Yesterday before I left one of my staff comes up to me and asks, “Are you ready for tonight? New Jersey…,” I said in typical Jay smart ass-ness yup, but I think they should beat the Nets. See it’s a smart ass response because the girl was clearly talking about the Bruins as she’s decked out in her Bruins jacket, scarf, and backpack.

Well, I was right about the basketball game and she was right about the Bruins.

But I have to be honest with you guys, my loyal readers. We’ve had some budget cuts in the household and one of those cuts was cable. I’ve stripped it down to the bare minimum. No HD box, no DVR, and unfortunately no sports stations. So that’s why you’ve noticed my columns being a little light in Celtics (only seven games into the season) and Bruins recaps. I talk about the Pats that I watch every week and the Sox off-season mess which I devour stuff on the internet and listen to on sports radio.

So listening to 98.5 The Sports Hub yesterday I heard this interview with a Heat fan that was at the game against the Celtics on the 27th. The woman next to him was one of those obnoxious fans that thought that she was there to cheer on the team, during every play, instead of watching the game. Head over to http://www.heatfansounds.com/ to hear the annoyance for yourself.

I’d last about five minutes before telling this lady to shut the fuck up. I wouldn’t have the whit to bust out my cell phone and make a sound board.

So anyways, Bruins win 6-1 (not a typo) and Celtics win 89-70. For one day, Boston owns New Jersey.

So we’ve touched on it before how if the Celtics hadn’t traded Kendrick Perkins the Celtics likely come out of the East as the champs last year and likely beat the Mavs in the NBA Finals. I’ll believe that scenario probably the rest of my life.

The trade happened and we have to live with it. We have to live with the repercussions of the trade.

Well, the repercussion for now is that you traded Perkins so you could rent Jeff Green for half a season. A routine physical showed an aortic aneurysm. In order to fix it he requires surgery and will miss the entire season.

So now I pose the question that I’m sure no one else will ask since they’re sensitive to the situation…

Can the Celtics petition the league office to veto the trade they made a year and a half ago? I mean, basically OK City sold them damaged goods. I’m sure this didn’t just develop in the last eight months. I’m sure the aneurysm was there. A pre-existing injury dare I say.

Of course that will never happen but I think it should. How else can you undo the biggest blunder in Ainge’s tenure as the GM? That’s right you can’t.

Now the Celtics have a ton of money coming off the books and a free agent call this next off-season highlighted by Dwight Howard. No chance he’s coming to Boston. Zero. There aren’t pieces around him to win. Sure Rondo will be here, but he’s not a scorer. So you’d have a scoring center, and a point guard. Not happening.

So will it be a repeat of when the Celtics had a ton of money and signed Travis Knight? I’m not lying when I say it’s certainly looking that way. They’ll totally overpay for a player that has no business making money the Celtics will have to pay him to come to Boston.

Dark days are ahead for this franchise. So maybe I should have written about the Bruins win over the Canadiens. Much happier news for the other team at the Garden.

When we had Causeway Day this year and spent the time we’d be at the Celtics game over at the Hong Kong doing karaoke, I really didn’t miss basketball. In fact when camp was supposed to open over a month ago and games were canceled, I didn’t miss basketball.

The thing is, we’ve been so spoiled in the area with winners, that if going into the season you know you’re team isn’t going to win it all, you tend to not have an interest. Now we’re of the advantage that we have owners that want their teams to succeed unlike some places where the team is just an income stream for the owner (think pre-lockout Bruins).

So coming into this season, I really feel this is it for the Celtics. The Big Three were on their last legs two years ago and I feel that now, it’s just a farewell tour.

Danny tried to get the team in a better position. He tried to dump Rondo and Green and get himself CP3. Which in a dream scenario would entice Dwight Howard to come to Boston next year. That would solidify your team for the next decade. Alas, it didn’t happen. CP3 was shipped to the Lakers, then vetoed by the league (where part of me still saw a Boston trade alive) now the rumor is the Clippers. Howard on the other hand was on his way to the Lakers, and now maybe doesn’t want to be traded.

They have Jeff Green (“queue the duckboats” he says sarcastically) and Rondo. Both young but only one of them can score. So the future after the big three in my head is #7 or #8 seed teams that struggle to 40 or so wins, squeak into the playoffs, maybe make some noise, but ultimately are ousted in the first or second round.

The Big Three’s farewell tour isn’t going to end in a banner raising. There are way too many back to back games on their shortened schedule. Sure KG may be OK till March, but then his mileage will start to show. Had you nabbed David West, maybe you look a little better, but you lost him to the Pacers because you tried to package Gentle Jermaine’s corpse in a sign and trade with New Orleans.

So the Celts missed out on CP3, essentially Howard because of it, and lost out on West. They don’t have a legit center on the roster and their stars are aging.

So why am I happy basketball is back? I’m not. But at least it will give me something to watch when football season is over, the Bruins have a night off, and the race to fourth place hasn’t started for the Red Sox.

Basketball, you’re winter time filler. And nothing more.

We’ll start with the hottest team in the NHL, your Boston Bruins. The faced off last night against the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Bruins did what they’ve done the previous three games, they won. In fact the Bruins haven’t lost a game outright since October. They’re 14-0-1 in their last 15 games with their only loss coming in a shootout on Causeway Day.

The Bruins look to continue their winning ways tonight as they travel to Winnipeg to play the Jets.

The Celtics rumor I told you about last week seems to still have some legs. Although Chris Paul has said he’d prefer to go to New York and wouldn’t sign with Boston it’s not keeping the Celtics out of the running. Even though Danny came out and said they don’t want to trade Rondo, stories persist that a deal is still being worked on. Expect the Knicks to end up with Paul when all is said and done but it’s still fun to dream big as a Celtics fan.

The Terry Francona for Bobby Valentine deal was finalized yesterday as ESPN announced that Terry Francona would be joining their Sunday night baseball crew, replacing the departed Valentine. I’m so looking forward to Francona’s Gruden-esque takes. Instead of “that guy” we’ll hear about how “special” each player is. Start the drinking game now. One drink “special”, on drink every time Tito says “kid”. Drunk by the second inning.

Finally speaking of Sox, the winter meeting are going on right now and the team is looking to bring back David Ortiz as their priority this week. Since the league will be testing for HGH, do we really think that it’s the best idea to bring back a 36 year old DH that had a *ahem* “resurgence” last year. Just saying, if he tests positive you lose him for 50 games.

Personally I’m hoping the team makes some trades. The fires burning from September’s collapse have started to smolder and with the Bruins and Pats to keep people occupied, their anger as dwindled. Mine hasn’t. I still want Beckett dealt. I want the team to go after Mark Buehrle. He eats innings and doesn’t get hurt. Beats bringing back a 45 year old distraction in Wakefield.

Puppet Ben has a lot of work to do. He’s already missed out on Jose Reyes. It’s not likely they’re going after Fielder or Pujols. So any big moves would have to come via trade. That’s if Uncle Larry let’s him make trades.

Back tomorrow with more news and notes.

With the NBA lockout ended the Celtics are back at work. The season is set to start on December 25th, yes Christmas. But what team you’ll see on the court is an unknown at this point.

Rumors already started as soon as the lockout was lifter. The first rumor was that Danny Ainge would be open to trading Rajon Rondo in the right circumstance. This of course drew a ton of negative comments from fans to the point that some said they wouldn’t be Celtics fans anymore if the Celtics traded Rondo.

Then there was the Rajon and Jeff Green to Oklahoma City in exchange for Russell Westbrook and Perkins. Westbrook had a pretty bad playoffs so Danny figured he could pull off the deal. Oklahoma City was not interested and that was that.

Then the grumblings started in the last couple days of a possible Chris Paul to Boston trade. The Celtics really just needed a third team to make the deal happen. As of yesterday that third team was speculated as Indiana. The Celtics would need a third team to make the cap numbers work.

Danny’s done it before and is clearly trying to do it again.

Now the NBA owns the Hornets right now. So that means that David Stern at some point in the process gets to say yes or no. For all that he wants a New Orleans team to succeed on the table was the franchise being dissolved during the bargaining. So wouldn’t he want the Boston Celtics to land one of the leagues best players so that he could possibly have his dream scenario of a Boston and Los Angeles finals? I thought so.

So despite the fact that Paul is saying he wouldn’t sign long term if traded to Boston, I think they try and make this move anyways. Ray Allen is 36, Garnett is 35, and Pierce is 34. These guys have maybe one run left in them and bringing Paul to town will be an interesting piece of bait to dangle if Dwight Howard really wants to play with him after next season.

So for now, I’ll be in the “wait and see” camp but if Danny can pull this one off, I may actually forgive him for the Perk trade.