The night the Boston Celtics gave up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference

You want to tell yourself that this season is different for the Boston Celtics but after watching them lose for a third time in their last four games (all to inferior opponents) and you have to finally admit that it's 2009-10 all over again.

The New Jersey Nets (22-43) won their fifth game in a row, 88-79 at the Prudential Center. Boston (47-18) was held under 90 points for the third straight game and it really hurt them since their defense was up to the task.

It was another horrorshow in the second night of a back-to-back for the Celts, they seem destined to lose all of them at this point.

Brook Lopez led the Nets with 20 points while that skank Kim Kardashian's main squeeze Kris Humphries proved his worth with 16 points and 15 rebounds. How does one bounce from Reggie Bush to Humphries? Granted, I don't have the world's most famous butt. It's just funny that I had never noticed Humphries until I found him on my fantasy NBA waiver wire a few months back. I'm sure Kim discovered him in the same manner.

New Jersey's new point guard Deron Williams notched 16 points, nine assists, six rebounds and three steals, Anthony Morrow had 15 points and Travis Outlaw put up 12 points off the bench.

Boston received 19 points from Ray Allen and 18 points and eight rebounds from Kevin Garnett but Glen Davis (16 points, 14 rebounds off the bench) was the only other player to really show up. Rajon Rondo blindly ran into Humphries on a hard screen (easy Kim) and that didn't seem to help him in his recent slump as he was held to two points (1-for-10 shooting) and nine assists.

The weird thing is that the Celtics looked in control when the game started. They were up 23-14 after one quarter but the Nets cut it to 38-36 at halftime. New Jersey got it done in the third quarter (31-23) and Boston couldn't hit any shots in the fourth quarter (21-18 for the Nets).

Boston shot 41.2% to New Jersey's 39.7%. However, the Nets led by Williams (4) and Morrow (3) hit nine more 3-pointers (11-2) and eight more free throws (15-7). The Celtics actually grabbed five more rebounds (50-45) and dished out three more assists (22-19). New Jersey had three more blocks (6-3).

Big Baby looked great in his second game back from knee tendinitis. Hopefully Delonte West can have an impact too as he's set to return tomorrow night when the Celts host the Pacers.

Boston needs to not only win but get their offense back on track. They're tied now atop the Eastern Conference with the Bulls and the Heat are only two games back. There's only 17 more games left in the regular season so they all have meaning for homecourt. Thinking the Celts can get to the Finals again without homecourt throughout the playoffs is naive and not very realistic.

Bucks decide not to show up, held to franchise low by Celtics

After losing two straight, the Boston Celtics came into last night's game vs. the Milwaukee Bucks at TD Garden in need of a win.

The fact that it turned out to be so one-sided and historical were some nice footnotes to a pathetic showing by the Bucks. The Celtics (47-17) won 87-56.

Milwaukee (26-39) was playing the second leg of a back-to-back on the road so a flight and losing an hour to daylight savings didn't help but come on? There are no excuses for dropping 22 points in the first half against a team that you played pretty hard against a week earlier.

The Bucks were held to a franchise-low point total and the Celtics also set a defensive mark for lowest points allowed in a game.

Oh well. Ray Allen led the hit parade with 17 points while Nenad Krstic continued to be a rebounding machine with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Paul Pierce added 14 points in a short night as the starters got to leave for good in the third quarter.

Jeff Green (11 points) and Troy Murphy (12 points, 7 rebounds) were the standouts off the bench along with Carlos Arroyo (6 assists).

With a back-to-back tonight, in Newark, things will no doubt be much harder for the Cs as they take on the Nets. New Jersey has won their last four games in a row and Deron Williams returns from a few games away (his wife had a baby) so he'll be raring to go. Don't be surprised if this one goes down to the wire. You've seen that script before.

Bruins lose fourth straight, the world is ending

Last night, the Boston Bruins experienced the rare trap game in the NHL and as expected, they did not respond well.

For the second straight night, they held a 2-0 lead but for the second consecutive game they blew it (first two times they've done that all season) as they lost 4-2 to the host New York Islanders at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Boston (38-21-9) has now lost a season-high four games and even that is misleading since they've been playing bad for longer than that. They didn't really deserve to win the last few games on their last road trip but they ended up on top.

For whatever reason, now the hockey Gods are not smiling on this woeful franchise.

Nathan Horton stayed hot with his 20th goal of the season at 16:29 of the first period. Milan Lucic and David Krejci assisted on the goal that Horton finished with a backhander to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Things looked good when the power-play shook off the cobwebs and scored its first goal since February 18 when Zdeno Chara scored at 13:02 of the second period (his 12th of the season). Krejci and Tomas Kaberle assisted on Big Z's goal.

From there New York goaltender Al Montoya (26 saves) kept Boston scoreless.

The turning point happened with two seconds left in the second period as Matt Moulson scored his 29th of the season for the Islanders (27-32-10). It wasn't pretty as Moulson stuffed it past Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas (38 saves) but it counted with assists to John Tavares and P.A. Parenteau.

I was texting with a buddy at that point and we were already predicting the Bruins' demise. He said they'd lose in a shootout, luckily for us they didn't drag it out that long.

Rookie Michael Grabner scored his 28th of the season at 1:58 to tie it up (from Kyle Okposo and Milan Jurcina). Defenseman Jack Hillen potted the game-winner at 5:58 (from Radek Martinek and Okposo). The meltdown wasn't complete without the rare empty-netter awarded when Patrice Bergeron hauled down Parenteau with 10 seconds left.

The good news is that the Bruins have the weekend to recover before three more games on the road (Columbus, Nashville, Toronto). Boston visits the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. I'd say Columbus is not very good (which is a true statement) but anybody is capable of giving the Bruins trouble at the moment. The Bruins have to wake up, starting now.

I really don't want to see the Sixers in the first round

I would much rather see the Boston Celtics face either the Indiana Pacers or Charlotte Bobcats in the first round of the playoffs this season. It's not that the Philadelphia 76ers would beat them but their athleticism and depth would take a lot more out of the Celts than the other two teams.

It seems like the Sixers (34-31) always give Boston (46-17) a game and last night, they ended up winning one, 89-86 at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Big Three combined to shoot 11-for-31, as bad a shooting performance as I can remember from those three future Hall of Famers.

Jeff Green led the Celts with 18 points while Nenad Krstic added 16 points and 15 rebounds. Kevin Garnett had 14 points and Paul Pierce scored 12 while Ray Allen was held to just five points. Rajon Rondo had a quiet 12 points.

Spencer Hawes led Philadelphia with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Elton Brand added 14 points. Andre Iguodala had 13 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Jodie Meeks scored 12 points and Thaddeus Young had 12 points off the bench.

Boston looks to bounce back from its two straight losses as they host the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow night at TD Garden. Glen Davis is expected back in the lineup.

Bruins pick a good time to start a losing streak

The regular season is quickly winding down and with only 15 games left, the Boston Bruins desperately need points to stay near the top of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Last night, they lost 4-3 to the Buffalo Sabres in overtime at the TD Garden. Former Bruins forward Brad Boyes was able to tap-in a great pass from Nathan Gerbe (former BC star) at 3:44 in the extra session.

Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas (41 saves) did not have his best night of the season, flopping around in his crease which is always a bad sign when he reverts to his old helter skelter ways. It was an innocent shot by Gerbe that started the sequence but Thomas couldn't squeeze it. Gerbe tracked down the rebound and with Thomas coming way out and whiffing, Boyes parked himself at the side of the net.

Buffalo (33-26-8) rallied from a 2-0 deficit and was able to hand Boston (38-20-9) its third straight loss, even though it did get the bogus point.

It's hard to pinpoint what exactly is tripping up the Bruins at the moment, it seems to be something different in each game (goal-scoring, everything, defense, goaltending).

Nathan Horton's 19th of the season gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 8:54 of the first period. Some wonderful passing from linemates Milan Lucic and David Krejci (they've all been outstanding lately) ended in Horton's quick release.

Mark Recchi (12th of the season) made it 2-0 at 11:26 of the second period with a classic Recchi goal. Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller (27 saves) made a save but Recchi went to the dirty net-front area and flipped the rebound in. Michael Ryder and Zdeno Chara assisted on that one.

Buffalo responded right away as Tyler Ennis cut it to 2-1 at 11:53 and Thomas Vanek tied it at 2 at 18:52. Ennis' goal took some skill as he waited out Thomas and seemingly the whole Bruins team to put it over them and into the net. Vanek's goal was much more unforgivable since his weak flip on net tied up Thomas.

Gregory Campbell (10th of the season) got his first point in eight games with another mucking and grinding goal at 2:18 in the third period. Miller's rebound went right to Soupy who poked it in. Chara and Shawn Thornton assisted.

More bad luck ensued for Thomas as Buffalo tied it up after a shot went off Chara's skate and into the net. Tim Connolly was credited for the goal at 5:05.

Rich Peverley had a great chance to end it in overtime but his shot went off the post and shortly after that, Boyes ended it.

The Bruins are right back at it tonight as they take on the Islanders in Long Island. They are playing out the string as always but the Islanders have been playing pretty decently lately and they have a dearth of talented forwards.

Clippers shock the Celtics at TD Garden

If I told you that Blake Griffin only had 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists when the Los Angeles Clippers visited the TD Garden, you would have thought the Celtics had rolled by like 20+ points, right?

Welcome to bizarro world as the young superstar was held completely in check yet the Clips (25-40) won 108-103 over the Celtics (46-16), who were disinterested in playing defense all game.

Despite basically no-showing for three quarters, it looked like Boston might make an epic comeback as they whittled a 23-point lead (65-42) down to three (86-83) with less than six minutes remaining. That's as close as they would get though as Los Angeles made all their shots down the stretch and deservedly came away with only their seventh road win of the season.

Mo Williams (game-high 28 points) and DeAndre Jordan (21 points on almost all dunks) were the unlikely stars for the Clippers. Former Celtic and my old college buddy Ryan Gomes added 12 points, Randy Foye notched nine points and 12 assists while Chris Kaman scored 10 off the bench.

Ray Allen led Boston with 23 points, Nenad Krstic added 20 points and nine rebounds while Paul Pierce had 19 points. Kevin Garnett (5-for-19) put up 16 points and eight rebounds despite the worst shooting performance I can ever remember from him. Rajon Rondo also struggled from the field (6-for-15) but he had 13 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the game was when Boston's five newest players: Krstic, Jeff Green (6 points), Carlos Arroyo (4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists in his debut), Sasha Pavlovic (2 points) and Troy Murphy (2 steals) were all on the floor at the same time. It speaks to Boston's immense depth (if Shaq and Delonte West ever get healthy) that these will mostly be bench players when Glen Davis returns.

Los Angeles was ahead right from the start, 30-17 after the first quarter and 60-42 at halftime. Boston recovered with a strong third quarter (24-16) and fourth (37-32) but it wasn't enough.

The Clippers shot 52.0% to 44.0% for the Celtics. LA hit three more 3-pointers (9-6) and had seven more assists (28-21). Boston made the comeback with six more steals (10-4), four more fast break points (12-8) and eight more points in the paint (48-40).

After seeing their five-game win streak snapped, Boston will try to get a new one started tomorrow night when they visit the City of Brotherly Love. The Sixers have been playing great lately but the Cs have owned them the last few years. This could be a potential first round matchup in the playoffs this season.

Could anything else have gone wrong last night for the Bruins in Montreal?

Last night was one of the very rare times this season that I've decided to forgo watching a Bruins game. I always tape them and almost always, despite knowing the final result, I view it after work on DVR.

Frankly I wasn't in the mood late last night or this morning. The Montreal Canadiens won their fourth out of five games against the Boston Bruins this season, 4-1 at the Bell Centre.

The teams meet one more time in the regular season but it's not too early to say that the Bs must avoid Montreal in the playoffs. For whatever reason, they don't matchup with them well at all and can't play their game.

With good reason, the only thing that anyone is talking about from last night's game is the possibly dirty hit by Zdeno Chara on Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty.

I was listening to the game on the radio when it happened but I saw the replay approximately a million times and have sifted through all the reaction on Twitter since then.

The bottom line is that Pacioretty got carted off the ice on a stretcher with a severe concussion and broken vertebrae in his neck. Chara threw him into the boards and Pacioretty hit the stanchion in between the benches. Was it intentional or was it bad luck? We'll never know but I will say that Chara is a monster in size but he's not dirty.

We'll have to wait and see if the NHL decides to suspend Chara.

This wasn't much of a contest as Montreal (37-23-7) was up 4-0 in the second period before Pacioretty got hurt with 16 seconds left in the frame. Chara got a five minute for interference and a game misconduct. Since the delay was so long, the referees made the wise decision to just end that period and send the teams to the dressing rooms.

Lars Eller (who?) scored a pair of goals in the first period for the Canadiens. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask (22 saves) was beaten two more times, both on the power play, in the second period.

Brian Gionta and James Wisniewski both scored. Gionta's shot trickled over the line, one that Rask would surely love to have back. Wisniewski's was a screened blast from the point.

Canadiens goaltender Carey Price (30 saves) stopped Brad Marchand's penalty shot (after being tripped on a breakaway by Roman Hamrlik) but Milan Lucic finally beat him at 13:21 of the third period to avoid the shutout. Lucic's 29th of the season was assisted by David Krejci.

The Bruins come home to face the red-hot Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night at TD Garden. After being out of the playoff picture for most of the season, the Sabres have put themselves in the discussion with some strong play.