So we're now two weeks and a Yankees series into the Red Sox season and things are going fairly well so far. The Sox are 8-6 and currently sit a half game behind the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East standings. There are still 148 regular season games left in the regular season.

The Bruins are back in the playoffs and they came up with a big home win against the rival Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night. They are currently trailing 2-1 in their first round playoff series and unfortunately they are not expected to make too much noise during this postseason. Hopefully they prove us wrong.

That brings us to the most dominant team currently playing in the City of Boston. The Celtics have one regular season game remaining on the schedule which will take place tomorrow night at the Garden against the lottery bound New Jersey Nets. Once that game is final…the real fun will begin!

When people talk about the C’s being back, they’re usually referring to the 1986 Celtics team being the last championship winning squad and how it’s been 22 long years of frustration since the 16^th banner was hoisted to the rafters. For the most part those sentiments are correct. Most of the big Celtics news on a national scale since 1986 has been about Len Bias, Reggie Lewis, Rick Pitino (including the disastrous Tim Duncan draft lottery), and the most recent failure in the draft lottery which of course ended up being a blessing in disguise.

As far as I’m concerned, people have either forgotten about or were just not paying attention in the Spring of 2002. It was only six years ago that Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker led the C’s on a memorable run to the Eastern Conference Finals. I attended all but one of the home playoff games during that postseason and it was one of the most exciting experiences I have ever had as a longtime Boston sports fan. I remember the First Round battles against Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia Sixers. I will never forget Game 5 of that series when the Celtics blew the doors off of Philly. The C’s were raining down three pointers in the 4^th quarter like I have never seen before. Employee #8 broke out the Walker Wiggle to put the nail in the proverbial coffin. The Fleetcenter was absolutely electric and it quickly became known as “The Jungle.” To put it in perspective, Celtics play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman recently had that game in his Top 5 list of his most memorable moments calling the Celtics games over the past 25 years!

The Celtics then went on to take out the second-seeded Detroit Pistons in round two of the playoffs setting up a clash with the top seeded New Jersey Nets. Sitting in the balcony during Game 3 and watching Paul Pierce lead a 21-point 4^th quarter comeback was unbelievable. That game gave the C’s a 2-1 series lead and the monumental collapse by the Nets seemed like it would be too much for them to recover from. I can remember leaving the game that day and thinking we were about to witness a Celtics/Lakers Finals…something that would have been expected at the beginning of that NBA season about as much as the Patriots beating the Rams to win the Super Bowl just a few months earlier. Of course things didn’t work out as New Jersey fought back hard to take the next three games and end the Celtics unbelievable run. But for those of you who paid attention during that playoff run, you know for at least a brief period of time the Celtics were very relevant again.

This time around things are different. This time there are expectations. This time EVERYBODY should be watching. The 2008 Celtics play old school Celtics basketball. They move the ball well and make the extra pass to find the open man. They’ve had a new attitude since the arrival of Kevin Garnett last summer. Winning is no longer the hope for this team, winning is now the expectation for this team. All season long they have been able to live up to the lofty expectations. The regular season allowed this current roster to bond and become comfortable playing with each other. The bottom line is this team was put together for right now. This team was built for the playoffs and the real fun is about to begin this weekend against the Atlanta Hawks.

So do yourself a favor and make sure you check the Celtics out this playoff season. The Red Sox will still be there when you get back and I can just about guarantee you they will not be behind the Orioles when this upcoming Celtics playoff run is over. I’m just hoping that will be sometime in the middle of June, and the elusive 17^th banner will finally become a reality.  Ladies and gentlemen...it's showtime!