It’s not every day that we have the opportunity to cross the Beatles with the NBA, but as I was scrolling through the box scores and game recaps from Tuesday night’s games, I noticed that the Boston Celtics found a way to scrap out a ‘W’ to get back into the win column against the Detroit Pistons. F Paul Pierce was back in the lineup, and in spite of the fact that he only scored nine points in a rather dismal personal effort, I had to think to myself, “Hmm… I wonder if Pierce wasn’t there if the C’s would’ve won this game?”

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Let’s face it. Things haven’t been going so well in Beantown of late for the champs of two years ago. Boston is still in third place in the Eastern Conference, but it seems to be lagging well behind the Orlandos and Clevelands of this world. The Celtics are only 16-11 on their home court, and a woeful 6-20-1 ATS in those 27 games to boot.

Heading into the game against New Jersey just three nights ago, HC Doc Rivers hung a new sign in the locker room: “INDIVIDUALS WIN GAMES BUT TEAMS WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS.”

Nice motivation, Coach. All your team did that day was lose to arguably the worst team in the history of the NBA on your own home court 104-96.

Pierce was out of the lineup that day nursing his injured thumb.

Enter: The Beatles.

Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody. Help! You know I need someone… Help!

Help arrived at the Palace of Auburn Hills when Pierce came back into the lineup a game after his team suffered the ultimately embarrassment. No one else would do. It had to be Pierce, the only player on this team that has grown up in green, to provide the help.

Now, here’s the next question: Was this just an average win against a lousy club, or was that 105-100 win at Detroit the start of something really great for the Celtics?

Methinks it’s the latter.

Finally, Boston is on the verge of being completely healthy, something that it hasn’t really been in months. C Kendrick Perkins is the only snag right now, but his flu will go away eventually, and he’ll be just fine. But it’s been awhile since this entire team has come out on the same court unified as one. It may or may not happen at home on Wednesday night against the Bobcats, but assuming that nothing else goes wrong in that game, the C’s should be at full strength just in time for one of the easiest stretches of games left in the season.

The Celtics are about to embark on a five-game stretch in which they play the 76ers, Wizards, Bucks, Grizzlies, and Pacers.

When together, it’s pretty clear that Boston should have one of the best teams in the NBA. Just throwing three future Hall of Famers in G Ray Allen, F Kevin Garnett, and the aforementioned Pierce on the court at the same time is awfully impressive. Throw in one of the NBA’s best point guards in Rajon Rondo and a bench that prides itself on defense, and the recipe is right for a championship.

Rivers is right about one thing: Teams win championships.

However, what he failed to mention is that every single individual has to be giving his all to the team for the team to function.

Everyone may be leaving them for dead, but now that the Boston Celtics are back at full strength, the championship could once again be within their reach.

After two weeks worth of great Olympics betting action, the festivities in Vancouver have finally come to a close. There’s plenty left to rant and rave about in the American sports scene, none of which have anything to do with the efforts of the US hockey team, which claimed silver medals after losing in overtime to the Canadians in Sunday’s gold medal game.

Rap Sheet Picture of the Week
Purdue Boilermakers F Robbie Hummel, who suffered a season-ending injury in the same week that his team lost any hope of a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Last week, we took some time to rant about how poorly the Villanova Wildcats played against bubble teams in the Big East. Now, it’s time for the Georgetown Hoyas to step up and face the music. C’mon guys… Losing at home to Notre Dame, playing without its stud F Luke Harangody? That makes two completely inexcusable and embarrassing losses at home on the season, with the other coming at home against South Florida back on February 3rd. Only managing 15 rebounds as a team against the Irish was quite disgusting, and the end result was just as repulsive for a team that once upon a time believed it was good enough to be on the #1 line in the NCAA Tournament.

Don’t think that you’re getting away from this one, Boston Celtics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you complaining now that you were playing without your best player, F Paul Pierce against the New Jersey Nets on Saturday night. No offense, but if you took your entire regular starting five out of the lineup, you’d still have a squad that was lined at -4 at home against the Nets. Oh, you don’t believe me? Tell me that you’d rather have Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Yi Jianlian, Trenton Hassell, and Brook Lopez over Marquis Daniels, Nate Robinson, Glen Davis, Rasheed Wallace, and Tony Allen. Get real fellas. If your boy Ray Allen keeps putting up 3/11 shooting nights, you won’t even survive the first round of the playoffs let alone make a run at the NBA title.

The New Mexico Lobos got arguably their biggest win of the season on Saturday when they knocked off BYU in the closing moments of their game 83-81 to clinch up the Mountain West regular season title. However, that’s not what we’re ranting about. We’re ranting about that ridiculous postgame altercation that HC Steve Alford had with one of the Cougars. Hey Coach, you know better than this. You can’t sit there and yell at a player on the opposing team (or your own team for that matter), “I’m going to tell you real clear… You’re an [expletive]!” That marred a big win for your team, Alford, and you owe your guys a heck of a lot better than that.

As an American, it’s really easy to rant on the Russians, but in this case, there were two boneheads that deserve it. Alexander Ovechkin decided that it was a great idea to bust up a camera after his hockey team was bounced from the Olympics. A great display of sportsmanship in an athletic event that is designed to promote the essence of being a good sport in representing your nation.

However, that wasn’t nearly the funniest, yet disgraceful Russian moment of the Olympics. President Dmitry Medvedev demanded that all of the Russian sports officials that were responsible for the debacle that was the country’s dismal 15 medal performance in the Winter Olympics to resign their posts. He claimed, “I think that the individuals responsible, or several of them, who answer for these preparations, should take the courageous decision to hand in their notice. If we don’t see such decisiveness, we will help them.”

So let’s get this straight, el presidente… You’re going to force out all of your Olympic coaching representatives right after the Vancouver games?

Man, are things going to be difficult for the other countries coming onto Russian soil for the 2014 Games in Sochi…