Am I crazy to have real hesitancy about the Celtics adding Chris Kaman — a legitimate scoring threat in the post and a significant rebounding upgrade over any center the Celtics have — because I want to preserve the chemistry and unity Boston is starting to show lately? Am I nuts to want Chris Wilcox — who was great last night, but not so much the rest of the season — to remain Boston’s backup center just because the Celtics are perhaps emerging as a team with no agendas besides winning and stopping their opponents? Am I insane to settle for Jermaine O’Neal as Boston’s starting center because I don’t want to disrupt the growing sense of pride and togetherness of a .500 team that hadn’t beaten a single winning opponent until Thursday?

I may be out of my skull, but I’m starting to love the feeling I get from this team. Doc Rivers brings Mickael Pietrus into the game and he dives on the floor, chases whoever he’s defending around the court and pesters any opponent in his path. Rivers starts Avery Bradley and he hounds a primary ball handler for 94 feet. E’Twaun Moore subs in while carrying his lunch pail and makes plays. Paul Pierce is beginning to look spry. Kevin Garnett is starting to spew profanities at any human being standing on his path to the hoop. The Celtics now boast the league’s third-best defensive efficiency despite failing to stop a soul for the season’s first few weeks, and are starting to resemble the glory years of yesterday in terms of contesting shots and boxing out and out-working anyone and everyone.

Does Danny Ainge really want to risk that to acquire Chris Kaman? Am I really fighting to preserve the chemistry of a 9-9 team? Is somebody unknowingly slipping drugs into my 5-hour energy each morning? Does Grizzly Adams really have a beard?

Don’t answer those questions. Kaman’s a long shot. Somebody will probably trade for him despite New Orleans’ asking price reportedly being too high, so he likely won’t become a buy-out candidate. But if he is, I don’t know what to think. My mind tells me it makes a lot of sense, but my heart tells me otherwise.

Rajon Rondo’s sprained right wrist has kept him out of two straight games, subjecting Boston fans to Chinese water torture a combined 74 minutes of Avery Bradley playing point guard during the past two games. Fear not for the long term, though. Rondo hopes to play tonight against the Orlando Magic, and Doc Rivers says there are no long-term doubts that Rondo will return to good health. (Boston Herald)

Rajon Rondo missed his second straight game with a sprained right wrist suffered when he braced himself in a fall from a flagrant foul by Toronto’s Linas Kleiza last Wednesday. He hopes to play tonight against the Orlando Magic at the Garden.

“It’s really on me,” Rondo said. “Whenever I feel I can be productive, then I can come back.

“The important thing for me is when I can get the ground. Right now I don’t think I can do that without hurting it a lot worse. And with the way I play, I definitely hit the ground a lot. So when I’m good with that, I’ll be back.”

There is no definitive timetable for a return by Rondo.

“He could (miss more time), but I’m not concerned long term or anything,” Rivers said. “He’s close, but we’ve just got to get it right.”

Needless to say, the Celtics could use the do-everything guard who has easily been their best player this season.

Ease your worries, Celtics fans. Take a deep breath, Doc Rivers. Put your whistle away, Joey Crawford.

Gary Washburn don’t lie. (Boston Globe)

The final sentence of Washburn’s Wallace segment is euphemistic gold:

“There will be interest in Wallace among title-contending teams with strong coaches, but it may take him the majority of the regular season to get back into playing shape.”

That’s an extremely nice way to put it.

Via ESPN Boston:

Garnett walked through the locker room after the game with a limp and his left ankle wrapped in ice. Asked later about a potential ailment, he gave his trademark, “Y’all take it easy,” before departing to catch the team’s midnight flight to Indianapolis for the second half of a back-to-back against the Pacers on Saturday night.

It’s bad that I’m actually hoping he’s hurt, right? Because then at least there’s some type of excuse.

Via ESPN Boston:

Both starting center Jermaine O’Neal and backup guard Keyon Dooling did not participate in Thursday’s 90-minute practice session due to knee ailments. Rivers said it was more of a rest day for O’Neal (who appeared to be hobbled by a bothersome hamstring or knee in Wednesday’s game), but deemed Dooling questionable for Friday’s visit from the Bulls. “They’re all questionable,” Rivers quipped of his veteran team. “But, yes, I think Dooling is [questionable]. I think J.O. will go.”

I’m not sure when Dolling injured himself, but I know I’m petrified of the phrase “Avery Bradley, primary backup point guard.”

At some point, the Celtics evolved (or devolved, if you will) into an upside-down version of their former selves,. They are now a team that treats the regular season like a regular season, rather than a team that treats the regular season like a set of 82 death matches, like the 2007-08 Celtics did.

There was a joy to watching that Celtics team compete, partially because we weren’t watching Gerald Green and Sebastian Telfair anymore, but also due to the knowledge that teamwork and passion were a given on every night and those Celtics would rarely, if ever, get outworked. A few half-assed regular seasons (and one gutsy regular season during which the Celtics finished 62-20 despite Kevin Garnett falling to injury at midseason) later, we no longer enter game days knowing the type of effort the Celtics will provide.

Once unequivocally the league’s toughest team, the Celtics now have their grit questioned by the leader of their own locker room. (WEEI)

“The difference in the game was Indiana was tougher,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “They made tougher plays, they were more physical. The game was there to be won by either team, it was who was going to grab it.”

“We can get along but I want to win too,” Rivers said. “The chemistry is phenomenal. I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys, but I may be asking for a tougher group of guys. I’m not sure yet.” …

“We watched a long film today and it showed them everything,” Rivers said. “It’s guards getting beat off the dribble, bigs helping, opposite weakside guard not cracking back on box outs. We had five times [against Indiana] where we had the inside position on a rebound, and it was our bigs and they still got the rebound. To me, that’s physicality. It’s not boxing out, it’s relying on your athleticism. Five times they came and scored on every single possession. That’s the game the other night.”

It’s too early to determine whether this will be another long regular season in Boston filled with many uninspired nights, but the Celtics do need to address a number of issues that have contributed to an underwhelming 4-4 start.

The Celtics have yet to defeat a winning team and they are defending and rebounding at an unacceptable rate. According to John Hollinger’s statistics, they are 21st in defensive efficiency and 21st in rebounding rate. The Celtics have always been a poor offensive rebounding team, but now their woes on the glass have also extended to the defensive end, where the Celtics are now ranked 19th, as opposed to ninth last season. These are troublesome signs for an older, smaller team that lost a lot of brute size and strength in the middle of last season — namely Perk and Shaq. Shaq was technically still around for the entire season, but hardly contributed anything down the stretch.

Yet it was never strength that set the Celtics apart in the toughness department. It used to be their mentality that established the tone; the mindset to contest every shot, box out on every release and rotate to every open opponent. Sure, every once in a while Perk would throw a well-aimed elbow or P.J. Brown would level an airborn opponent, aspects that contributed to Boston’s reputation as a team that never backed down from physicality. But the Celtics thrived defensively in the past because they were committed to a game plan and dedicated to winning every night. They played with a sense of purpose that was unmatched.

That sense of urgency no longer exists, nor does the ability within certain Celtics to summon their five-star legs every night. But even the eldest, most injury-ravaged Celtics should be able to reach within themselves each day and retrieve 48 minutes of complete effort. There are some mistakes that are forgivable, turnovers and missed shots among them, but there is no excuse for a team that doesn’t play hard during every game.

It has been a long time since the Celtics approached every contest like it was a heavyweight title bout, and I understand those days are probably gone forever, a beautiful deer that pranced into my life and then migrated into the dark shadows of the forest. But toughness once paved the road and illuminated the highway for these Celtics. It would be nice to see that defining characteristic return.