One of these long overdue
Listening to Danny Ainge on the radio yesterday, I half expected him to parachute from the rafters at halftime of the Indiana game to announce, "Mission : Accomplished."
Sebastian Telfair was playing "fantastic," especially in the two games prior to last night. Doc Rivers was doing a "heck of a job" -- where have we heard that phrase before? -- and was a diligent and hard worker. The Celtics had eight or nine players who were legitimate NBA starters and two more who could be decent subs.
This was pretty amazing stuff, given the 1-6 start of a team that couldn't finish games, made dumb mistakes at the most inopportune times, fouled too much, turned it over too much, and had been routinely abused by opposing point guards. And also was tied with Charlotte for the worst record in the NBA.
Then, a few hours later, the Celtics, whose only win had been an overtime decision at home over Charlotte, went out, quickly fell behind, 10-2, and then proceeded to bludgeon the Pacers, 114-88. Go figure.
"We needed it," Rivers said, a classic understatement. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said, "Never underestimate a desperate team. Boston was desperate."
Indeed, the Celtics were. Ainge has pretty much avoided the slings and arrows that come with running losing teams in Boston, as his pleas for patience generally have been heeded by most of Celtic Nation. But the young talent that supposedly was going to develop and improve this season looked like it was going, at best, sideways. There were too many young players, too many players who play the same position. There were injuries. And there were those six losses in seven games.
Asked about Ainge taking some heat, his Indiana counterpart and former teammate, Larry Bird, smiled and said, "I'm taking some heat, too. We're in the same boat."
If you'd seen the Celtics over the first seven games, you could understand why Ainge was under the gun, his public comments notwithstanding. If you saw the Pacers last night, you wondered if Bird was going to offer his resignation after the game. They were awful, especially in the second half, when they were outscored, 67-43, outshot 60-31 percent, outrebounded, 28-13, and outassisted, 17-7. Jermaine O'Neal, who had more blocks (5) and assists (4) than baskets (3), made the short walk from the locker room to the coaches' room after the game and had a loud exchange with Bird and Carlisle. He wouldn't elaborate, but you don't have to be Oliver Stone to figure out he was, well, upset.
Meanwhile, Telfair was fantastic -- OK, good -- in the game-turning third quarter (7 points, 4 assists). Paul Pierce broke out of his two-game shooting slump (12 for 41) by converting 11 of 19. Ryan Gomes continues to show why he is, at worst, the third-best player on the team with another double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds). Kendrick Perkins outplayed O'Neal. For one game, anyway, this was how Danny and Doc envisioned things.
"I thought everybody gave us something," Rivers said.
The Celtics rallied quickly from the early deficit, to the point where they had a 9-point lead some seven minutes after being down by 8 -- and all in the same quarter. Then they came out in the third quarter and put the game out of reach as franchise icon Bird watched from the stands. (And he had to stand to acknowledge the "Larry, Larry" chants, a situation he called "embarrassing.") He was none too happy to see his passionless team sink like a stone in the second half.
Would you say the Celtics were overdue for one of these? Not for just a win, which they were, but for an emphatic, convincing victory over a team that, entering the game, was tied for the second-best record in the conference? (OK, their recored was a not-so-impressive 4-3, but only Cleveland's 5-2 was better.) There were smiles on the Celtics' bench, even from the players as they came out of the game. There was a Tony Allen sighting. There was Gomes on the glass and Rajon Rondo playing the pest to perfection and, for a change, a point guard who didn't do what he wanted to, and when. Bird identified Jamaal Tinsley and Sarunas Jasikevicius as two of the four Indy players who weren't playing well, the others being Danny Granger and Stephen Jackson.
Can this be the much-needed shot of confidence for the Celtics, who have now played eight games and had a chance to win them all? That they've won only two of them, in their minds, is inconsequential. That they were the perpetrators of their first blowout of the season felt good, but, in the end, is also inconsequential.
But with the Trail Blazers, Knicks, and Bobcats coming up, there's an opportunity, an opportunity that looks a lot more promising than it did 24 hours ago.
Peter May can be reached at P_May@globe.com. 
