat Riley, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James.

*

9) Pietrus

Tommy mentioned it last night. He doesn't look right. He's still not all the way healthy. With Ray unlikely to return, they need him- I mean NEED HIM.

*

10) Most Importantly, Here's a Picture of Yao Ming's Bicycle:

via i.imgur.com