The Boston Celtics have struggled at times this year. Some of those struggles have been due to injuries, but for the most part the early season struggles were due to the workhorses being out of shape. The 66-game season was sprung on the team in an instant, and there wasn't nearly enough time for the C's to get back into the gym and prepare themselves for strong start (like they had last season). Instead, perhaps with the way this season has taken place the Celtics are better fit for a late-season peak. Their defensive numbers are better since the rough start, their offensive numbers are better as well, and Paul Pierce is playing like the Paul Pierce we've all come to expect -- an All-Star. Let's take a deeper look.

The first two stats I'll throw out there I will leave open to interpretation from you, the reader.

• The C's offensive efficiency is at 99.4, which is 20th in the league. The league average is 100.2.
• The C's defensive efficiency is at 94.6, which is 3rd in the league. The league average is 100.2.

The Celtics have improved from there terrible start shooting the ball (as a team) to have an eFG% of 49.85, which is good for eighth best in the NBA. The league average is 48.2. On the contrary, the Celtics's are holding their opponents to a league-best 44.58 eFG%. The defense is there. It may not be on a championship level yet, but it is effective. Certainly those numbers are flawed, though. With all of the C's great defensive numbers you have to take into account that the league's shooting numbers are down greatly compared to this time last season. Teams are scoring less, players are shooting worse (save guys like LeBron, etc), and as a whole the league just has not been in shape enough to put together a fantastic product. Will that change over the course of the season? Absolutely.

However, I don't think the fact that teams will begin shooting better will change the stifling effects of the Boston defense. This team has for the most part locked in defensively. I've seen better defensive rotations from everyone, better man-to-man defense from everyone, and even KG has been playing pretty great defense -- something that is obviously not unexpected from a guy has been on the NBA All-Defensive First Team a total of nine times. The Celtics are also holding teams to a league best (as in, the lowest percentage in the entire league) 28% from beyond the three-point arc. This is greatly better than the league average of 34.3%. the C's perimeter defense hasn't been lacking by any means over the course of the past three years, but to put it into perspective: the C's held opponents to 34% (2nd in the NBA) from long distance last year, 34.2% in 2009-10, and 34.9% during the 2008-2009 season. Yes, again, the numbers are probably skewed because teams aren't shooting as well this season, but if anything close to this pace continues in terms of perimeter defense then Boston will greatly augment their success as the season continues.

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In the first game Greg Stiemsma played in as a Boston Celtic, he had six blocks in twenty minutes. Three games after that, he was in the starting lineup against the Washington Wizards, and had 13 points and 7 rebounds in twenty-one minutes. Stiemsma was quickly cultivating a label in Boston, one of a cult hero. The fans cheered wildly and uncontrollably every team Stiemsma entered the game, and became the center of a few featured pieces by America's finest sports blogging industries. His numbers were not exactly mind-boggling, but his backstory was strong enough for NBA fans to continuously root Stiemsma on -- think a lesser Jeremy Lin. He even learned last week that the Celtics would likely be employing his services for the rest of the season, a huge break for someone who has spent most of his professional life overseas or toiling in the D-League.

All these things are nice, but lately, Stiemsma has almost vanished from the Celtics primary rotation. Take a look:

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Rajon Rondo is not your average point guard. This much is a given. In fact, that might be the only definitive thing I can say about him at this point.

He's a great passer but he sometimes looks to pass to a fault. He can be an elite defender but he gambles too much. He's a poor shooter but he'll still take a shot from time to time. He's incredibly bright by all accounts, but also terribly stubborn. He has a stoic face but you can see the fire in him. He's utterly fearless and plays through pain, yet he sometimes slacks off and may have too thin of a skin for his own good.

To me, these are the reasons why Rondo is becoming the most polarizing player for fans. He's either totally mesmerizing or completely infuriating, sometimes in the same game.

If, like me, you focus on the positives, you'll see a 2 time All Star pass-first point guard with triple double potential who has proven that he can take his game to the highest levels when it matters most. On the other hand, if you choose to focus on the negative, you'll see an inconsistent, moody, potentially fatally flawed enigma of a player that may not be worth building around. Neither opinion is wrong or right, they are opinions.

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With the rash of injuries and the kiddie pool depth at the center spot, you'd think that Doc would be willing and eager to try out his rookie big man JaJuan Johnson. Not so much. Here were Doc's words before the game.

Rivers: Don't expect more minutes for JaJuan Johnson -- yet -Celtics blog - Boston Globe basketball news

But Johnson isn't ready to play meaningful minutes in big games for the Celtics, according to coach Doc Rivers. "Not yet," said Rivers. "I think he's getting close. You've got to execute when you're on the floor. That's an area he has to improve on. He's talented, but there's a level to me of intensity that you have to play with every night, and focus. And he's inconsistent. But he's getting there, and he's a great kid, and he will be there."

On the other hand, actions sometimes speak louder than words. Johnson played 33 minutes and scored 12 points on 6 of 13 shooting and added 4 rebounds (3 offensive!) and a blocked shot too. So, all is well right? The lid is off and he will play more now right? Again, not so fast.

Johnson picks up play to help lift Celtics - CNNSE

"He’s got to keep doing it," said Rivers. "One game doesn’t make a star. One season doesn’t make a star. So you’ve just got to keep doing it and he’s got to do it consistently. He will, like I keep saying. He’s a great kid and he wants to do it. He’s young and he’s still learning focus and all that. But he’s a good player."

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It can seem impossible to compare Paul Pierce to his contemporaries, due to a style of play that is just so different from his peers. He's a different animal than the LeBron's or the Kobe's or the Shaq's -- players who dominated the previous decade. On Tuesday night Pierce moved past Celtics Immortalis Larry Bird into second place on the Celtics' all-time scoring list. As Jeff mentioned earlier in the week, this milestone sort of snuck up on everyone, because Pierce's legacy as a basketball player is somehow understated in spite of his best efforts to create the contrary. Throughout his entire 13-year career, Pierce has consistently put up the same stellar numbers every year, usually in the 22-6-4 range. Those aren't eye-popping averages, but when a player does them for over a decade it becomes impressive. All of Pierce's impressive moments on the basketball court came over a period of time -- like the 19-point fourth quarter against the Nets in the 2002 Eastern Finals. His career highlight reel isn't riddled with tomahawk dunks or ruthless blocks. Instead it would be filled with dagger jump shots and three pointers, a play that perfectly sums up how Pierce fits in with the rest of the NBA pantheon during his professional tenure.

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Looking back over the season so far, you can almost group the games together and see the patterns and trends come into focus. The first few games were high emotion, low preparation, and they just came up short. The next few games were against cupcake opponents so they were easy wins. The bottom line is that they were either too out of shape or too unprepared mentally to get wins during that 5 game losing streak - which may yet come back to haunt them.

From that point on, however, the team has won 8 out of 10 games and seems to be hitting their stride. They haven't looked perfect throughout. The Jekyll and Hyde routine played itself out even during individual games often enough. But that's kind of been this team's M.O. for a while now, so no big surprise there.

The overall sentiment I'm trying to get across here is that we're headed in the right direction. Are we "there" yet (where ever there is)? Not by a long shot. We've got miles and miles to go before we hit the playoffs and we've got some epic road trips happening in the 2nd half of the season. But we can be reasonably sure that Danny has seen enough from this team to not hit the detonate button (unless he gets wowed with offers he can't refuse).

I don't know if we're title contenders yet, but if the playoffs started tomorrow, there wouldn't be a team in the league that would look forward to playing this group. And that's a good start.

When it comes to physical fitness and keeping the body healthy, Ray Allen is tops on the Celtics - maybe in the league.

Mickael Pietrus probably isn't too far behind though. But it hasn't always been that way for Pietrus.

Talking to him a couple years back when he was with the Magic, I can swear that he told me his pregame meal at the time was 20 McDonalds chicken McNuggets. I was appalled. I remember eventually mentioning it to Allen, to which he shook his head and said something along the lines of it giving him a huge advantage over guys like Pietrus on the court.

Pietrus is a jokester though, and maybe he was yanking my chain as a rookie reporter back then, but that's what he said.

But whether it was before a game, after, or an off-day, Pietrus was doing his fair share of snacking, even if it didn't necessarily show with his weight.

That's not the case anymore.

"That's what I used to do like two years ago, but I changed my diet," he said of the junk food. "I changed the way I eat now."

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