Doc Rivers, the one coach in Boston’s four major sports who you thought would never do you wrong, who always drew up the right play with five seconds on the clock and could smile his way through a sound bite on anything, appears to be headed out — to Los Angeles, of all places. He wants to coach the Clippers, apparently, which is reason enough to suspect some sort of undiagnosed head injury. But the bigger point is, he doesn’t want to coach your Celtics anymore. And you say, good riddance.

When news of Rivers’ possible departure broke last week, Celtics fans invariably reacted with dismay. There was a legitimate case to be made that Rivers was the most popular coach of a pro team in Boston. Bill Belichick‘s stonewalling rubs a lot of fans the wrong way. Claude Julien still has his detractors, even as he has positioned the Bruins to contend for their second Stanley Cup in three years. John Farrell hasn’t been around long enough to have a fair referendum. Aside from Jerry York, it was tough to think of a bench boss more unconditionally beloved than ol’ Doc.

No more. The fan reaction has swiftly evolved to annoyance with the whole concept of Rivers working his way out of town and trying to negotiate the conditions of the deal to boot. By the time a deal is likely struck, many of you will say: “So long, and thanks for the championship, Doc. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

But that would be foolish, because there is still reason to hope Rivers does not leave. Hint: He wears No. 34.

Granted, any such hope at this point is probably in vain. Rivers seems ready to go, and bring Kevin Garnett along with him. Forgotten in the disgust over the Rivers saga, though, is that Boston cannot simply cut ties with Rivers and be done with him. If Rivers goes, Garnett goes, and if Garnett goes, Paul Pierce could go as well. Honestly, that would only be fair to Pierce. There is no use keeping a 35-year-old forward around on a team that clearly would not be capable of winning a championship in 2014. We already know Pierce and Garnett make their decisions more or less together. If you don’t want to see Pierce playing in a different uniform next season — and we suspect most of you don’t — you must be closing your eyes, crossing your fingers and praying this whole thing just goes away.

Despite conflicting rumors, we choose to believe the inimitable Steve Bulpett, who says Rivers and the Celtics could resolve their differences if a Clippers deal cannot be worked out. That seems like a long shot, but if you have any attachment to Garnett, Pierce or the era they represent, you must be doubling down on that long shot. This thing won’t end just because Rivers takes off for L.A. No, that would only be the beginning.

Listen, you’re not happy. We understand. Where you once praised Rivers, now you are more likely to spit at his mention. But do not expect to kick Rivers off Causeway Street, tug on your No. 5 Celtics jersey and go root for Vinny Del Negro or whoever it may be lead your beloved Celts to another deep playoff run next year. It won’t happen. Things will look mighty different beyond just a new face on the bench.

If that is what you desire, so be it. If not, beware of throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

So, when the ping pong balls once again didn’t bounce the Celtics’ way in 2007 (the C’s won the fifth pick), the wheels were set in motion to pull the trigger on a deal that eventually brought Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett (thanks again, Kevin McHale) to Boston for a mix of raw talent, expiring contracts and draft picks.

And so the second Big Three era was born.

This group was said to have a three year window to win the title. It was accomplished in Year 1. And if not for Garnett’s knee injury the following season, and Kendrick Perkins tearing his ACL in Game 6 of the 2010 NBA finals, the Green may have joined the Lakers and Spurs as the only teams to win multiple championships during the decade. But it didn’t happen, and the page should have been turned following that season, but it wasn’t.

So, here we are.

The Celtics are coming off a season in which they were bounced from the first round of the postseason to a Knicks team who, let’s be honest, was not a title contender. Yes, the Celtics were missing key pieces in Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullinger, but c’mon, really? The team still relied on the 37- and 35-year-old respective legs of Garnett and Paul Pierce. And that just won’t work.

Now, the opportunity to rebuild is upon us. The Los Angeles Clippers reportedly want Doc Rivers to be their next head coach. Garnett and Pierce may be shipped to the west coast, along with Jason Terry or Courtney Lee. Doc, K.G., and Pierce have done so much for the Celtics franchise, revitalizing the fan base and bringing another banner to Boston.

But the time has come.

DeAndre Jordan, Eric Bledsoe and a first-round pick, or whoever else is included in a trade to Boston, are not going to be the players that win you a title. But they are pieces to a puzzle. Pieces that can help Danny Ainge do what he did six years ago when he swung one of the biggest trades in Celtics history which brought a championship to Boston.

Most people within and around the Celtics organization recognize this — the five-year contract he signed in 2011 notwithstanding — so they have gotten used to patiently waiting each summer until Rivers inevitably sends word that he will be back on the bench for at least another year. Early signs indicated that was the case again this summer, though recent reports have thrown Rivers’ return into doubt. Still, it is far too early for the Celtics to panic. Rivers, who has attended pre-draft workouts and taken part in offseason planning meetings with the Celtics, is acting like a guy who plans to coach next season.

And yet, the panic is understandable, even if it is a bit premature, because losing Rivers would be disastrous for the Celtics. It would be a far bigger blow, long-term, than watching Paul Pierce get bought out and play elsewhere, or sending off Kevin Garnett to a happy retirement. Everything for the Celtics hinges on Rivers’ return.

Players come and go, even great ones like Pierce and Garnett. Although there is no substitute for an elite player in his prime, a team’s best hope barring that single game-changing talent is a top-flight head coach. In the interim between a one-time great player’s slow descent into normalcy and the necessary retooling period, a respected coach can be valuable in smoothing that transition, and even shortening the time span it takes to get the team back up to title contention. This appears to be the stage in which the Celtics are now.

This is not about a complete rebuild, which Rivers reportedly would “pause” before signing up for. This is about the inevitable shift from Pierce, Garnett and Ray Allen to Rajon Rondo, et al. That may include Pierce and Garnett for another year or so, making massive moves to try for a short-term turnaround now or biding their time for a year until Rondo, Brandon Bass and Jason Terry become expiring contracts in 2014-15. Whatever path Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge chooses, the Celtics are not necessarily doomed to a repeat of the bad old days of the late 1990s.

Without Rivers, however, those worries become more reasonable. It is no secret that Boston has never been a top free agent destination. As recently as 2007, Garnett was said to be hesitant to come here, and not merely because the Celtics struggled on the basketball court. Since Rivers became coach, though, middle-tier free agents have lined up to play in green. Terry and Courtney Lee are the most recent to accept below-market value to sign with the Celtics, while Garnett and Rondo have made it loud and clear that they do not want to play for any other coach. When players now say they want to play for the Celtics, what they really are saying is that they want to play for Rivers.

Whether Pierce or Garnett stay or go may be an intriguing talking point, but Rivers’ status is ultimately the bigger concern for the long-term future of the Celtics. Rivers may say he is burned out and need some time to detox after each season, but he is still only 51 years old and far from the end of the line as a coach. George Karl, 62, reigning NBA coach of the year, and Gregg Popovich, 64, currently guiding the Spurs to a potential fifth championship, have proven Rivers has at least another decade of great coaching ahead of him. For all anybody knows, Rivers could go year-to-year for the Celtics for the next 14 years and hang multiple banners at TD Garden. That whole year-to-year thing worked pretty well toward the end of Phil Jackson‘s tenures in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Of course, look what happened to the Bulls and Lakers after Jackson’s departure. While the dearth of on-court talent didn’t help, no Tim Floyd or Mike Brown will fill the void left by Rivers in Boston. It’s too early to assume Rivers won’t be back coaching the Celtics next year, but it’s not too early to worry about what awaits the Celtics if he is not.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

When a player or commentator is complaining about it, usually.

Criticism of officials steadily increases with each successive round of the NBA playoffs, and reaches a fever pitch in the NBA Finals. In a way, this is a good thing for the league, because this means more casual fans who aren’t familiar with the intricacies of the rules are watching and complaining. More viewership is always good, even if it’s angry, ill-informed viewership.

Ignorance becomes more of an issue when it is on the part of the players on the court or the commentators who are supposed to be educating the fans. Every time LeBron James clasps his head in disgust or Reggie Miller interprets a call, incorrectly, from the sideline after seeing an instant replay, another handful of fans gets a mistaken idea of some rule or another.

To clear up some confusion, we scoured the official NBA casebook for answers. Below are some of the most commonly misconstrued rules, with explanations behind why the typical interpretation is wrong.

After going out of bounds, a player has to touch both feet inbounds before he can legally touch the ball.

This might come as a shock, but the NBA and NFL are two different leagues, and legal inbounds position in basketball is entirely different from legally catching a football. That’s the only place this confusion can come from, because at no level of basketball does a player need to have both feet inbounds to be legally in play. The cliché to follow in determining whether a player is inbounds is “something in, nothing out.”

During Game 3, Spurs guard Danny Green was out of bounds underneath the basket while Heat players and his teammates were batting the ball around. As it floated in the air near the baseline, Green stepped inbounds with one foot and lifted his other foot off the court, then grabbed the ball. When the referees whistled Green for being out of bounds, play-by-play announcer Mike Breen said it was out-of-bounds because Green “never got that second foot down” inbounds.

That was not the case. Green’s “second foot” never had to be inbounds. This was just a missed called by the officials, who thought Green’s “second foot” was still touching out-of-bounds — i.e. that he did not have “nothing out.”

A travel occurs when a player lifts his pivot foot without dribbling.

Of course it doesn’t, if you think about it. If a travel occurred whenever a player lifted his pivot foot, no one would ever be able to attempt a jump shot, since leaving the ground for the shot would be a traveling violation every time.

Even with a dead dribble, a player can lift his pivot foot off the floor. The violation occurs when the pivot foot returns to the court without the player throwing a pass or attempting a shot. However, a player needs to have a legal pivot foot established when he begins his dribble — this is why a player can’t jump for a shot, change his mind in mid-air and start dribbling before he lands.

If the offensive team fails to get the ball across the halfcourt line when the 24-second shot clock reads “16,” an eight-second violation has occurred.

So wrong, as we have covered in its own full story.

A shooter fouled in the air, after the shot has been released, has been fouled “after the shot.”

The act of shooting cannot be interrupted at all, by a defender or the game clock. The act begins when the offensive player starts his upward shooting motion and ends when he returns to the court after the shot. This applies even if the ball is long gone in its path to the hoop, and “even if the horn sounds to end the period.” The shooter gets two shots (or three).

A defender has to allow the jump shooter a chance to land.

Nope. While this might seem contradictory to the previous rule, the shooter is within some limitation on his airborne options. If the shooter jumps sideways, forward, backward or in an out-of-control manner, the defender has no obligation to get out of his way if the defender has a legal guarding position or has jumped vertically in that space to contest a shot.

Sorry, Dwyane Wade.

A defender in the restricted area around the basket can never draw an offensive foul.

This is another one that is just common sense. If an offensive player knew he was immune to an offensive foul inside the restricted area (that little oval line painted around the basket), all bets would be off when he got the ball down there. He could barrel into defenders with reckless abandon. But if an offensive player begins his shooting motion inside the “lower defensive zone” below the block, that oval area is no longer “restricted.” Only if the offensive player begins his shot outside the zone, and attempts a shot directly at the basket, is he immune from a charge on a defensive player inside the oval.

Note that he is immune from a “charge,” to use the layman’s term, not all offensive fouls all together. That was Shane Battier‘s miscalculation when he raised his knee into Roy Hibbert, who was within the restricted area, on a layup attempt in the Eastern Conference Finals. Battier was correctly assessed an offensive foul.

A defender at the edge of the restricted oval may lift his heel off the line to get into a legal position outside the restricted area.

The restricted area is one of the few places on a basketball court where position has no bearing on where the player last touched the floor. Imagine an invisible wall extending upward from that oval. If a player is inside that wall, he is inside the restricted area, even if his foot is not touching the line.

Speaking of the position of a defender’s feet, now we come to the mother of all misunderstood rules …

A defender’s feet must be planted for him to draw an offensive foul.

This is probably the most commonly misapplied rule in the books (just recently, I was speaking with a Massachusetts high school and AAU referee who declared a defender must have his feet “set” to draw an offensive foul. Hopefully, he is not assigned to any big games in the near future). There is no requirement for a defender to have his feet planted, set, fixed, or whatever synonyms for “stationary” you can come up with, at the high school, college or professional levels.

A defender needs only to have an established, legal guarding position in a “spot” when he contacts an offensive player to draw a player-control foul. The defender is explicitly allowed to lean to either side, or move laterally or backward. It’s not even necessary for him to hold his arms down at his sides, although many often do, to accentuate the stationary-ness of their bodies.

From Item V. (28) in the NBA Case Book: The defender is allowed to “firm up,” move his feet and/or turn slightly to better absorb the contact. Or take Item V. (29): A dribbler is expected to be in control at all times and if a defender can legally get to a ‘spot’ in the path of the dribbler, it is the dribbler’s responsibility to stop and/or change direction immediately.

So where does the “feet must be planted” concept even come from? Most likely from coaches trying to drill into their players a fail-safe method to draw charges. It is easier for a coach to instruct his or her players to plant their feet than to give them the more nebulous order to “assume a legal defensive stance.” As a result, “plant your feet” joins “follow your shot” as faulty clichés we learned in youth ball.

Now you know. Next time you’re watching a game, drop some knowledge on the folks you’re watching the game with — and be prepared for all of them to tell you what a moron you are.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Related articles

• Dennis Rodman Says LeBron James Would Have Been ‘Average’ NBA Player in 1980s or ’90s (Video) (nesn.com)

Doc Rivers

Any Celtics fan looking for a deeper silver lining to this news, however, will be disappointed. Rivers will remain, giving the Celtics a decided tactical advantage on a solid three-quarters of their opponents in the league, but any definitive movement on Paul Pierce or Garnett’s situations is still mostly independent of Rivers’ decision.

Rivers’ return is promising news, so far as it goes, for those hoping for at least one more year with Pierce and Garnett. The coach’s departure probably would have meant Garnett, who makes no secret of his preference to play for Rivers and nobody else, had played his last game as a Celtic. In that, at least, they can take solace. Garnett is not definitely gone, so that is something.

Still, there is a massive difference between Garnett not being gone for certain, and Garnett unequivocally being back. Keep in mind that Garnett also had some strong things to say about Pierce after the Celtics’ Game 6 loss to the Knicks. If Pierce’s presence is not quite the deal breaker Rivers’ was, it clearly looms large in Garnett’s choice.

From the perspective of Danny Ainge, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations, retaining Rivers is a no-brainer. Rivers is one of the top five coaches in the NBA, without question, and unlike Pierce, his contract does not count against the salary cap or the luxury tax. Even if Rivers’ coaching acumen falls off slightly, he is still more than worth the roughly $7 million in average salary he is reportedly making over the life of his deal. Whether the Celtics trot out for the opening tip next season with a familiar lineup or one that features new faces and more youth, that team will be better off with Rivers leading it than it would be with just about anybody else.

Pierce and Garnett’s situations are trickier. Unlike their coach, their salaries do impact what types of other things the team can do personnel-wise, and Pierce’s performance in the playoffs is not sufficient for a player due to earn more than $15 million. Ainge and the other members of the Celtics’ front office have far more difficult decisions awaiting them there.

Looking at this logically, there should not have been any real doubt whether Rivers was coming back. The argument that he might not want to keep coaching a team that does not include Pierce, Garnett or Ray Allen seemed to have a faulty premise. After all, Rivers signed his current extension following year four of what was supposed to be a three-year project with the “Big Three” — if he was afraid to coach without those three Hall of Famers, he probably would not have committed to five more years when said Hall of Famers were 35 (Allen), 34 (Garnett) and 33 years old (Pierce).

Allen is gone, of course, but the remnants of that championship era live on as long as Pierce and Garnett are still in green. Whereas Rivers’ exit would have shut the door on that era completely, his return leaves the door the slightest bit ajar. Whether Garnett and Pierce will be walking through that door remains as open-ended as it was before.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

You should still put some long, serious thought into trading for Pierce. And it has nothing to do with his abilities as a player.

As the Celtics weigh whether to bring back Pierce next season, the decision has largely been presented as pair of two-choice scenarios. First, the Celtics have to determine whether to bring back the 35-year-old forward or to part ways. Then, the Celtics either will buy out Pierce’s $15.3 million contract for $5 million, or they will trade him to a team in need of one last, expensive, veteran player to put it in the championship conversation. (Many people, with the notable exception of CelticsHub’s Brian Robb, have overlooked the fact that the Celtics could waive Pierce before June 30, however unrealistic and unpractical that may be.)

Near-contenders are not the only teams that could find some use for Pierce, however, thanks to another option that expands the possibilities and should make Pierce an intriguing trade target to just about everyone in the league.

The new collective bargaining agreement kept a lot of the provisions that allowed a traded player to carry virtually all of the rights and stipulations from his contract with the previous team onto his new team. So any team that trades for Pierce also acquires his “Bird rights,” which allow greater flexibility in signing him to an extension, as well as — ready for this? — the right to buy him out for $5 million. Given the CBA’s rules regarding salary-matching on trades, this could be a valuable tool for some team trying to dump some salaries.

Think about it. As a taxpaying team, the Celtics could trade away Pierce’s $15.3 million and get back an amount equal to 125 percent of his outgoing salary, plus $100,000, under the CBA. (They would not be able to actually add the full $19.2 million, based on my math, because that would put them over the $74.3 million luxury tax “apron” at which they are hard-capped as a result of using the mid-level exception on Jason Terry.) The Celtics have 10 players under contract for next season, not counting Pierce or draft picks, which means they can acquire up to five players for roughly Pierce’s $15 million. The team that acquires Pierce, provided it does so before June 30, can turn around and buy him out for $5 million.

Just like that, the other team has rid itself of about 30 percent of the current salary cap for a third of the cost.

Suddenly, the market for Pierce does not look so limited. Even if another team loves Pierce’s game, convincing it to take him for $15.3 million is a hard sell, especially when that team can just wait for the Celtics to buy out or waive Pierce and then sign him to a smaller deal. If they never intend for Pierce to play for them, though, the ability to take on that salary with the express purpose of dumping might be worth the call to Danny Ainge, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations.

As for potential trade partners and what assemblage of talent exists for this deal to make sense for the Celtics, that is a more speculative topic for another story. The financial details of each potential trade change, of course, depending on the other team’s status above or below the cap or the luxury tax line. The pertinent detail is that Pierce’s contract would allow a team that trades for him to eliminate at least $15 million in salary for just $5 million. That is a swap most NBA executives would have to give some thought.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

*Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misapplied the rules for how much money the Celtics could take back in a trade as a tax-paying team. The figures have been corrected. Thank you, as usual, to Larry Coon’s NBA CBA FAQ for providing many of the CBA details used in this story.

For many stretches this year, the Celtics could not do that. Then, even after they discovered how to play in such a way after losing Rajon Rondo to a season-ending injury, they stumbled again late in the season. Facing the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs, it’s been even worse. Their first three games against New York were a template of exactly what they didn’t want to do.

But don’t fear, Celtics fans — the Knicks are here. And they’ve enabled Boston to do exactly what it wanted to do all year.

The Celtics have won two games in a row, including Wednesday night’s on the Knicks’ home court, and it hasn’t been a fluke. Boston has put a different kind of performance on the court both times. And, while the Celtics were not without rust in their two wins, they’ve at least shown that they can use their pieces in a way that will lead to victory.

The Celtics’ game planning has worked, for sure, but more of the credit may lie with the opponents. The Celtics knew what they had to do coming into the playoffs, and after Game 1, and after Game 2, but they haven’t been given the open door until now.

The Knicks have cleared the way both tactically and mentally for the Celtics to romp and possibly steal the most improbable of series wins. It started with New York’s inflated sense of confidence after taking down the Celtics twice at home and then once on the road. Up 3-0, the Knicks — who haven’t done anything in the first round in more than a decade — talked as if the series was won.

On Wednesday, the Knicks heeded the advice of Kenyon Martin and wore black to the game, calling it Boston’s “funeral.” That, coupled with sixth man J.R. Smith‘s boast that the Celtics couldn’t win if he was in the lineup (he was out in Game 4), had New York filling the clichéd storyline of what not to do when the series isn’t completely wrapped up, and when the other team is full of veteran All-Stars who are just as good at holding grudges as they once were at scoring points.

The Celtics won 92-86 on Wednesday night in a game they controlled a bit more than the score indicated, and even Smith was ready to swallow the bravado and put his workman’s cap back on. Smith played 36 minutes but shot just 3-for-14, scoring 14 points — most of them inconsequentially — and leaving a minus-8 mark for his team when he was on the floor.

“We were going to a funeral, but looks like we got buried,” the chagrined Smith said after the game. “I’m done with the black thing.”

Buried they were. While Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have no trouble summoning passion and knowing their place in the history of the game, the extra pokes from a Knicks team that has been heavy on drama and light on gritty work was the perfect touch for a team looking to crawl out of a 0-3 series hole.

That’s not the only area where the Knicks have enabled the Celtics, though. On the court, New York is starting to open Boston up for the opportunities it needs to play its best ball.

While Doc Rivers should get most of the credit for the tweaks that have given the Celtics a reliable option in the backcourt (Terrence Williams handling the ball has been great for the team), some movement on offense and performances from the players who need to be involved (Garnett and Green, most notably), the Knicks have played into what the Celtics want to do. The Knicks know the key to themselves winning is moving the ball, making the most of their guard tandems and using Anthony in the most effective manner. But in this series, they’ve sometimes regressed into the fun-if-it-works, horrific-if-it-doesn’t option of having Anthony or Smith isolate, and whatever an offense does to have Anthony go 8-for-24 and 0-for-5 on 3-pointers (Wednesday night’s line). The Celtics have started playing as a team, while the Knicks appeared unconvinced of that necessity.

Defensively, the Knicks have backed off their traps and double teams at key points, letting the Celtics get some momentum. They’ve failed to be committed to stopping ball movement, and as the Celtics have learned that they can trust each other, get several players scoring in double figures and outpace the Knicks just on the strength of sharing the ball, they’ve seen their game climb to a level that once again makes this series look winnable.

“We’ve got to trust each other,” Garnett said. “At this point we’ve got no other options. For us to be successful, we have to lean on one another.”

It’s a lesson the Celtics have always known but have had trouble putting in play. Thanks to the Knicks, though, they’re getting some real-time opportunities.

Reporters seldom had reason to interview Collins here — he played a total of 330 minutes with the Celtics — but in his stall by the door of the home locker room at TD Garden, Collins was almost always engaged in conversation with someone. He was too much of a “regular” guy, too uniquely self-aware for a professional athlete, for people to not gravitate toward.

In Collins’ introduction as a Celtic, the foul-prone big man joked that he had chosen No. 98 for his jersey so that referees would have to contort their hands to signal those two digits toward the scorer’s table. A few weeks later, while discussing his improved physical fitness with a reporter, Collins realized a scrum of media had developed around him and teasingly asked if they were all this fascinated with his diet. He was a millionaire with the ability to make cracks like your buddy at the bar.

That ability to joke about himself is rare in the ego-driven world of sports, and it showed through in his announcement Monday that he is gay. In becoming the first active male athlete in a major American professional sport to make his homosexuality public, Collins drew widespread support from fans, politicians and — most importantly of all — fellow players.

Beneath an obviously emotional decision, however, was a shrewdly reasoned approach that virtually absolves Collins of any criticism, save from the most hardened homophobes. Once again, his self-awareness shows through.

The first and most important factor is the man. If the focus becomes Collins’ sexuality, we may forget about the other qualities that made Collins such a widely liked and respected individual before the announcement — and such an ideal spokesman now.

In a statement released shortly after Sports Illustrated posted Collins’ story, Celtics coach Doc Rivers referenced Jackie Robinson, stating that teammates are always the first to accept the differences in one of their own. The lesson of Robinson’s story is not just that he excelled and broke down the modern color barrier in baseball, but that he came to be judged — positively and negatively — on more than his skin color.

By the end of his career, Robinson was described by teammates as a “great man,” not a “great black man” or a “great black ballplayer.” In the wake of Collins’ announcement, Rivers did not amend his opinion that Collins is “one of my favorite ‘team’ players I have ever coached” to “one of my favorite gay ‘team’ players I have ever coached.” Collins’ coming out, while historic, is just one part of who he is, for better or worse.

Collins essentially said the same himself, much more simply and eloquently. “I don’t let my race define me any more than I want my sexual orientation to. I don’t want to be labeled, and I can’t let someone else’s label define me.” So why come out at all? Because he wanted the decision to be his, “not TMZ’s.”

The second factor is the timing. Collins’ team, the Wizards, have wrapped up their season. The playoffs are proceeding without them for the fifth straight year. He does not have any teammates to potentially “distract,” to use one of the subversive buzzwords. The only thing they might be distracted from is their PlayStation games or lensless glasses shopping. With Collins on the roster, Wizards point guard John Wall coincidentally improved by leaps and bounds late in the season. If that were to change simply because Wall, or any player, suddenly was aware Collins was gay, then they have bigger problems beyond bigotry.

Additionally, Collins is a free agent. If he were under contract, there might be claims that he was putting his organization in an awkward position. The NBA and several teams have added their vocal support to the LGBT movement, but Collins’ coming out while under contract could force a team’s public relations department to work overtime. As a free agent, Collins has no employer to compromise. Some team gets to choose whether it wants the “distraction” and whether it feels capable of managing that. Again, if a team cannot, then they have deeper, organizational issues to address.

The longstanding fear is that a few of his new teammates will turn the cold shoulder, and that may be true. If so, they will find themselves outside the mainstream of their peers. Quickly, the standard-bearers among players, from Kobe Bryant to Jason Kidd, offered their support via Twitter. If Kobe says it’s OK, the rest of the league had better step in line or incur his wrath.

The third and final factor is Collins’ style. If you grew up in the 1980s and ’90s like me, you know gay people as the flamboyant caricatures they were on sitcoms. They are, and some still on current TV shows are, the antithesis of Collins. In an era when fashionistas like Rajon Rondo and Russell Westbrook seem to discover a new shade of pastel every week, Collins is anything but flashy. He is a bruiser, a screen-setter and a hack artist. He does all the dirty work many straight players shy away from. No misguided stereotype for softness applies.

Wherever Collins lands next season, it will be tough for anyone to root against him. He will have many new fans, of course, and maybe a few of his old ones will turn away. Most of his teammates and opponents will continue to respect him, though, as they did back when they routinely confused him with his twin brother, Jarron Collins.

When Collins takes the court, he promises to play the same way as ever. He may even deliver an especially hard screen to an intolerant opponent. He will be just as engaging as ever, only now he will be on the record, discussing an important topic of social significance, not just joking around with whoever happens to be hanging out near his locker.

Perhaps someone should have recognized well before that there was something different about Collins beyond his affability. He disclosed in SI that wearing No. 98 was not actually to tweak the officials, but a nod to the torture and killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, in 1998. It was an understated, personal gesture, done without excessive fanfare, and it may have been a clue into how Collins is handling this latest move. Now, his actions are more public, but true to form, he clearly is still going to great lengths to make sure he does it the right way.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

The underwhelming praise was sort of funny in an ironic way, considering that three games into this first-round series, Felton may be the Knicks’ most valuable player. He has gashed the Celtics’ traditionally stout defense with his pick-and-roll ballhandling, penetrating to the basket easily and finding open teammates outside the 3-point line whenever defenders collapse.

Yet Felton is not the only Knicks point guard responsible for putting the Celtics in a historically insurmountable 3-0 deficit. Pablo Prigioni and Jason Kidd, two aging guards at separate stages of their NBA lives, have teamed with Felton to form a multiple-point guard attack that has given the Celtics fits.

“I think Ray has grown, like quite a few players have grown, but Ray has grown as a player from training camp to today,” Kidd said. “When you look at him or Pablo running the show, they just [have an] understanding of what the team needs at the right time. That’s what a point guard does. He’s been doing it for us in this series and we’re going to ask him to come out on Sunday and do the same thing.”

The Knicks are not the only team that utilized two or more point guards together on the court this season, but they did it best. Felton and Prigioni started together for the second time in the series, and they scored 10 of the Knicks’ 23 points in the first quarter of Game 3. Their defense has been everything the Celtics’ backcourt was advertised as, while the Avery Bradley and company have not had any success containing the Knicks guards, inside or outside. Other than that, things have been great for the Celtics.

Dual point guards present challenges the Celtics’ defense is not designed for. The Celtics’ system focuses on loading up on the strong side of the floor, giving plenty of help to a defender guarding a dangerous one-on-one scorer like Kobe Bryant or LeBron James. Ideally, Anthony would be limited as well. But playing two point guards means the Knicks can initiate the offense from either side of the court, meaning there is no “strong side.” The Knicks simply need to swing the ball, or run a pick and roll near the free throw circle, and the Celtics’ defense starts to break down.

Short of sticking Courtney Lee back with the first unit, which Celtics coach Doc Rivers seems unwilling to do, there is not much the Celtics can do right now schematically. They simply need to contain the opposing guards better. Rivers made the best short-term switch he could by inserting Jason Terry into the starting lineup for Game 3, hoping to take some of the ballhandling responsibility from Bradley and keep the third-year guard fresh for the defensive end.

That move only succeeded in getting J.R. Smith ejected when he cracked Terry in the jaw with an elbow in the fourth quarter.

Before a bunch of NBA teams go out and stock up on point guards this summer, they should know that this strategy requires a certain type of player. Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings have not had much success finding cohesion with the Bucks, who are on the verge of getting swept by the Heat. Felton is the classic, ball-dominating point, but Kidd, a 39-year-old veteran, and Prigioni, a 35-year-old rookie, are just as happy playing off the ball. Prigioni’s outside shooting has been just as valuable as his defense in the playoffs, while Kidd still has a knack for the ball on defense, along with the most underrated 3-point set shot in NBA history.

“I’m a hybrid,” Kidd said. “I’m just a basketball player. I used to be a point guard when I was younger, and now it’s just about playing out there and helping my guys win. Playing the two-[point]-guard offense — we did that a lot in Dallas — we had a lot of success. … It’s the right thing to do with the makeup of this team.”

Whether or not Anthony wants to act impressed, the Knicks’ point guard play has stood out in the series. Three times the threat has caused three times the trouble for the Celtics, who are probably wishing the Knicks go back to the days when they just gave the ball to Anthony on the wing and cleared out.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

After one of the most harrowing weeks this city has ever experienced, Boston finally can begin its return to something resembling normal life. What “normal” means now is unclear, of course, as Monday’s tragedy at the marathon and Friday’s day-long manhunt redefined the word forever for the residents of Boston and its suburbs. For the families of Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu and Sean Collier, the death of one of the bombing’s alleged perpetrators and the capture of the other will never be sufficient to return their lives to the happy “normal” they knew less than a week ago.

But it is a start along the path to healing. So as the residents of Watertown awaken on Saturday morning, bleary-eyed from the surreal preceding 24 hours, they can finally begin to pretend that life is on its way back to normal. We can turn on the news to confirm to ourselves that Friday really happened, that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev truly is clinging to life in a hospital bed and not running free, then dedicate a few quiet moments to reflect in honor of the victims.

Then we can turn on the Red Sox at noon, provided the weather clears up, or the Bruins, who will line up for the opening face off around the same time Clay Buchholz‘ first pitch will sail into the catcher’s mitt at Fenway Park. Around the time those games are wrapping up, the Celtics tip off Game 1 of their Eastern Conference playoff series in New York. For a solid six hours or so, we will create the illusion that this is just another day in sports-loving Boston.

The games themselves are irrelevant, obviously. The Bruins eliminated two games from their schedule this week, the Red Sox and Celtics one each, and nobody has uttered a peep of complaint. Anyone and everyone would trade wins in all three games today if it could help bring back the four people who have lost their lives needlessly.

Yet we all know that it would not. As three of Boston’s teams return to action, the games are simply a reminder of what two men’s actions took from us — or tried to, anyway. Getting life back to normal, or something like it, begins now. On Saturday, we will show the perpetrators that Boston, for all the tears shed in the last six days, has not forgotten how to cheer.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Crawford has long been criticized for his questionable shot selection, which has limited the effectiveness of the otherwise dangerous shot-maker. His poor decision-making earned him a spot deep on the bench in Washington, where he languished in a sea of “DNPs” before he came to Boston at the trade deadline. Since joining the Celtics, Crawford has been as advertised, and that is fine with Rivers.

“I don’t want to get in his way,” Rivers said before his team took on the Knicks on Tuesday. “We don’t have time to change him or coach him to where he fits the exact role the way you want him to play. What I’ve done, when you get a player this late in the year, you tell him, ‘Just go play. I won’t get in your way. If you’re doing something too much, I’ll let you know.’

“I don’t want to get in his way at all. I want him to go out and play, be him, and if it’s something we don’t like, we’ll take him out. I just want him to play free.”

Freedom can be a blessing and curse for both Crawford and the Celtics. He jumped into action in a rare start on Tuesday, in place of the injured Courtney Lee, and hit four of his first five shots to help the Celtics trail by only four points after the first quarter. Then he fell into one of the hair-pulling, undisciplined ruts that have defined his three-year NBA career. He shot 1-for-6 the rest of the way while committing some fatal defensive mistakes and coughing up six turnovers in Boston’s fifth straight loss.

Still, Rivers is not complaining. The Celtics coach calls Crawford his “wild card,” handing the 24-year-old Xavier product the role previously filled by Leandro Barbosa before his season-ending knee injury. Barbosa was sent to Washington, along with center Jason Collins, as part of the trade that brought Crawford to the Celtics. The Wizards’ willingness to part with a first-round draft choice from only three years ago for an injured player who will never play for them and a journeyman center speaks volumes of what they thought of his skills.

To that, Rivers merely shrugs.

“That’s why we traded for him,” Rivers said. “When you lose Barbosa, who was pretty much good on some nights and some nights bad, we looked at who could do the same things, and Jordan is the perfect character for that role. We laugh, but he is on the ‘All-Scary’ team, for me and [Knicks coach Mike Woodson]. Every night, he scares both coaches.”

Crawford is averaging 8.3 points through 16 games with the Celtics, and the results have been predictably unpredictable. He is shooting 40 percent from the field and has 26 turnovers, but he has shown passing skills that are better than advertised. His 29 assists have been a useful addition to a Celtics’ new offense, in which ball movement is a must. He erupted for 14 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter against the Grizzlies on Saturday, nearly turning a blowout loss into a miraculous win.

Crawford is not an ideal player, but for now the Celtics are not asking him to be one. Sure, Rivers might find it a little scary to put Crawford out of the court, but that is not anywhere near as scary as it would be if Rivers did not have him at all.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

D.J. White

Even so, retaining White through the end of the season is a quiet, sensible move. For now, he provides another body to a bench that has been thinned by three season-ending injuries and the recent injury/illness to Kevin Garnett. His playing time is likely to be even more sparse as Celtics coach Doc Rivers narrows his rotation in preparation for the playoffs, but at least he ensures Rivers will not be caught without anybody to send into the game if Garnett, Brandon Bass and Chris Wilcox all get struck with foul trouble or freak injuries simultaneously.

As for next season, which is probably non-guaranteed, White adds depth without worsening the Celtics’ accounting crunch. White becomes the 12th player signed through next season, after fellow 10-day signee Terrence Williams had his contract extended two weeks ago and assuming Paul Pierce is back. They are already staring down the presumptive luxury tax line, which has yet to be established for next season, and Pierce’s $15 million non-guaranteed deal would be their only expiring contract of substance. Simply put, they will need as many low-cost options to fill out their roster as they can find.

In Williams, 25, and now White, 26, the Celtics have two guys who not only give them somebody to throw in at the end of blowouts, but two relatively young players with some potential to become rotation players in the future. Given the Celtics’ payroll flexibility (or lack thereof), they could do much worse.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

And LeBron James is pretty good at basketball.

As the Miami Heat’s win streak grows, now at 23 straight games following Monday’s comeback win over the Celtics, the deniers of James’ all-time greatness have lost all credibility. Despise him all they want, but James’ critics cannot blame slanted officiating or a star-studded supporting cast for his performance anymore without sounding like someone grasping for reasons to dispute what is clearly reality.

“He’s the best,” Heat teammate Shane Battier said. “You never take that for granted. Shame on anybody that takes No. 6 for granted, because he’s a special talent.”

With 10.5 seconds on the clock on Monday, James took the ball and hammered home Battier’s point. Jeff Green played an outstanding game, scoring 43 points on just 21 shots, and for more than three quarters he was the best player on the floor. In a tie game, though, with Green defending James on the left wing, the player who has risen head and shoulders above his contemporaries rose head and shoulders above Green to rattle in the game-winning shot.

The Celtics had one more opportunity, with Paul Pierce‘s go-ahead 3-point try flying off the mark, but the point had been made. Other players may have nice games, but in those decisive moments when games are won and reputations are made, James now stands alone.

The highlight of the night will be James’ utter destruction of Jason Terry, who valiantly stepped up to challenge James on a lob dunk attempt in the second quarter. James caught the pass from Norris Cole and easily threw it down as Terry ricocheted off his body and onto the floor, where James stood over him for a beat, relishing the moment. The move earned James a technical foul, but he probably felt it was a worthwhile trade-off for posterizing Terry, who is one of the Heat’s most vocal detractors.

Still, wild dunks say little about actual basketball skill. If they did, Gerald Green would not have racked up so much D-League experience in the last three years. Before James’ slam, DeAndre Jordan and Harrison Barnes were the leading contenders for dunk of the year, and nobody considers either of them an all-time great so far.

Instead, James won the game down the stretch in less exciting ways — some subtle, some not. He brushed aside Brandon Bass, who defends James about as well as a 6-foot-9 power forward can hope, for a finger roll to pull Miami within three points. He found Dwyane Wade sneaking behind Avery Bradley for a layup to cut Boston’s lead to two points. He recovered his own missed layup, on what probably should have been called a shooting foul, for the game-tying tip-in. Then came the jumper over Green.

“Aside from his physical skills, he plays the right way,” Battier said. “He’s an unbelievable teammate. He plays to win. He’s unselfish. That’s what makes him special. He wants to win, and he’s an ultimate competitor. He’s the total package.”

No matter how many game-winners or smart plays he makes, James will never satisfy a sizable subset of NBA fans. That is fine. From the smattering of No. 6 Heat jerseys among the green at TD Garden on Monday, James has his share of fans even in the hostile environs of Boston.

Remember, however, that there were those who said Michael Jordan was too selfish, Kevin Garnett too unselfish and Wilt Chamberlain too mercurial to ever rise to the level of the great players in NBA history. Eventually, those critics were either drowned out or forced to admit the obvious. Like the stars before him, James is earning legendary status, regardless of whether we choose to acknowledge it.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

1. Open up Microsoft Word, or whatever word-processing program you prefer.

2. Ramp up the font size to about 240-point or so.

3. Type an asterisk.

4. Print the page.

Got it? Good. Now, whenever you hear or read anything about the Miami Heat’s 10-game losing streak in Boston, tape that page to your TV, computer, newspaper or anywhere else someone cites that completely meaningless statistic. As far as misleading factoids go, this one should come with more asterisks, footnotes, addenda and secondary notations than the last eight years of Barry Bonds‘ career.

Yes, the Celtics have beaten the Heat 10 straight times in the regular season at TD Garden, where the Celtics host Miami on Monday. If the Celtics should come out with another win — which is entirely possible, particularly given the way the Celtics beat the Heat at home without Rajon Rondo last month — then Boston will continue to be called LeBron James‘ bugaboo, the place where the greatest player in the game curiously loses much of his greatness. If you doubt that the outcome of this game will be the lead debate topic on ESPN First Take on Tuesday morning, then you give obnoxious blowhards too much credit.

It is all kind of weird. Usually, 45-point, 15-rebound performances in the playoffs attract more credit than this. When bringing up the 10-game losing streak, it is customary to mention that the Heat have beaten the Celtics in Boston, and it happened a scant 10 months ago. As you may recall, James sort of had 45 points and 15 rebounds in his reputation-saving Game 6 of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals. This little tidbit is almost treated as an aside, as though that is only marginally relevant to the conversation. But it is not just relevant. It is the entire point of why this matchup is such a big deal.

Regular season or playoffs, James’ mammoth game last June proved that he is capable of killing the Celtics on a massive stage. That is the key to Monday’s game. Should the Celtics claim a victory, it would not be in spite of this fact, but because of it that their win would be so impressive. The Celtics would not merely be bullying around an opponent that is mentally defeated the moment it steps on the parquet. They would be outplaying a worthy adversary who, as the Heat’s current 22-game win streak suggests, is playing pretty well right now. In a funny way, all the talk about the Celtics’ 10-game winning streak over the Heat in Boston takes away some credit from what the Celtics have been able to accomplish against the Heatles in the last three years.

Oh, and that 10-game streak also includes five wins that occurred while James was still in Cleveland and the Heat were first-round playoff fodder or worse.

So, yeah. Keep that asterisk ready.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

“I’m always concerned,” Rivers said.

Rivers need not to have worried. After a back-and-forth start, the Celtics spread the floor in the second and third quarters to turn a close game early into a runaway late for the second straight game. The only difference Saturday against the Bobcats was that this time, they did not have Garnett. As their 105-88 win attests, they did OK without him.

Although they might prefer not to have to keep doing this, the Celtics are getting really good at stepping up with a man down. They improved to 16-6 without Rajon Rondo, who is sidelined for the rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. They have also shaken off the losses of Jared Sullinger and Leandro Barbosa. They did not respond as well Tuesday in Charlotte with Paul Pierce taking a rest, but they exacted revenge back at home.

“We’re going to fight,” said Jeff Green, who was thrust into the starting lineup in place of a future Hall of Famer for the second time in four days. “Everything’s not going to be perfect, but as long as we’re out there playing hard, playing as a team, we’ll cover up a lot of mistakes we do on the floor. We’ve just got to continue to play the way we are now and continue to play together.”

Since Rondo went out, Rivers has consistently stated that he does not expect any of the healthy players to go out of their comfort zones to compensate for the absence of their point guard or any other player. Still, each one has quietly expanded his game in subtle ways. Courtney Lee has flashed an offensive mid-range game he seldom revealed early in the season. Jason Terry is handling the ball far more than he has in the last few years. Pierce and Green have embraced their roles as all-around threats who pick up a different responsibility every night, depending on the situation. Although they are loath to admit it, many of them have dusted off aspects of their games they have not been asked to utilize since college, or even AAU.

Brandon Bass, who has attacked the basket and posted up more often in the last few weeks, acknowledged that he has expanded his offensive game because of Rondo’s absence.

“When Rondo’s out there, he makes it where you just catch and shoot,” Bass said. “We’ve got different guys out there now that are playmakers, and I guess I have to be one of those playmakers, so you just see me doing different things.”

Similarly, Garnett’s injury forced a number of Celtics to dabble in new areas against the Bobcats. Chris Wilcox, whom Rivers has implored to be more attentive on defense, played more than 22 minutes off the bench and 14 minutes in the second half, the third-most of any Boston player. By necessity, he became the captain in the back of the defense, simultaneously demonstrating the intricacies of the system to newcomer Shavlik Randolph, who responded with a team-high eight rebounds.

Normally, Rivers’ stock quote is that he would rather never deal with any injuries, and always have his full roster healthy and ready to play. Come the playoffs, that definitely would be ideal.

There is an advantage in not having certain key players available all the time, however. Given the right collection of talent and personalities, some players could step up in ways previously not thought possible and show off skills nobody realized they had. The Celtics will welcome Garnett back in a heartbeat, particularly against the Heat on Monday. Yet as indispensable as Garnett is, the rest of the Celtics are giving Rivers reason to trust them, too.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Paul Pierce

Pierce has spent his entire 15-year NBA career with the Celtics, so it makes sense that he has adopted the organization’s philosophy of only acknowledging the kind of championship that brings a trophy shaped like a gilded wastebasket. He scoffed aside the topic of the division race before practice on Friday, which was the prudent course. Not long ago, the Celtics were merely fighting to stay in the playoff picture, let alone worrying about winning the division, so Pierce is best served maintaining his one-game-at-a-time mindset.

Yet, here they are. The Celtics entered Friday trailing the Knicks by only 3 1/2 games for the division crown and the top-four playoff seed that goes with it. As the Knicks begin to fall, literally, and the Nets continue their apparent unwillingness to take control of a race that should be theirs, the Celtics could be primed for their customary late-season push.

The question is whether they should bother shooting for the division at all. The division title comes with several inherent benefits, of course, but just how beneficial that position will be depends as much on matchups as on Boston’s seed alone.

Let’s take a few of the likely scenarios and how they could play out for the Celtics.

Scenario 1

First round: Celtics (6) vs. Knicks (3)
East semifinals: Celtics vs. Pacers (2)
East finals: Celtics/Pacers vs. Heat (1)

If the standings stayed static for the rest of the season, this would be the Celtics’ probable road through the Eastern Conference playoffs. Kevin Garnett and the Celtics would savor a matchup with Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks, assuming Anthony is healthy, and a second-round meeting with the Pacers would be a toss-up that could come down to who has home-court advantage. Then come the conference finals, where anything is possible (especially a victory for the Heat, but for the sake of this story, that is neither here nor there).

Scenario 2

First round: Chicago/Atlanta (6) vs. Celtics (3)
East semis: Celtics vs. Pacers (2)
East finals: Celtics/Pacers vs. Heat (1)

Call this “The Best-Case Scenario.” The Celtics go for broke, surge past the Knicks and Nets (as well as the Bulls, with whom they are currently tied), and get into the top three. That puts them outside the Heat’s part of the bracket until the conference finals, which ideally is where they want to be. The fact that they get home-court advantage for the first round is a bonus. There is no way they dodge both Indiana and Miami unless one of those two gets upset in the early rounds.

Scenario 3

First round: Celtics (5) vs. Nets (4)
East semis: Celtics vs. Heat (1)
East finals: Celtics/Heat vs. Pacers (2)

This is the worst best-case scenario for the Celtics, if that makes any sense. Short of falling all the way to eighth, which would take a massive collapse, this would put the Celtics in their least-advantageous position to reach the conference finals. The Nets are probably an even bigger paper tiger than the Knicks, but the Fighting Prokhorovs have won two of the three meetings with the Celtics this season and they might be the one team that can grind out wins in an even slower style than the Celtics. After that, the winner gets the Heat in the second round, a far less preferable time to get the defending champs. This is what awaits the Celtics if they make a serious run for one of the top three seeds and fall just a bit short.

Why is delaying the matchup with the Heat so desirable? As the playoffs go on, the improbable becomes more likely. Things happen in the first two rounds that can affect performance later. Those things unfortunately include ruptured tendons, torn ligaments and bulging discs. Maybe LeBron James tweaks his knee or Chris Bosh feels a twinge in his lower back, and it hurts their performance as the playoffs progress. The chances of such freak occurrences become much more likely as the Heat play more games, so saving the Heat for last (or second-to-last, counting the NBA Finals) increases the likelihood they will be at less than full strength in later rounds. If the Heat have played 10 or 12 games, as opposed to four or five, there is a greater chance one of their key players could be hobbled and limited in a seven-game series.

No one is rooting for James to get hurt — all right, admit it, some of you are — but last year’s experiences with Derrick Rose and others showed that crazy things happen as the playoffs unfold. Nor is this intended to imply the Celtics cannot beat Miami at full strength. They are already 1-0 without Rajon Rondo against the Heat, after all. Pierce and Kevin Garnett certainly have not played like they are afraid of any opponent. Yet nobody can argue that a worn-down James is tougher to beat than a fresh one.

The Celtics insist they have not looked at any of this. They are probably telling the truth. With the playoffs still more than a month away, it is somewhat early for them to strategically plot their path seeding-wise. But there is an extra element to watch as they try to make their way up the East standings. The best seed possible may not be the best seed for them, if the matchups are not right.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

When the Celtics limped into All-Star weekend — literally, with two players suffering season-ending knee injuries in the weeks prior, not figuratively, as the team had won eight of nine games heading into the break — some experts and fans clamored for a big change at the trade deadline. With Rajon Rondo done until at least next season and two more key players following him to the sideline indefinitely, a few cosmetic changes were not going to be enough. The Celtics, supposedly, needed to do something drastic.

Whenever the Celtics struggle nowadays, the lazy fallback argument is that they are too old. In any other case, that may be true. Teams that rely on two stars well into their 30s typically battle fatigue and inconsistency more than teams stocked with stars in their primes. The rationale behind the Celtics “blowing it up” assumed that the team needed to rid itself of its aging veterans before it could move on.

There is only one massive problem with that: Pierce and Garnett have been nowhere near the Celtics’ biggest problem this season.

As though he needed to provide any further evidence, Pierce came through with another do-everything performance on Monday. He scored 13 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to finish with 26 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in the Celtics’ 110-107 victory over the Jazz. Meanwhile, Garnett had 13 points and 10 rebounds while making Jazz big man Al Jefferson disappear down the stretch in a close game. The Jazz could only shake their heads in admiration.

“They are veteran guys, and they find ways to win,” Jazz swingman Gordon Hayward told reporters after the game. “[Pierce] has been doing that for a while. I think I can take this as a learning experience, see how he controlled the game when it got down to the wire and try to emulate some of that.”

Monday’s performance was nothing new. Pierce, 35, and Garnett, 36, have been by far the Celtics’ most consistent players all season. That includes the 26-year-old Rondo, who was slated to be a starter on the Eastern Conference All-Star team before he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, and other young, athletic dynamos like Jeff Green, Avery Bradley and Courtney Lee.

Among all still-healthy Boston players, Pierce and Garnett lead all Celtics in player-efficiency rating by a healthy margin. Their net offensive and defensive ratings, which measure the amount of points the Celtics score and allow per 100 possessions with them on the court, are also the two highest on the team. They are doing all this not in occasional spurts, which can inflate the efficiency stats of lesser-used players, but in extended playing time. The Celtics’ most-used two-man lineup combination is — you guessed it — Pierce and Garnett. Doc Rivers is still leaning on his old guys, and they are still producing.

Amid all the calls to mortgage the present for an uncertain future, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge recognized this and made the right decision to maintain the status quo. Josh Smith and DeAndre Jordan can run and jump and do some impressive things, but what evidence was there that they would be an improvement over the “old guys,” when the old guys remain superior to those players in their primes?

(Yes, this is probably as good as it is going to get for Jordan, who is still just 24 years old. The shot-blocking and rebounding specialist is averaging the fewest rebounds and blocks per 36 minutes of his career, and the Clippers did not seem all that broken up about the prospect of trading him. Several reports indicated Eric Bledsoe was the player they really did not want to part with.)

If what Pierce and Garnett are doing constitutes “too old,” then Michael Jordan may want to think seriously about making that comeback he threatened to make at 50. Apparently, “too old” means outplaying younger and more spry players on a regular basis, which is not too shabby.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Crawford eases that worry a little, and he is more ready to contribute than Terrence Williams, whom the Celtics added this week on a 10-day contract. He is a “shooter,” as far as that description goes, in that he is willing to shoot. Aside from providing a healthy body and a hearty helping of ill-advised shots, however, do not expect Crawford to be the game-changing trade deadline pickup teams dream about.

The Celtics needed to do something on Thursday. That much was not subject to debate. Since Barbosa followed Jared Sullinger and Rajon Rondo to the shelf, the Celtics have been running with very little depth in their patchwork rotation. Whether Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge did something drastic like trade Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce, or something minor like adding a live body or two, he could not afford to stand pat.

Given that position, Ainge pulled off a remarkable deal by reportedly convincing the Wizards to give up Crawford for nothing more than Barbosa and Jason Collins. Barbosa probably will never play in Washington and Collins will battle for minutes in a front line that already has Nene and Emeka Okafor, but that was not the point for Washington. The Wizards managed to rid themselves of an irrepressible young shooter who had played his way out of the rotation for two expiring contracts. This deal was a win-win, more or less, for both sides.

Crawford will provide immediate help or be an immediate drain on the Celtics, depending on how one judges basketball proficiency. Just 24 years old, Crawford has never averaged less than 11.7 points per game in his three NBA seasons and averages 18.4 points per 36 minutes in his career. But it takes him nearly 13 shots per game to get his average, and while he takes around four 3-pointers per game, he traditionally hits less than 30 percent of them. (He has stepped up his accuracy to 34.5 percent from downtown this season, but his previous career best beyond the arc is 28.9 percent.)

There were indications that Crawford clashed at times with John Wall and Bradley Beal, which was not the wisest move since the Wizards consider those two their backcourt of the future. Per-minute statistics can be revealing in some cases, but in Crawford’s case those numbers are misleading. There was a reason he played less than six minutes and went scoreless in his final game as a Wizard. Otherwise, the Wizards would not have sent him away for two players who will play for them either rarely or not at all.

As with his on-court skills, Crawford’s contract is either a boon or a bane. His relatively affordable rookie contract runs through the end of next season, when he becomes a restricted free agent. But he does add $2.2 million to a Celtics payroll that was already threatening the estimated luxury tax number for 2013-14, and all of it is guaranteed. The Celtics could have signed two players at the veteran’s minimum for less than that amount, since the league would have paid a portion of their salaries. With the collective bargaining agreements new “repeater penalties” set to go into effect in 2015, being over the luxury tax line two straight seasons could be bad news for Boston.

Let us be clear, adding Crawford was far from a negative move for the Celtics. They added a useful piece for basically nothing, since Barbosa was finished for the year and Collins was chipping in no more than a few minutes and a handful of fouls here and there. In addition, the Celtics did manage to clear another roster spot, giving them three openings to add a low-cost free agent if they so desire.

On a relatively slow trade deadline day, this was no coup. Deadline-day deals seldom are. The Celtics managed to address a need without “blowing it up” or screwing themselves royally from a financial standpoint in the long-term, so in those respects, they can count this as a victory.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Photo via Facebook/Jordan Crawford

A year later, Mayo is manning a sinking ship in Dallas and the Celtics are once again in need of backcourt help. With an affordable contract and useful skills, Mayo still makes some sense for the Celtics. But he is also an example of the obstacles standing in the way of the Celtics making any deal before the trade deadline arrives at 3 p.m. Thursday.

While the Celtics’ season has been no picnic, their struggles have been mild compared to Mayo and the Mavericks’. After finding tepid interest last summer, Mayo settled on a two-year, $8 million contract with Dallas. He got off to a blistering start, hitting 51 percent of his 3-point attempts through 16 games, before his shooting accuracy and overall production tumbled. He entered the All-Star break having hit only 59 of his last 163 shots from beyond the arc, or barely 36 percent.

The Mavericks mirrored Mayo’s fall. They have fallen to fourth place in the Southwest Division after a stretch of 13 losses in 15 games, and veterans such as Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion have indicated through their comments that they are growing restless.

Still, Mayo remains just the type of player many teams, but particularly the Celtics, would covet. For a player who can handle the ball fairly well, he is an excellent shooter, regardless of his slump. His contract is bargain-basement for a player of his caliber, and he can opt out of the roughly $4 million due him for 2013-14 if he thinks he can find a better deal on the open market. Furthermore, the Mavericks have little use for him in the long term. Close to $20 million comes off their payroll this summer, when they are expected to make long-shot runs at signing Dwight Howard and Chris Paul.

All it would take for the Celtics to get Mayo is for the Mavs to throw in Chris Kaman‘s $8 million expiring deal — oh, and Rajon Rondo.

No team gets something for nothing, and this is where every trade proposal tends to fall apart. It certainly makes sense for the Celtics to add a 25-year-old lead guard in Mayo and a capable 30-year-old frontcourt scorer in Kaman, especially if the move does not hamstring the team financially. It also makes sense that the Mavericks, who have spent this season with a patchwork point guard rotation of Darren Collison, Rodrigue Beaubois and Derek Fisher, to acquire the franchise point guard they have long sought. (They pushed for Deron Williams, who re-signed with the Nets, last year.)

But does it make sense for the Mavs to let go of Kaman, who has been sidelined since January with a concussion and whose biggest value is in the $8 million that comes off the books this offseason? Does it make sense for the Celtics to assume their current run of eight wins in nine games is a realistic indicator of their long-term success without Rondo? Dallas would need to be truly convinced that this is a lost season before they traded for an All-Star who is out for the season with a torn anterior-cruciate ligament in his right knee. Boston would need to be truly convinced that the past three weeks have not been smoke and mirrors before they dealt the future of their franchise.

No matter how attractive a trade might seem, always keep in mind that there are at least two sides to every deal, and every addition comes with a subtraction. Josh Smith would help the Celtics, obviously, but he is not nearly as good as his statistics suggest. Plus, Boston has little to offer that could really interest the Hawks. DeAndre Jordan would block shots and Eric Bledsoe would give the Celtics another ballhandler, but that could turn out to be a lateral move if Boston’s defense crumbles without Kevin Garnett as its anchor.

A year after he was first connected with the team, Mayo is still a good fit for the Celtics. Like every move that will be discussed in the coming days, however, he may not be worth the price they would need to pay.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Kevin Garnett

“I just want to say that I love my situation here,” Garnett said following a decisive win over the Lakers two weeks ago.  “I bleed green. I’m going to continue to do that. If it’s up to me, then I’m going to retire a Celtic. I just want everybody to know that.”

Garnett has delivered a version of that message numerous times over the past month as injuries have mounted and trade talk has heated up for the Celtics. With reports swirling about the Nuggets and Clippers leading the charge of teams trying to acquire the 18th-year veteran before Thursday’s trade deadline, Garnett has taken every opportunity to insist that he is going nowhere if it is up to him.

And it is.

Garnett maintains control over his fate thanks to his no-trade clause, which was worked into his contract when he took a sizable hometown discount last summer to stay in Boston. The 36-year-old big man accepted a three-year deal worth roughly $12 million per season, almost $10 million less than he made in the final season of his previous contract. Some other team probably would have offered him more money, had he wanted to leave, but he did not. For that, a no-trade clause was a small price to pay.

So far, Garnett has more than lived up to his deal. He remains one of the top defensive big men in the game and still possesses one of the most automatic mid-range jump shots around. His plus-minus and efficiency ratings continue to suggest that the Celtics are a much better team with him on the floor, and every single one of his teammates would still walk in front of a bus for him. (Celtics coach Doc Rivers would prefer they do not, obviously — Boston cannot afford to lose any more bodies.)

Impact players on affordable contracts are tough to find, though, and being one, Garnett is in high demand. This was predictable as soon as Garnett accepted that well-below market value contract last offseason. It was a great deal for the Celtics, and every other team realized that if they could somehow acquire Garnett, it would be a great deal for them, too. Now they are trying to pry away that contract. They are trying really, really hard, if multiple reports are to be believed.

If any offers have been made, however, Garnett has shot them all down. He has repeated his declaration from earlier this month, most recently at All-Star festivities last weekend, that he will wield his veto power over any deal. He bleeds green. He wants to retire a Celtic. All that.

Such loyalty plays very well with one portion of the Celtics’ fan base. Most fans could not love Garnett more for his desire to stay, don the shamrock and bark at the crowd at TD Garden. Yet another, less vocal, portion seems troubled by Garnett’s stance. No, Garnett is not demanding a trade to the locale of his choosing, as Dwight Howard, Deron Williams and numerous other stars have. But in refusing any trade, Garnett is hampering the Celtics’ efforts to rebuild and move on. From that viewpoint, Garnett’s inflexibility is holding his team hostage as well, albeit in a very different way.

Loyal or stubborn, however, Garnett remains entitled to what he has. Only a handful of proven champions have no-trade clauses, and none among them except Tim Duncan took as drastic a discount as Garnett did. That gesture enabled the Celtics to be much more aggressive in building a deeper team, one that has shown its mettle by winning eight of nine since injuries ransacked the roster. The Celtics were able to build a better all-around team thanks to Garnett. If he wants to see the result through to the end, he has earned that right.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.