The similarities are eerie.

Last year, at this time, the Boston Celtics were 23-5. They were coming off a Christmas Day showdown with the Orlando Magic, and everyone in the Eastern Conference bowed down to the Big Green. (Which is also the name of a superb children’s flick, but I digress.)

Sound similar? I thought so, too. But do the Celtics expect a repeat performance? Not exactly. (Boston Herald)

“We ain’t even thinking about that,” said Paul Pierce. “This is a different team. I think injuries bit us really hard last year. I think me not being healthy for the majority of the season after Christmas, it made for inconsistent basketball.”

Echoed Rajon Rondo, “I’m not concerned. It’s no big deal. It’s another year, a different team.”

Still, there is some cause for concern. Doc Rivers sees some slippage, and he feels the Celtics are winning but not improving. Of course, part of that is missing their best player due to injury, but still.

“We were just watching film, and clearly we could have played a lot better on Christmas Day,” he said. “But that happens. It gives us a good teaching session.

“You know, sometimes you can be winning games but not improving, and that’s one of the things we talked about. Yeah, we’re winning, but the key is to win and improve. And right now we’re just winning.

“You can’t get away from your principles, and really I think we’ve done that,” Rivers said. “We’ve been lucky enough to win a lot of the games in this stretch, and the Orlando game, it was a teaching clinic on principles that we usually do that we didn’t do. But when you start winning, you get that false sense that we can get away with it.”

Are the Celtics prepped for a 27-27 slide to end the season, a la last year? Probably not. They are deeper now than they were last season, and Pierce’s and KG’s health — while not promised tomorrow — provide cause for optimism. Still, it’s best if the C’s end the slippage now, and start improving again. I don’t think I can handle another three or four months of .500 ball. The Celtics almost killed me last season, and I say that without any hint of exaggeration.

Here’s to getting back on the winning track tonight, against the Pacers hailing from Indiana.

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Kevin Garnett raises teammate’s play with effort

Somehow, some way, Celtics Town was one of 25 finalists selected for BallHyped’s Sports Blog of the Year contest.

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This news likely means Rondo will miss tonight’s game, as well as tomorrow’s. Doc Rivers has repeatedly said Rondo would only return after being 100% healthy. But I imagine, if he needed to, Rondo would fake 100% health to play on Friday. He always enjoys playing the league’s best PGs, and Chris Paul certainly qualifies.

I always dreamed of playing in the NBA. As young basketball players, don’t we all? We see the money, the cars and the clothes (I just wanna be, I just wanna be successful), and we suspect the NBA life would be perfect. Play basketball, work out, and have no other responsibilities. That sounds like a life I would kill for.

But there’s also another aspect of NBA life, one which can murder families and break up marriages: travel. When you play 82 games in a span of six months, and 41 of them are on the road, the NBA lifestyle takes quite a toll on families. Just look at Christmas Day. The Celtics spent it in Orlando, where a few C’s (I assume) were thousands of miles away from home, away from their families. On Christmas, people, when families everywhere are spending time together.

Most of the time, we hear nothing about the difficulties of an NBA relationship. We hear the occasional tidbit about cheating that goes on during road trips. We hear that Acie Green was the only NBA player, married or single, to remain sexless on the road (which is likely an exaggeration). But his sexlessness doesn’t count as faithfulness, mostly because he was the Tim Tebow of basketball players. And I don’t mean that he was a bruising player with a bad throwing motion whose game excelled in college but may not translate to the NBA. I mean that Green was a virgin. It’s pretty tough to cheat on your partner when A) you don’t have sex with anyone at all, and B) you don’t have a partner to begin with. Other than whispers of cheating players (and Eric Williams, who blatantly admits to cheating on his way-too-pretty-for-him wife), we rarely hear about the NBA season as an obstacle to familyhood.

Doc Rivers provides one of the rare glimpses into an NBA family. Rivers isn’t just a loving father and husband — he’s also open about the difficulties his NBA life provides. He ponders retirement after every season, as he thinks about how great it would be to spend more time with his children and wife. Family means a lot to Rivers, and being away from his wife and kids sucks. Rivers’ four children live in three different cities, and (if I’m not mistaken) his wife lives in Orlando. And Rivers isn’t in any of those cities. During the season, he can normally only see his family on off days. Even then, he needs to fly on a plane, often halfway across the country, to visit.

This summer, knowing the strain coaching put on his wife and kids, Doc let his family vote on his coaching future. (Boston Globe)

The coach called a meeting in early July to assess the family’s feeling on him taking a hiatus. All four children voted against him stepping away.

“I felt like that would be selfish of us to take him away from what he loves,’’ Jeremiah said. “We don’t feel like he’s hurting our family. My mother [Kristen] is a strong woman, she’s been holding down the fort darn near 10 years now. So we know what the deal is, we know he’s providing for our family and we know he really wants to be at our games. It’s not like he’s trying to do better stuff.

“He came to my championship games in high school. He’s taken private jets at 2 a.m. to get to our games the next day. I know it’s difficult. It’s tiring. It’s stressing, but he loves us. The biggest thing is we all understand.’’

Would I give my left eyebrow for a chance to become an NBA coach? Well, let’s see.

On the one hand, there’s blogging. I wake up at 6:00 a.m. most days, read and write all day, and get paid almost nothing. The following is a true story: I went to a bar last night and ordered three waters. Why did I order waters at a bar, rather than an alcoholic drink, or even a soda? Because I couldn’t afford a beer. Seriously. I blog because I would one day love to become a paid sports writer, and because it’s fun to share my thoughts about basketball. But I’m a 23-year old dude living at home and earning no income, and that part sucks. The blogging life has its perks, of course. I watch a lot of TV, possess little responsibility besides writing, and work from home. I can watch my little brothers’ basketball games, hang out with friends, coach JV basketball (also without pay), and see my parents every single day. But, again, I make almost zero money. Not even enough to afford a beer at the bar, or gas for my car.

On the other hand, there’s the NBA life. I wouldn’t get to see my family as much, and when I would, I might have to take a 2:00 a.m. flight. My family life would mostly be a string of phone calls, or Skype messages. I may spend holidays far away from home, and my kids would grow up largely without my guidance. But, umm, there would also be a few major pluses to come from the NBA life. A) I would be playing the best sport in the world for a living, which sounds pretty nice. B) I would be making a shit ton of money, even if I were the worst player in the league. And C) if I ever missed my wife, I’d be able to choose from dozens of groupies throwing themselves at me. Obviously, I’m only kidding about reason ‘C’. There would actually be hundreds of groupies throwing themselves at me.

Do you understand my point? Me neither. I guess what I’m trying to say is this: playing basketball in the NBA would be amazing. I dreamed about it throughout my youth (until I realized I was too short, too lead-footed, and too un-skilled to reasonably hope for an NBA career), and I would probably throw my little brothers under a bus if it meant I could play or coach in the NBA today. (Sorry, Chris and Petey.)

But the NBA life isn’t all gravy. Players and coaches make sacrifices, and those sacrifices often go unnoticed. In the holiday spirit, I recognize those sacrifices today.

Even if this post was far too long and uninteresting.

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 – “With Rondo out with a sprained left ankle injury, Robinson has been a starter who has tried to balance what he does best — shooting the ball — with running the team. ‘It’s challenging, but at the same time, I’ve watched Rondo and how he handles it,’ Robinson told CSNNE.com when asked about directing the Celtics offensively. ‘He does a great job at it. Those are big shoes to fill.’ … ‘We want Nate to play to his strengths,’ said Pierce, who at times demands the ball from Robinson to initiate offensive sets. ‘That’s where he gives the most value to this team. We want him to be a scorer, a guy who can be electric shooting the ball. That’s what we need from him.’ Which is why none of the Celtics were bothered by his 2-for-15 shooting performance against the Magic. ‘Nate missed some shots he usually hits,’ Garnett said. ‘We had some breakdowns at times. It happens, man.’ And while some players may become gun-shy after struggling, don’t count Robinson among them. ‘You just have to be ready to play,’ Robinson said. ‘That’s something that Isiah Thomas used to tell me. No matter what, you don’t know how many minutes you’ll play or when you’ll play. As long as you bring your energy, they can’t take anything away from you. That’s your greatest asset to the game.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “In the past few weeks, Robinson’s gone from understudy to playing one of the more important roles in the offense, and he’s handled the change so well that it’s easy to overlook how difficult the task really is. Not only is he replacing Rondo. He’s essentially the Celtics’ only option at the point besides rookie Avery Bradley. At the same time, being a starter is relatively new territory for Robinson. In his career, he’s started just 68 games. Since his rookie season in 2005-06, when he started 26 times for the Knicks, Robinson never has started more than 17 games in a season. He’s started eight for the Celtics already, and with Rondo out for the foreseeable future resting the left ankle he sprained in New York Dec. 15, he’ll have to continue to adjust. The shots Robinson is used to seeing, when he would burn teams for going under screens because they had prepared so much for Rondo, aren’t there as often anymore. ‘You notice when Rondo was playing, Nate came in and he always got the early threes, the early shots,’ Rivers said. ‘But now teams are starting to gameplan for that.’ ‘He just has to get used to maybe playing a lot of minutes,’ said forward Paul Pierce. ‘We don’t know when Rondo is going to come back. He’s definitely filling in Rondo’s role, and it’s a different game when you start than coming off the bench. He has to have a different type of mentality at the start, and I try to tell him, you can’t ease into these games. When you’re starting the game, you have to have it from the start.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “But there is something else to take away from the game that could well make the defeat — ugly though it was — seem insignificant when push comes to playoffs. The lingering image here of Saturday afternoon was Kevin Garnett calling for the ball and willingly going into physical battle inside with Dwight Howard and Dwight Howard’s biceps. The more recent model KG has shied away from such confrontations, but he was different when he showed up this season. Christmas Day was just the latest giant step, and, for the Celtics, it was a gift that could give them so much more. Garnett made 10-of-14 shots on the way to 22 points against the Magic. He had four steals. He was the only Celt to shoot 50 percent or better; the rest of the lads were a combined 18-for-67 (26.9 percent). ‘His body’s feeling better,’ Ray Allen said. ‘He’s getting back to using power, and he has that confidence in going straight ahead. We’ve been going to him even more in the last month. I’d imagine he’s feeling better, but there’s a responsibility that comes with that. He’s getting his body prepared and he does everything he can to keep his muscles strong and keep his mind right.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston – “In five losses this season, the Celtics’ average margin of defeat is a mere 4.8 points. Boston is giving itself a chance to win every game thanks in large part to avoiding large deficits. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the Celtics’ largest deficit in any game this season was 14 points (during an 89-87 loss to Dallas on Nov. 8). The only other NBA team that hasn’t trailed by as many as 15 points this season is the Mavericks (Dallas trailed the Nuggets by a season-high 13 points in a 103-92 loss).”

Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel – [Editor's note: It took 15 seconds before Dwight Howard was penalized for a 10-second violation. I agree with 0% of this piece, and may God have mercy on Brian Schmitz's soul.] “This is all Dwight Howard needs: Something else to think about when he’s shooting free throws. Everybody has given Howard home remedies and suggestions to help him cure his ills at the line. Now it’s his best friends — the refs. They insist he hurry it up, pressuring him by conducting a silent countdown. A little-known NBA rule states a player has 10 seconds to shoot a free throw once he receives the ball. Officials enforced the statue against Howard on Saturday when the Magic faced the Boston Celtics. Referee Bob Delaney said Howard took too long and wiped out the attempt. Frankly, if anybody should have been penalized for slow play, it ought to have been Shaquille O’Neal. Did you see how long it took Shaq to get up and down the floor? Howard leans toward conspiracies. Now I don’t think the NBA is out to get him. But I do wonder how many other superstars would be put on a clock during a national TV holiday game, and that’s what irks Howard. I timed two of LeBron James’ attempts when he toed the line in the fourth quarter against the Lakers on Saturday (thanks to DVR). LeBron held the ball on his hip, spun it, bounced it, recited the Gettysburg Address and then slowly released the shot….in 11 seconds by my clock. Another shot took about 12 seconds. No call. I’m just sayin.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston – “The Boston Celtics closed out practice Tuesday doing five-on-five half-court work and, on the final play, the green-clad starters cranked up their intensity a few notches and created a defensive stand that left the white-clad reserves, who had been competitive to that point, paralyzed offensively. ‘The first unit knows that, whenever they want to, if they up their pressure, they can take the second unit out of anything they want to run,’ Celtics coach Doc Rivers said later. And therein lay one of Boston’s secrets to success during its low-on-style-points 14-game winning streak — ramp up the defensive intensity late to salt away the win. Half of the 14 victories were decided by single digits, with the Celtics’ opponent often hanging around for 3½ quarters before the Boston starters clamped down defensively. But on Saturday, that formula fell apart as Boston’s defense couldn’t get it done, and instead the Orlando Magic tightened up, helping the home team snap Boston’s winning streak with an 86-78 triumph at the Amway Center.”

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

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 – “That late-January to early-February return that Perkins was talking about recently? He’s sounding – and looking – like a guy who may be given the green light to resume playing sooner than that. ‘I don’t know,’ Perkins said. ‘Since I got on the court, I think my (return) date probably got pushed up a bit.’ When asked if he was still looking to return next month, he said, ‘hopefully.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “But while he was more than a little angry with the officiating, the NBA’s refs may have Shaq to kick around a while longer. He said upon his arrival on the Celtics [team stats] that he’d be done when his two-year deal was up, but yesterday he opened the door to the future beyond that contract. ‘I’m on a team where I don’t have to do it all,’ Shaq said. ‘Everyone, especially around the city of Boston, knows my role. I’m not taking 28 shots anymore. I’ve missed 21⁄2 years’ worth of games, so even though I’ve played 18 years I’ve only played 16 years. My role is different. I’m not taking every shot. I’m playing limited minutes. So if I’m with this team and playing like this, I can probably play two or three more years. I have two years left, but I’ll know. And everybody else will know, too, because I’ll do a hell of a (expletive) press conference.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “And yet if you listen to the Celtics afterward, you would think they just lost to the Los Angeles Clippers and not a team that, when the season began, was on everyone’s short list as a title contender. ‘They can’t beat us,’ said Boston’s Glen Davis after Orlando, well, beat them. Davis clarified his words moments later by adding, ‘they came out and played better than us today, but if you are talking about a seven-game series, I don’t think they can beat us.’ … When you talked to Celtics players afterward, limiting Howard was not a surprise nor was it something they felt was overly impressive. ‘I have been playing Dwight since 2004, when I was playing against him in the AAU circuit,’ Davis said. ‘His game hasn’t really changed. It’s not like has a jump shot, or a new spin move. He has the same moves since high school. He has the same post moves.’ Kevin Garnett, a former league defensive player of the Year, didn’t see the C’s doing anything special against Howard, either. ‘I thought everybody who guarded him did a good job on him,’ Garnett said. ‘It is not like he has a ton of moves. He is either going to jump-hook you, spin-lob … he is very predictable.’”

Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated – “There will be many factors that will influence Howard’s decision but none bigger than this: Winning. Yes, Orlando’s best chance to keep its franchise center in Magic blue is to win and emerge as the class of the Eastern Conference, outgunning Chicago, Miami and most importantly, Boston. The Magic understand this. It’s why GM Otis Smith detonated a pretty good team last week and put the fate of the franchise in Gilbert Arenas’s thrice surgically repaired left knee and Hedo Turkoglu’s slowly fading game. Maybe they were good enough to beat Chicago or Miami with the old group. But not Boston. They knew it after the Celtics wiped the floor with them in last season’s conference finals and became even more convinced of it after watching Boston boost its frontcourt depth with the additions of Shaquille O’Neal, Jermaine O’Neal and Semih Erdin. The Celtics, you see, will be as involved in Howard’s future as any prospective suitor. Not because Boston is a threat to sign Howard; but by beating up on the Magic over the next two postseasons, they could effectively punch his ticket out of town. It’s what makes every game against the Celtics important, every win a reason to exhale. Saturday’s 86-78 win wasn’t artistic but it looks a heck of a lot better than a loss.”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “If you’ve paid any attention to Shaquille O’Neal since he joined the Boston Celtics, you know by now that he’s a pretty generous dude. That generosity will likely extend to writing a hefty check to the league office following comments he made after Boston’s 86-78 loss to Orlando on Christmas Day. O’Neal finished with two points in just under 13 minutes of action. After scoring his lone basket of the game, he fouled out just three seconds later. Needless to say, O’Neal had some choice words for the officiating. ‘I guess they came out to see number 26 today,’ O’Neal said. The only No. 26 on the floor Saturday was official Bob Delaney. ‘He (No. 26) was a great player out there today,’ O’Neal said.”

Josh Robbins, Orlando Sentinel – “Like I told the guys at the beginning of the season, we’ve got to be tough,’ Howard said. ‘Not just physically tough but mentally tough, especially against teams like Boston, who’s going to come at us from all different angles. They’re going to attack us mentally, they’re going to attack us physically and they’re going to try to punk us.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “The run was so long, Kevin Garnett felt like he had lost track of time at a craps table. ‘When you’ve been throwing the dice for this long, they’re going to bring the cooler over and sit him at your table, and he’s going to cool you off,’ the Celtics forward said, shaking his head. ‘We got the cooler today. Ah, we got the cooler today.’”

Rich Levine, CSNNE – “Even as recently as Wednesday night, Doc lamented how, despite all the wins, the Celtics weren’t improving. And as a result, neither were our expectations. It was the oddest feeling. The Celtics went a month without losing, but you couldn’t feel any better about their chances. There were games when they played great; games when they just played well enough to win; games when they didn’t even play well enough to win, but still managed to get the W. But regardless of how it happened, most of the time, those wins just left us feeling neutral. When we spoke of the streak, it was never, ‘Look out, NBA! The Celtics are on a rampage!’ It was ‘How the hell do they keep winning all these games?’ There was no rhyme or reason to how they were doing it. Sometimes the defense was great, but they also allowed more than 100 points in eight of 14. Sometimes the offense was clicking, but then it would disappear for long stretches. There were plenty of positives along the way. Of course, there were positives. And there certainly weren’t enough negatives to create any level of concern. But still, it was still strangely unsatisfying. You wanted to get feel better about it. But you just couldn’t. I guess that’s just life with the 2010-2011 Celtics.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “It was one of the Magic’s cornerstones: Jameer Nelson, who scored 10 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter. Sprinting down the floor and pulling up not far from the Boston bench, he knocked down a 3-pointer with 1:19 left that staggered the Celtics. They’d never recover. ‘Jameer willed that game for them,’ said Rivers. ‘He’s got the biggest heart on the team. He’s just a warrior and he does it all the time. Give him the credit. I thought he was phenomenal. I thought he was on the floor and he just kept pushing that team. You could see it. That’s what he does. A lot of people miss that in him.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “That’s why, when veterans such as Garnett and Paul Pierce [stats] tell the O’Neals to take a long-term view, the newcomers listen. It obviously helps that Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen have been healthy enough to carry the load. ‘Paul said the other day that it’s going to be scary in February,’ Shaq said. ‘We go to the bench and you’re going to see JO, Perk, Delonte (West), oh, my God. That’s the good thing about this organization — Ed (Lacerte, the trainer), B-Doo (Brian Doo, the strength and conditioning coach) have me working out twice a day. It’s a blessing in disguise.’ For this Celtics team, the oldest in the NBA, it’s also vital. ‘I don’t ever feel like I was rushed back any time I’ve been out,’ Allen said. ‘(But) I think Ed Lacerte is a trainer who, as much as we want guys out there, he’s not going to compromise guys’ health. As all trainers should, he has the hearts and the minds of the players in his best interests. The players have to be 100 percent on the floor. He knows what he’s dealing with, and he’s giving us the best opportunity and options to see if we can go through the rigors of a game. I think he truly cares, and in some organizations the trainer might be for the coach, or the trainer might be for the owner. But I’ve been on teams mostly where the trainers are for the players.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “The effects of seven weeks off were evident in Jermaine O’Neal’s return. He went 1 of 4 from the floor, but his biggest issue was timing, either not being ready for passes or bobbling them. ‘It looked and felt like it was my first game back in almost two months,’ O’Neal said. ‘Sometimes your mind is moving a little bit faster than your actual body. I left quite a few passes behind me that were very good passes. But you expect that. I’ve only had three practices, four practices. So I look forward to trying to build from it. It’s all about timing, it’s all about getting into the flow of things.’ O’Neal played just 10 minutes, and Rivers could sense O’Neal’s attitude dipping. ‘You could see he was kind of down,’ Rivers said.”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “Yesterday’s 86-78 loss at the Magic stands as Exhibit A. The Celtics [team stats] are in a struggle to find their offensive flow without Rajon Rondo [stats]. That doesn’t change Doc Rivers’ plan for the point guard, who is recovering from a sprained left ankle. ‘Rondo is still going to be out until he’s 100 percent,’ said the Celtics coach, who a day earlier had said Rondo would probably miss more time than the two-week timeframe that had originally been set. ‘I’m not going to push him back. We’re not going to push anyone back.’ The Celtics’ current trouble, according to Rivers, goes deeper than Rondo’s absence. ‘It’s not just Rajon, and that’s the point you guys miss,’ Rivers said. ‘It’s Delonte (West) and Rajon. It’s more than just Rondo. We always thought we could lose one of those three guards. We knew it was going to be very difficult if we lost two of them.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “So if Shaq is going to stay the same, soak up fouls and give the bench a 300-pound cheerleader, then Perkins needs to come back faster than expected or Jermaine O’Neal can’t take several weeks to blend into the system. Yesterday was his eighth game and it’s difficult to determine whether Jermaine O’Neal can make a significant contribution. He wants to be more involved in the offense, but coach Doc Rivers made it clear in training camp that they don’t need O’Neal reliving his glory days. In 10 minutes against the Magic, he missed three shots and committed four fouls. Davis, indeed, is the Celtics’ most productive and reliable center and that’s a discouraging sign for Ainge and Rivers. The O’Neals have to respond with better defense, more rebounding, and savvier play. Shaquille O’Neal can’t stand there with his hands raised and chest bump an opponent driving to the basket and expect to draw a charge. And standing there with that “Who me?’’ look isn’t exactly reminiscent of the acting of Sir Laurence Olivier. Somehow, Shaquille has to swallow his pride and understand his importance to the depth of this team.”

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