I know it’s easy to overreact to last night’s loss. (“Losing to the Cavaliers? They’re going to do THIS again?? They don’t give a damn about the regular season!! NOOO!!!”) I even cautioned before the game that it would be a nice measuring stick to determine the Celtics’ collective attitude this year. But there are a couple reasons why you shouldn’t be too concerned… yet, at least.

1. It was just one game – I know last night felt like deja-vu, like last year all over again. But it was just one game, people. Last year wasn’t concerning because the Celtics lost a single bad game. It was concerning because the Celtics made a habit of losing to bad teams, a habit of getting outworked by inferior opponents. They went .500 for the final two-thirds of last season, for God’s sake. They lost to the Nets. They lost to the Wizards. They lost to the Grizzlies by 20. And they lost all those games at home, and two of them with one day of rest in between games. I remind you, last night was only one game. Until the Celtics make losing ugly games the norm, I won’t be too worried. After all, as Greg Payne points out, the ’08-’09 Celtics lost to the Pacers in just the season’s third game. They went on to start the season 27-2.

2. It was a classic trap game – I know last year is clouding your vision right now. You see one bad early loss and think, “AHHH!! It’s happening again!!!!” But last night was a classic trap game. It was the second night of a back-to-back, on the road, and it followed the most historic NBA season-opener ever. I’m not condoning excuses, but… if there was ever a time for the Celtics to take a game off, it was last night.

Which is why last night was different from last season. It was a game the Celtics were supposed to struggle with, rather than a night the Celtics were supposed to take care of business. When Doc Rivers first looked at the schedule, I guarantee he circled the game against the Cavaliers and thought, “Shit, I’d better come up with one hell of a pre-game speech on that night. It’s going to be tough to motivate the troops for that one.”

At home, with a day of rest, the Celtics are supposed to blow out the Cavs. But on the road, with no rest, arriving in Cleveland late on the night before the game, coming down from the emotional high of opening night, and playing against a team attempting to prove the world wrong, the Celtics were supposed to struggle.

Maybe I’m offering the Celtics too many excuses. Maybe I should expect them to take care of business wherever, whenever, no matter how tired and weary they happen to be. But where I’m sitting, a win last night wasn’t just to be expected. It would have been one of the most impressive, mentally-strong wins the Celtics would have all season. So take it easy on them, for now.

But if  they lose to the Knicks on Friday: PANIC!!!!!!!

The Morning Walkthrough is a set of links to Boston Celtics articles throughout the internet, designed to get your day started the right way.

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “‘I know at times we make it look easy; it’s not,’ said Kevin Garnett, who had 9 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. ‘[The Cavs'] true strength is playing together. They don’t have that one or two, go-to guys. They do play well together. They do play hard.’ And it is that latter point about playing hard that the Celtics have to be on guard about this season. The C’s have just two games under their belt, so there’s no need to panic or be overly concerned. But Wednesday’s loss was the second game in as many nights that the C’s had a commanding lead that was significantly cut into in the fourth quarter. Blaming the fact that it was a back-to-back for the Celtics and the season opener for Cleveland is too easy of an excuse. The Celtics believe they are a championship-caliber team that can beat any team, anywhere, regardless of the circumstances. Losses like the one they suffered on Wednesday, at the very least, gives reason to pause. ‘It’s more the mental-toughness part,’ Rivers said. ‘We got a lead, and you could see us relax.’”

Pat McManamon, NBA FanHouse – “‘I think we’re the most popular team in Cleveland right now,’ Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. ‘Beating Miami and losing to the Cavs.’ … Rivers was having none of the back-to-back-following-an-emotional win excuse. He merely said the Cavs were up to the challenge and his team was not. O’Neal and the rest of his teammates admitted they did not match the effort given by the Cavs. ’That’s got to be our signature,’ said Gibson, who saw an 0 for 8 shooting start turn into a 16-point finish. ‘You have to understand,’ said Boston’s Paul Pierce, ‘this team is hungry. Everybody is against them and everybody is writing them off.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “For failing to bring the requisite energy and focus against a team that will struggle to be mediocre this season, the Celtics are now a .500 team. The Celts turned the ball over 19 times and gave up 16 second-chance points in absorbing a 95-87 loss to the Cavaliers. ‘I didn’t like the way we played a lot of the game, honestly,’ Rivers said. ‘I thought we were very loose on defense, very loose on offense. You know, the turnovers again. Nineteen turnovers (after 20 in the season opener). They’re killing us. They’re absolutely killing us. And we got away from the post game. I thought we established the post early on, and I thought we got away from it. Just too much one-on-one dribbling. We’re a better team than that. It was a mental-toughness game for us to try to match their energy.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “In a play that capped the Celtics’ collapse, Anthony Parker caught an inbounds pass, pivoted, dribbled, and released a shot, all in one second according to the clock operator. He drained a 3-pointer for an 89-84 lead. ’That was the longest second in NBA history,’ said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. ‘Somebody didn’t push that button quick enough.’ Said Ray Allen: ‘I just assumed the horn was going to go off.’ The Celtics were done after that. They missed open shots. They couldn’t make an entry pass. Their frustration mounted. Afterward, the Celtics realized they had been burned by their own delusions of grandeur. They took a team minus its franchise player lightly, and the same exaggerated self-opinion that plagued them last season against lesser teams returned. ‘You have to play four quarters,’ Allen said. ‘It’s opening night for them. I just think we took them too lightly. We didn’t continue to execute and do the things we’re capable of doing for the entirety of the game. A call doesn’t go our way and then the game was tight and ended up going in their favor.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “The shooting numbers for Jermaine O’Neal, in a word, suck. The shooting woes he experienced with the Miami Heat in the playoffs last season have apparently followed him to Boston. O’Neal has missed four of his five shots from the field with the Celtics this season. Yes, it’s a small sample of shot attempts to work from, obviously. But it’s a sample size that reflects to a large degree how O’Neal shot the ball prior to signing with the Celtics. The six-time All-Star is coming off a season in which he shot a career-best 52.9 percent from the field. However, O’Neal’s hot-hand cooled off considerably in the playoffs when he shot just 20.5 percent from the field.”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “Referee Bob Delaney whistled Nate Robinson for a technical when he kneed Ryan Hollins in the groin area on a drive to the basket with the Celtics leading, 77-76, with 8:32 left. O’Neal was then whistled for an additional technical for arguing the call. Television replays showed that Robinson, who is 5 feet 9 inches, tried to clear space to convert a layup against the 7-foot Hollins. After the game, Robinson claimed the contact was accidental. ‘Bob said I made an overt act,’ O’Neal said. ‘But I was just trying to explain why Nate kicked [Hollins]. I’ve gotta go and get my Bob Delaney jersey when I get home. I am going to go and order that.’ Daniel Gibson hit both technical free throws for a 78-77 lead, Antawn Jamison followed with a runner, and Cleveland would never relinquish the momentum. ‘I don’t really know what the rule is. I didn’t have an angry voice, I didn’t have an angry face or a loud voice,’ O’Neal said. ‘I was just explaining, but who knows?’”

Paul Flannery, WEEI – “The lift seems back in his legs and his defense is returning to previous levels. Where Garnett still needs to make his mark is on offense. There were opportunities for him to go to work on the block against the Cavs, just as there were throughout the playoffs, but he remained mostly on the perimeter. Still, that part of his game will come in time. If the Celtics can continue to get double-digit rebounding games from Garnett consistently, they will be more than happy with the 2010-11 version.”

Got a tip? An article you think should be included? Send an email to jayking@celticstown.com or hit me up on Twitter @CelticsTown.

About five minutes before tonight’s game ended, I read a tweet from J.A. Adande that said, “Vinny Del Negro sums up the NBA in 5 words: ‘The best teams have closers.’” At the time, the Celtics were down one point to the Cavaliers and in a dog fight. But I thought to myself, “The Celtics have closers. Vinny Del Negro, God bless his haircut and offensive simplicity, is right. The C’s are going to win this game.”

A couple minutes later, Anthony Parker caught an inbounds pass with one second left on the shot clock. He caught, pivoted, took a quick power nap and, at least two seconds after he caught the pass, fired a three-pointer. It went in, all net, and somehow the made basket stood up after an official review. The Cleveland lead was five, and it would extend to eight by the final buzzer, 95-87. Vinny Del Negro? I let Vinny Del Negro’s opinion soothe my nerves?

The Celtics do have two certified closers, but both of them took tonight off. Ray Allen missed two big threes, and Paul Pierce missed two patented, clutch midrange jumpers. The Cavs hit their free throws and that was that. The best teams have closers, of course, but when you let a team hang around too long — closers or not — anything can happen. The Celtics could have won this game in the final stanza. But they lost it in the third quarter, when they failed to close the door on a pesky Cavaliers team after opening up a 66-55 lead.

After the win, confetti streamed from the rafters. At first I was confused that confetti would be used after a team improved to just 1-0. But the Cavaliers — and all of Cleveland, really — have been searching for something, anything, to cheer about in the post-Lebron era. Tonight’s win doesn’t make the Cavs a contender and it doesn’t mean much in the long run, but at least it gives the city hope. Plus, as Mike Gorman noted after the game: the confetti had probably been waiting in the rafters since last year’s playoffs.

The loss, and the ensuing confetti, overshadowed big performances from Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett. Rondo once again exhibited his dominance against an overmatched point guard, hanging 18 points and nine assists against Ramon Sessions. Garnett snatched 15 rebounds, and while his offensive game still hasn’t come around his mobility remains encouraging. If you’re keeping score at home, the 15 rebounds were more than he had in any one game all of last season (13 was his most). Already in the two games, Garnett has had two double-digit rebounding performances. He only had 12 during last year’s entire regular season.

Glen Davis also provided great minutes for the Celtics. He has lacked consistency in the past, but there’s something different this year. Things have clicked. He catches the ball on a swing pass and throws it to the next player like a hot potato. He’s running the offense well and holding the ball less, but taking advantage of every touch. I hate to make predictions after only two regular season games, but if you put a gun to my head I’d predict a big season for Glen. He’s trusting the offense to provide his points, and it’s working. He’s earned his spot as the closing center, and he’s producing in big spots. If the Celtics pulled out tonight’s win, it would have been largely because of Davis’s late putback and charge taken.

But the Celtics just lost to the Cavs. Obviously, there were negatives. The Celtics keep turning the ball over like it smells of rancid cow manure. They allowed J.J. Hickson to look like Amare Stoudemire. And I had to watch Anderson Varejao play basketball. That’s never a good time.

Let’s just remember, though: tonight was the second game of the season. It was a classic letdown game — second night of a back-to-back, against a weak Cavs team, after an emotional win. The loss, for the most part, is nothing to worry about. Not unless taking opponents lightly becomes a habit.

But Jermaine O’Neal, my friend? You’ve got some ‘splaining to do.

I’m pretty sure the NBA scheduled tonight’s game as a practical joke. Here’s a scene that probably happened the day the schedule was made:

“Ha! The Celtics play the Heat in the first game, right? So if they play the Cavs the next day, it will show everyone how badly it sucks to be from Cleveland!”

“Brilliant! The 500 credentialed media members will be down to double digits, the crowd will have one tenth the frenzy, and nobody outside of Boston or Cleveland will even care about the game. And that’s assuming that Clevelanders still care about the Cavs.”

“Even better, Mo Williams is a game-time decision. Everyone outside of Cleveland laughs because a Cav was mentioned in the same sentence as the word Decision, while all the Clevelanders cry silently into their pillows and try to talk themselves into the J.J. Hickson era.”

“You mean the Anderson Varejao era?”

“No, the J.J. Hickson era.”

“Either way, that sucks, huh? From Lebron to Anderson Varejao, the torch has been passed.”

“You mean from Lebron to J.J. Hickson.”

“Whatever. At least Clevelanders can say they live in a beautiful city.”

(Awkward pause.)

“Just kidding! Ha!”

“Phew. You had me there for a second. I thought you were insane.”

“But hey, you can’t be entirely down on Cleveland’s future. I mean, Dan Gilbert promised a title BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.”

“Yeah, and then Gilbert’s most important acquisition this summer was signing Ramon Sessions. You know, unless you’re really high on Manny Harris or Samardo Samuels.”

“Yeah. Maybe Gilbert’s promise was an empty one.”

“Yup. Which is why it will be even funnier when we schedule the Cavs to play the Celtics right after the Heat do. Bwahahaha!”

On a more serious note

Tonight’s game could tell us a lot about the Celtics’ mind state at this stage of the season. After coming down from such an emotional high, playing Cleveland halfway across the country the next day isn’t like playing a basketball game: it’s like having to complete a chore, or get your tooth pulled, or… well, you get the point.

I think about what last year’s team (at least the team we saw during the second half of the regular season) would have done with tonight’s game, and I’m pretty sure they would have mailed it in, lost by 10 points or so, and in the process caused me to smash my television set into a million pieces. Then again, they never would have beaten the Heat (or any team?) at home.

We already know this year’s Celtics are deep, and we know they can perform when the stakes are high. But can they win the trap games this year? Games like tonight’s could be the difference between the third seed and the first seed.

I normally hate when players laugh after a loss.

One time when I was in prep school, my team lost by 30 points to a team we were actually better than. We played as badly as possible; we threw turnovers almost every possession, missed layup after layup, and let this one sophomore with a Tony Allen-like jumper and Eddie House speed score about 20 points. I’ve never been more embarrassed to be part of a team, and I sat in the locker room stewing. Steam was coming out of my ears and I was ready to punch a hole in the wall. I’m not at all a violent person, but at that moment in time I almost understood how people commit murder.

As rage piled up inside of me, my friend made the mistake of cracking a joke in the locker room. I looked at him with venom in my eyes, popped up from my seat and stood right in front of his face. I started swearing (“You think this shit is funny, huh?”) and pretty soon I had spit flying out of my mouth, and my finger was slamming his chest. (“You think it’s f—ing funny??”) Keep in mind, this was one of my good friends. We hung out all the time. Played on-on-one. Shot around. Almost five years after graduating prep school, he’s the only person from there I still talk to. But for that moment when he decided losing by 30 points was funny, I was *this close* to putting him in a body bag. (Yes, I was an asshole. But at least I was competitive.)

So you would think I’d be mad at Lebron James for laughing off last night’s loss. You’d think, at the very least, it would make me lose a little respect for him. But you know what? I get it.

After the summer Lebron had, a summer where he went from almost-universally celebrated star to loathed villain overnight, even losing must have been a relief. Sure, his team fell short against the Celtics yesterday and still has a long way to go before becoming a finished product. But he was finally back to playing basketball, back to being in the media spotlight for his talents rather than his Decision, back to scoring buckets and leading comebacks and reminding people, “I’m the two-time defending MVP.”

Lebron spent the summer listening to former players call him out. He spent the summer reading column after column blasting his virtues. He spent the summer dealing with hatred and disgust coming at him from every angle. And there was nothing he could do about it. Not until the games started. Not until Lebron could finally remind people why everyone tuned into his Decision, even those people who abhorred everything about it.

Nothing Lebron could do off the court could make us forget this summer’s rampant arrogance. The commercial that came out a couple days ago tried, but not even a brilliant marketing campaign can delete our memories. Maybe nothing Lebron does will ever allow him to regain the public’s love. But the only thing that might is winning.

Our culture is devoted to winners. That’s why we rationalized it when Michael Jordan punched a teammate in the face. That’s why we overlook Kobe’s faults. That’s why K.C. Jones, he of the 7.4 points and 4.3 assists per game, has a spot in the Hall of Fame. We love, and are fascinated by, winners.

Lebron understands that fascination, and that knowledge is why he was so relieved after last night’s loss. His team didn’t win, but now that games are here Lebron can finally begin to rebuild his legacy. He can finally settle down and do what he does best. Hell, I’d probably laugh too.

What a beautiful play. The cohesive teamwork, from when Rajon Rondo patiently waited for the play to develop to when Paul Pierce dished an extra pass to the open Ray Allen, was what the Celtics have developed over the past three seasons. It was also what the Heat, so far, lack. This play was five guys playing as one single unit, five talented basketball players executing like they have been through the fire together. Which they have. This play was not just the difference’s in last night’s game, but also the difference that right now stands between the two teams.

Click the jump to see what a real blocking foul looks like. Read more »