So THESE are the types of things Kevin Garnett says when woofing at opponents. In a sad and twisted way, I’m not even that shocked. A little surprised, yes, but still: I knew KG wasn’t singing his opponents bed-time lullabies, you know?

My heart is legitimately hurting for Charlie Villanueva right now. Seriously. If there’s one taunt that would make him feel pain, it would have to be a cancer patient comment. I’m sure Villanueva has been hearing mean-spirited jokes about his hairless condition all his life, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay and that doesn’t mean he is immune to it. Nobody deserves to be called a cancer patient. Nobody deserves to have a disease made fun of. Nobody.

Garnett never should have resorted to that. That’s about as low as low blows get. The poor guy has a disease that doesn’t allow him to grow hair on his body, and so KG broke out the freaking cancer patient talk. That’s unexplainable.

I’m all for trash talk in games, but it shouldn’t get personal – or at least THAT personal. Talk junk about how Villanueva comes off the bench behind Austin Daye, or how Villanueva’s team lost by 23 points, or how his team is now 0-4 and looked a lot like my high school’s JV team last night. Don’t bring up the disease that has affected him since birth. That’s scum.

I sympathize with Villanueva here. I can’t condone KG’s comments, and never would. I understand that there should be limits to trash talk, that trash talk should only encompass what occurs on the court. Now that you know all that, I’m about to take this conversation somewhere you might not have expected.

You’re the victim here, Charlie, but why rat KG out? If I couldn’t grow hair and KG had called me a cancer patient, I would have taken the scummy trash talk like a man. If I took offense to it, I might throw an elbow. I might shove KG. Or, oh, I don’t know, maybe I would have scored on him more times than he scored on me. What I wouldn’t have done is tweet about it. I just can’t understand why Villanueva would feel the need to share KG’s obscene trash talk to the world.

This was like Lebron re-tweeting racist comments via Twitter, except Villanueva was sharing an opponent’s comments. Maybe Villanueva was still feeling very frustrated about the insults and needed to vent. Maybe he was pissed off about the loss and decided that KG might as well feel the public’s wrath. Maybe he wanted the public to understand how difficult it is to live with no hair. Maybe Villanueva is simply a tattle-tale who likes to see people get in trouble. I don’t know.

Let me interrupt my own thoughts for a second. I know people are going to misunderstand my thoughts. Villanueva is the victim here, people will tell me. It wasn’t Villanueva who did anything wrong. But I know that Villanueva is the victim, and a needless one at that. I understand that perfectly. Yet I also wonder why he shared Garnett’s comments via Twitter. Did he do it to somehow help himself? Or did he simply do it to make Kevin Garnett look like an asshole?

If Villanueva somehow benefitted from his tweets — whether they allowed him to cool off steam, or to sleep better, or whether he simply wanted to let people know how tough it was to be a famous man who can’t grow hair — I can understand why he shared Garnett’s insults to the world. Then, and only then, would it make sense. But if Villanueva wrote the tweets only to turn the public against Garnett, I can’t agree with that. I’m a big believer that any actions taken specifically to harm a person should not be condoned, no matter how big an asshole that person may have been.

Garnett, if he really did say the mean things Villanueva claims he did, was completely in the wrong. He was an asshole, a douchebag, a jerk, whatever you want to call him.

But I still wonder why Villanueva felt the urge to share those comments to the world. I really do.

Rondo continued his dominance tonight.

The Pistons were who we thought they were, the Celtics were who we hoped they’d be, and by the time the 109-86 whipping was finished, the once-rowdy Detroit crowd had spent most of the night playing the silent game. My kindergarten teacher’s favorite past-time.

The Celtics’ win was a workmanlike display of efficiency. They shot  51.9%. They assisted on 33 of their 42 buckets. They turned the ball over only eight times (thank God). They scored 122.5 points per 100 possession (!). Not that the Pistons offered much resistance.

On one play Paul Pierce caught the ball in the corner with space galore. He had time to stop, look around, lick his finger to check the wind, microwave a bag of popcorn, pitch a tent and then finally release a three-pointer. He didn’t actually do all that, but he could have. Detroit’s defensive indifference was easily evident. 0-4 after tonight, they already seem like a team resigned to failure. As for the Celtics? There was only one problem: they once again let an inferior team back into the game.

Maybe I’m nitpicking (on second thought, I’m definitely nitpicking), but I sense a pattern developing. The Celtics were winning by 11 points in the second half against Cleveland, then lost by eight. They led by 12 in the fourth quarter against New York, then won by only four. They ended up defeating Detroit by 23, but at one point in the final period the Pistons cut the lead to twelve and forced Doc to reinsert the starters. I sat at my TV like the announcer from Mortal Kombat, hissing, “Finish him.” Again, maybe I’m being too harsh. The Celtics led from start to finish and got solid contributions from every starter (including Jermaine O’Neal). The game was never in doubt, and the Pistons didn’t even cut it to single digits once during the entire second half. I just expect more. I expect a killer instinct that hasn’t always been evident. Okay, deep breath (“Woo-sah”), moving on…

Somehow, it took me this long to discuss Rajon Rondo. What did he do? Oh, just a ho-him 17 assists. Oh, just zero turnovers. Oh, just more assists through four games than any other player in NBA history. Oh, just another night of dominating without scoring double-digit points. Absurdly, that’s become Rondo’s average game. Once upon a time (and by that, I mean last year), Rondo took nights off. He showed the ability to dominate here and there, but there was one thing holding him back from becoming a superstar: he didn’t do it on a daily basis. Rondo would pile up 16 or 17 assists one night, then disappear the next. Sometimes, he’d even disappear from one quarter to the next. Not anymore.

Now it’s as if Rondo is using every quarter, every play, to compile a highlight tape for Coach K: “Hey, Krzyzewski! 24 assists! How do you like them apples? Yo, Coach K! 67 assists through four games! Suck on that!” Rondo has never lacked confidence, but he now plays every night like he believes himself to be the NBA’s best point guard. Or, at least, like he’s trying to prove that point to everybody else.

A few of Rondo’s assists were to Jermaine O’Neal, who exceeded expectations in his first start. O’Neal had a couple nice dunks, blocked a couple shots, and even got the jumper working towards the end of the game. (Shoot on the way up, Jermaine, not on the way down.) He hadn’t shown much (anything?) before tonight, but vowed yesterday that Celtics fans would be happy with his contributions by the end of the season. Then he made good on that vow, at least for one night.

While O’Neal impressed, his backup was more intriguing. Semih Erden’s regular season debut wasn’t anything for the history books, but he should have earned a little bit of Doc Rivers’s trust. He continues to be seven feet tall (“no kidding, Jay, you idiot”) and uses his long frame well. When Pistons drove to the hoop, Erden moved his feet over to stop them. When Pistons took shots in the lane, Erden outstretched his long arms well above his head. He blocked two shots and altered at least a couple more, doing the little things while showing Doc, “Hey, I might not be a seasoned vet, but I know how to play basketball. I know how to play my role.” Erden also fired a nice dime to a cutting Marquis Daniels and finished a solid fast-break dunk. He’s not a star by any means, but Erden can do a lot of things to help a team. (He can also hang on rims with the best of them. I’m still not sure how he didn’t get a technical foul after his dunk.) Of course, he’s also a rookie playing for Doc Rivers, which means he’ll likely spend most of the season picking splinters out of his ass. Knowing that, I’ll now move on to the veterans.

Kevin Garnett did exactly what he’s supposed to do when defended by Austin Daye and Charlie Villanueva. He finished with 22 points, six rebounds, and left the impression, “These skinny, unproven dudes can’t guard me.” Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Glen Davis were also impressive. Pierce scored 21 points, including two fast-break finishes that showed his improved explosion. One was a tough take right into Daye’s chest, and the other was a wide open dunk that Pierce finished with ferocity. Allen did as Allen does, silently compiling 16 points through a variety of leaners, jumpers and swished free throws. The only real blemish on his night was an uncharacteristic 2-7 three-point shooting night. Davis scored in double figures (10 points) for the fourth straight time to begin the season, also adding five boards. He continues to show a newfound maturity to his game. (Although he was the recipient of one of the worst technical fouls in NBA history. Oh, well.) 

Should I be happy that the Celtics won by 23 points, or worried that they still haven’t shown the ability to kick opponents when they’re down? Happy that Boston’s offense shredded an inept Pistons defense, or worried that they allowed the Pistons a lot of easy shots? Happy that the Celtics finally limited their turnovers, or worried that they lost the rebounding battle (for the first time all season) to a team that started Austin Daye?

Oh, who cares? A win’s a win, and the Celtics were dominant. It wasn’t perfect, but tonight’s blowout was all Boston from start to finish. Who am I to ask for anything more than that?

Deja vu.

Just like Monday night against Dallas, the Boston Celtics unraveled after halftime.  Pointless possessions, lack of effort, turnovers galore, getting beat in transition… all that was missing from Monday night’s loss was Dirk Nowitzki making Brian Scalabrine his son.

Older and more experienced than the Detroit Pistons, Boston should have been the team executing down the stretch.  Instead, the wheels fell off as a Detroit zone defense completely took the Celtics out of their comfort zone.

If the sight of Charlie Villanueva in a mask and headband wasn’t enough to make you cringe, the C’s second-half performance certainly was.  As the Celtics threw ball after ball to the wrong team, an eight-point halftime lead disintegrated into thin air.  Against a zone defense, ball movement and quick cutters are essential.  But the Celtics were content to stand mostly in the same spot and rely on dribble penetration.  Instead of working to get good shots and beat the zone for easy looks, Boston was happy to play lazy, aimless basketball.

For the Celtics, Rajon Rondo led the way with 21 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.  Paul Pierce also had 21 points, but only four after the third quarter.  Kendrick Perkins was a sorry excuse for a big man, gobbling up only four rebounds in over 35 minutes played.   Ray Allen was similarly bad, with only 8 points on 3-10 shooting in 34 minutes.  And the bench?  Don’t even ask about them; they were outscored 43-12 by their Detroit counterparts.

The leader for Detroit’s great bench performance was Villanueva.  Despite the not-so-attractive look consisting of a headband wrapped over his facemask, Villanueva (19 points) earned a little bit of the $40 million contract that had me scratching my head.  He and Rodney Stuckey (27 points) hit all the big shots to help keep the Celtics on the canvas after the Celtics helped knock themselves down.

For the Celtics, a light of hope remains at the end of the tunnel that the last couple weeks have become.  And his name is Kevin Garnet.  If ever there were to be a true test of Garnett’s value to a basketball team, it would be his return from injury on Friday night.

It couldn’t come at a better time for Boston, struggling to regain its identity during a 4-8 stretch that has many Bostonians hitting the panic button.