Danny Ainge Can't Get Enough Of NBA Busts Plying Their Trade In China

Not that anyone besides me, a few Celtics beat writers, ball washers, Green teamers and team officials noticed but the past few weeks that Boston tried to sign D.J. White was one of the more bizarre things I can recall in recent Celtics history. Mercifully, that ended today as White was at practice and signed a 10-day contract with Boston after his clearance paperwork from China finally arrived after over a week of waiting.

White, the former Indiana star, was a first round pick (29th overall) of Detroit in 2008. He was traded to Oklahoma City and played parts of three seasons there before being traded to Charlotte. He spent 1.5 years in NBA purgatory (the Bobcats) then retreated to the Shanghai Sharks this season when he couldn't find an NBA deal. In other words, he followed a similar path to swingman Terrence Williams who was also playing in China before the Celts signed him before the trade deadline last week.

There is no reason to expect anything from White. He has averaged 6.8 points and 3.6 rebounds in his NBA career. His role will be as a big body (6-foot-9, 235 pounds) off the bench when Chris Wilcox or Brandon Bass get in foul trouble. Williams has actually looked decent in the few minutes he's played with the Celtics, we'll see if White can have even that amount of impact.

Getting White means that Boston has 12 healthy players, including Fab Melo, with Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullinger out for the rest of the season. Jordan Crawford, Williams and White were their only acquisitions right before and after the trade deadline this season as Danny Ainge chose to stick with his old cast for one more playoff run (fingers crossed).

Not that he'll probably play but White apparently will be available tomorrow night when the Celtics host the Warriors (7:30 p.m., CSN).

UPDATE 3/1: This morning, the Celtics signed forward/center Shavlik Randolph (the former Duke star was also playing in China) to a 10-day contract while they reassigned rookie center Fab Melo to the Maine Red Claws (D-League).

In addition, the Celts signed Terrence Williams for the rest of the season along with next year. A nice reward for a guy with serious promise in the right situation.

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The Boston Celtics' Future Doesn't Look So Grim After All

As I predicted late last night, Celtics head coach Doc Rivers mercifully gave his aging Big 3 the night off tonight and yet Boston was still able to win.

The Celts (36-25, 15-16 away) completed their back-to-back-to-back 2-1 this weekend with a 94-82 win vs. the Charlotte Bobcats (7-52, 4-24 home) 94-82 at Time Warner Cable Arena.

Most Celtics fans are scared to death of the great unknown that is life after KG, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen either retire or move on. Well a future with Rajon Rondo (20 points, 16 assists), Avery Bradley (22 points), Brandon Bass (22 points, 9 rebounds) and Greg Stiemsma (8 points, 6 blocks, 5 steals, 4 rebounds) doesn't look so bad, does it?

Without his usual crew, Rondo took more of a leadership role (yes I said that) and he did a nice job as he recorded double-digit assists for the 22nd straight game.

The Bobcats are winding down what will statistically end up as one of the worst in NBA history regardless of season length. Gerald Henderson led Charlotte with 22 points, Derrick Brown had 15 points and seven rebounds, D.J. White scored 13 points and D.J. Augustin handed out 10 assists.

Boston swept the season series 3-0 and best of all, they only have five games left in the regular season. After the NHL playoffs started last week, these NBA games just don't have the same pop (not that Celtics-Bobcats ever makes you take notice). The NBA playoffs start two weeks from yesterday, with Boston's final regular season game a week from Thursday. Those can't come soon enough as far as any NBA fan is concerned.

The Green and White close out this bizarre four-game road trip on Tuesday night (8:00 p.m., CSNE) at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks. Any game there is always special but the Celtics and Knicks have developed a nice, albeit one-sided rivalry, the last few seasons. Boston is 2-1 against their Atlantic Division foe.

Garnett and Pierce will be back, I'm not sure about Allen but it doesn't get much better than Boston vs. New York in any sport. Am I right rest of the America? (ducks)

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The Boston Celtics really don't want the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference

All season, the Boston Celtics hadn't lost back-to-back home games. Well I guess it took the heavyweight duo of the Memphis Grizzlies and Charlotte Bobcats to end that impressive streak.

Both Ray Allen (14 points) and Kevin Garnett (12 points, 9 rebounds) had chances to win it with wide-open 3-pointers at the end of regulation but it wasn't to be as Charlotte hung on for a 83-81 win last night at TD Garden.

Even without Stephen Jackson, the Bobcats (29-42) won their second straight against the Celtics (50-21), to split the season series (2-2). Charlotte is still two games behind Indiana for the last spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Speaking of being two games back, Boston is now two games behind the Bulls (who are on fire) and only half a game in front of the Heat.

Needless to say, facing the Pacers is much more appealing that the Sixers (6th) or Knicks (7th) in the first round of the playoffs. Not to mention that if the Celtics and Bulls meet in the playoffs-which seems likely-home court could certainly mean the difference in a seven-game series.

What made this meltdown so strange for the Celtics was that they led by 13 points heading into the fourth quarter (66-53) but proceeded to get doubled up in the fourth (30-15) by the Bobcats.

D.J. White led Charlotte with a team-high 17 points off the bench. Yes the same D.J. White that starred at Indiana but has bounced around the NBA. Gerald Henderson added 15 points, D.J. Augustin scored 14 points and Kwame Brown had 12 points and seven rebounds. When you look at that list of bums, you have to ask yourself: how did the Celtics lose?

Paul Pierce led Boston with 18 points and Rajon Rondo added 10 points. Glen Davis put up nine points and six rebounds off the bench and Nenad Krstic had seven points and eight rebounds.

Boston travels to Minnesota tomorrow night to face the Timberwolves. With any luck, double-double machine Kevin Love will be out nursing his groin injury. Regardless, the Celtics have to smoke the Timberwolves, no excuses.