Have a happy-merry and all that

All too often we scribes really are guilty of shamelessly over-hyping an event because our main premise is just too juicy and too easy to resist.

That was not the case with Wednesday night's Celtics confrontation with the Detroit Pistons.

We all pitched this as a semester exam for the Celtics, who came into the game at 20-2 while only being tested once at home (Miami). After watching them do such things as grab a 39-point halftime lead over Denver; compile a 54-point fourth quarter lead against the Knicks; and go wire-to-wire four times, including back-to-back conquests of Golden State and LA; we were all hungering for, you know, a real game against a quality conference foe. Make that THE quality conference foe.

With all due respect to Orlando, we all knew who the team of true substance was in the East. And we also surmised that the Detroit Pistons were very much looking forward to this game against the reconstructed Celtics, whom they would want to put in their place.

Was it a great game? No. But it was good enough. The Celtics casually put up 29 first-quarter points, with Rajon Rondo playing inspired offensive basketball. But the Pistons made their statement in the second half, coming back from a 10-point deficit by clamping down on the Celtics, who only had 33 points in the second half.

There was an obvious we've-been-there-before aura surrounding the Pistons as they went about their business in the second half. Chauncey Billups decided to show young Mr. Rondo who's boss, mixing up back-in post-ups with killer long-range jumpers. It was a very impressive show. And Rasheed Wallace demonstrated that when he is focused on basketball, as opposed to coaching and officiating, he is a game-changer.

The ending was enormously frustrating, of course, but I felt a little better about it the next day. I'm sure Tony Allen was reminded not to go for Chauncey's expert pump-fake, but he could not get beyond the fear of allowing Billups an open shot. His instincts took over. He fell into Billups' trap, and that was that. You can't put Billups on the line. Ain't no way in a trillion years Chauncey's gonna miss twice.

If this were a pass-fail exam, then, of course, the Celtics would have failed. But it wasn't. There was good. There was bad. There were lessons to be learned.

I give them a B. And I look forward to the next Detroit game. That will take place in Auburn Hills on Saturday, January 5, if you're interested.

DICKIE V

I must admit it's been strange watching all these college basketball games on ESPN and never hearing the familiar sound of Dick Vitale's voice.

Just think how many people have never known college basketball without Dickie V. He broadcast ESPN's first college telecast (Wisconsin at DePaul) in 1979, and he has been its signature personality from Day 1. Love him or hate him, you've never been able to avoid him.

He has vocal cord problem, which has been addressed (hopefully) here at Massachusetts General Hospital. The target date for his return to the air is February. Let's hope.

Let me add to the chorus. Put his loud, bombastic style of doing a game over on the side for a moment. Dickie V doing a game is not for everybody, and he's not even for the people who love him 100 percent of the time. But he is on the very short list of genuinely nice and caring people who happen to make a living through organized sport. His compassion is enormous. His faults are due to an excess of zeal, not a lack of interest. He is a truly wonderful man.

So join me in wishing Dick Vitale a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a full and speedy recovery.

DECK THE HALL

We'll soon know whether or not Jim Rice's 14-year wait to become an official baseball Hall of Famer will end happily.

Dan Shaughnessy thinks he'll get in. I hope so. I'd like to think that all this steroid business will force people to re-evaluate the candidacies of people such as Rice, Andre Dawson and Dale Murphy, who hit a combined total of 1218 homers the old-fashioned way, with no articificial enhancement.

I voted for Rice, Goose Gossage, Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris and my hopeless candidate, Dave Concepcion. It took me a long time to come around on Gossage, Blyleven and Morris, but I am now comfortable with all three. Gossage, who got 71 percent of the vote last year (you need 75), will almost undoubtedly make it. Rice had 63 percent. Messrs. Blyleven and Morris have a way to go.

Concepcion is my current quixotic obsession. I will vote for him as long as he is eligible because I believe he was the best shortstop between WWII and Ozzie Smith. Yes, I think he was better than Reese, better than Rizzuto, better than Aparacio, better, in fact, than anyone who played the position for a 35-year period. I firmly believe it was a major mistake to enshrine Tony Perez before properly honoring Concepcion. I'm not sure Perez belongs at all. No way does he compare to Jim Rice, by the way.

People sometimes wonder how players gain or lose votes over the years. The only way someone should lose one is if there is some shocking negative revelation (oh, say, like evidence of PED usage), but I can tell you how someone can gain a vote. A voter simply changes his mind; that's all. You put a career in a different context. Someone presents you with a solid argument. You buy into something you weren't buying into before. You go out an educate yourself. It's pretty simple.

There is one intriguing new candidate on the ballot. A lot of people are making the case for Tim Raines, who was, for a time, the Alydar to Rickey Henserson's Affirmed as far as leadoff men were concerned. He's got a lot of hits (2605) and a lot of stolen bases (808), but it's hard to say he was a truly great player for more than six or seven years, which, since he played for 23 seasons, means he was a fairly ordinary player with great legs for upwards of 15 years. I'll be very interested to see how much support he attracts.

By the way, Rickey is on the ballot next year. Like many others, I cannot wait for that acceptance speech. The over/under on how far he goes into the into the speech before mentioning he was always underpaid is three paragraphs.