Back seat is only temporary
They are the biggest story in the NBA but not the dominant sports topic in their own hometown.
They lead the nightly sportscast when they visit other NBA arenas. Not here.
They are front-page sports news when they win at Sacramento and Salt Lake City. Not here. Not most days, anyway.
It's nobody's fault. The Celtics just happen to be racking up wins at a time when the local professional football team is contending for greatest team ever. So, Messrs. Garnett, Allen, and Pierce are taking a back seat while they ride toward the middle portion of what has been a superb season.
Last night's 97-93 victory over the Houston Rockets put the Celtics at 27-3. It was a rare close game for the Celtics. They led by 20 in the first half, but found themselves trailing in the fourth quarter before Kevin Garnett took over. The Big Ticket rained jumpers (11 points in six-plus minutes) on the head of a guy who is just 6 inches shy of being 8 feet tall. Then Garnett went to the other end and stopped Yao Ming. He was at once Bill Russell and Jo Jo White.
Garnett said he got his energy from the crowd.
"My gas was high," said the Ticket. "I fed off this building. These fans are like the spark plug."
No Celtics team has been this good through 30 games. And we're talking about teams that won 16 world championships. We're talking about rosters peppered with Hall of Famers, the greatest dynasty in the annals of American sports.
Think of it this way: The 2007-08 Celtics are 15-1 at home. The only Celtics team to go undefeated at home through 16 games played here in 1957-58, which is before the birth of the Boston Patriots.
Ah, the Patriots. It is the Patriots who have pushed the Celtics inside these sports pages many times during these magical first two months. It's the Patriots who appear on four networks simultaneously while dominating sports talk on every frequency.
There was a time, of course, when it was the Celtics who kept other local teams out of the news. When the Celtics dominated in the early 1980s, Red Sox pitcher Bruce Hurst observed, "We kind of like it that way. We sort of stay under the weeds early in the season while the Celtics are in the playoffs."
Celtics bosses are taking the high road while riding sidecar.
"I don't feel we lack attention," said Danny Ainge. "There's not a limit on the love this town has for its teams. We know the writers and TV reporters are spread out right now [there was one television reporter at the club's shootaround yesterday]. But the Red Sox, the Patriots, and the Celtics are all deserving of the attention right now. We're certainly not jealous."
Ainge has been around long enough to remember the last time the Celtics and Patriots were both really good at the same time. It was in 1985-86, when the Patriots made a miracle run to the Super Bowl while the Celtics were en route to their 16th (and most recent) championship.
The Celtics (40-1 at home in the regular season in 1985-86) played the rival 76ers at the old Garden on Super Bowl Sunday and the game story on these pages led with, "Closer to home, the Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers staged . . . "
Same deal this year. Boston was in full-blown hardball hangover when the Garnett and friends opened the season Nov. 2. The Celtics campaign started just three days after Jonathan Papelbon finally came down off his duckboat. Two days later, the Patriots were in Indianapolis for a fairly important regular-season game when the Celtics won their second game of the season.
As the victories multiplied the Celtics became a full-blown national sensation. But much of our local roundball season was lost in cyberspace, a casualty of gridiron gridlock.
The Celtics sell out every game and there's plenty of enthusiasm on Causeway Street, but clearly they would be bigger if not for Coach Hoodie and the undefeated History Boys.
Kendrick Perkins, in his fifth year with the Green said, "I'm OK with everything. Last year when we were losing I didn't want to leave the house, but our fans always appreciate us. I'm a football fan. Patriots and Cowboys. I can't wait for the playoffs to get started."
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck doesn't mind sharing the love. Far as we can tell he hasn't hired anyone to compile comparative coverage stats.
"I said all along that our coverage would improve when our team improved, and it has," Grousbeck said. "I read the other day that the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics were something like 41-3 since the middle of the baseball playoffs. What I love is to be part of this with the other teams. I'm caught up in it just like everybody else around here."
Their record is downright scary. And we are approaching midseason. This is no longer an early aberration. The best regular season in Celtics history was compiled by Tom Heinsohn's 1972-73 edition, which finished 68-14. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls went 72-10.
Early in the Patriots season, an out-of-town scribe asked Bill Belichick about the possibility of 16-0. The coach scoffed. Talking about a 72-10 basketball team still seems ridiculous, but after the Celtics' 4-0 road trip, you do begin to wonder.
Their time will come. In May (and dare we dream, June?) the Patriots will be polishing their Lombardi Trophy and the Red Sox will be making trips to Baltimore, Oakland, and Seattle.
Kevin Garnett will be the latter-day Larry Bird and the Celtics will own this town again. Just like the old days.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. 