The Celtics are going streaking!

Let's look at the situation the Celtics faced last night: They were playing their 3rd game on an 8-day, 5-game road trip, their 2nd game of back-to-back nights, they had exerted lots of energy making a huge comeback against the defending champs the previous night, they were playing against the Western Conference leader, who also had won an incredible 22 straight games, and they were without their 3rd best player, Ray Allen. The deck wasn't exactly stacked in their favor.

But after last night's BEATDOWN of the Rockets, coupled with the 22-pt comeback against the Spurs, the Celtics have emphatically stated that they are the team to beat. In fact, since trailing 35-13 early in the 2nd quarter against the Spurs, the Celtics have outscored their opponents 174-130 (plus 44!). That's an impressive 82 minutes of absolute dominance on the court, especially considering it was against two of the Western Conference's best teams on their floors. It's pretty safe to say that the Celtics will have the league's best record at season's end (they have a 5-game lead on Detroit with 15 games to play). So, the road for the NBA title will travel through Boston, where they have lost just 5 times this year. It's been a long time since that statement has been made true - 22 years in fact.

A little trip down memory lane: The 1985-1986 Celtics were the last Celtics team to finish the season with the best record, as they went 67-15 (40-1 at home ... I repeat, 40-1 at home!). They proceed to go 15-3 in the playoffs (10-0 at home) to win the NBA title. They swept a young Jordan's Bulls in round 1 despite Jordan going off for 63 points in game 2, the NBA playoff game scoring record. They beat 'Nique's Hawks 4-1 in round 2, losing 1 game in Atlanta, and then they swept the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals. Of course, the Lakers blew it against the Rockets (featuring the Twin Towers, Hakeem & Sampson) and cost the Celtics a chance to get retribution from the previous year's NBA Finals. The Celtics easily best the Rockets in the Finals, winning 4 games to their 2, and all 3 wins in the Garden were routs, including the clincher. For these reasons, this particular Celtics team is regularly mentioned as one of the greatest team of all-time (and if the Lakers had the balls to show up for the Finals and take the beating they had coming to them, the argument would be much stronger, but I digress).

This year's Celtics team is currently 54-13, and a quick glance at their remaining 15 games, there's no reason this team shouldn't go 11-4 at an absolute worst. So they should win 65+ games. As a born and raised Celtics fan, hopefully they can match the playoff success of the 1985-1986 Celtics and bring home GREEN 17!!!

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