Posted by Mike Petraglia

The Celtics showed no mercy on the weary Detroit Pistons on Thursday night at TD Banknorth Garden, demolishing them, 98-80. The first quarter was a wake-up call as the Green fell behind 13-2 in the first three and a half minutes. But for the final three quarters, this one belonged entirely to the defending champs. Rajon Rondo looked better than he has all season, scoring 18 and controlling Allen Iverson and the tempo all night. This was the second time this season the 11-2 Celtics have owned Detroit, beating them 88-76 back on Nov. 9. There are 69 games remaining but it’s hard to imagine anyone in the East knocking the Celtics out of the top perch. Next up tonight, Kevin Garnett gets to actually play in his return to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves. Last year, he had to sit on the sidelines because of an injury.

Rajon Rondo on handling the Pistons.

Rondo said Garnett will be excited about his return to Minnesota.

Garnett on his return to Minnesota on Friday night.

Paul Pierce said Rondo was dominant Thursday night.

Doc Rivers explained why this was a great win.

Pistons coach Michael Curry said the Celtics showed why they’re a great team.

Posted by Mike Petraglia

Before doing his self-titled two-minute drill with reporters on Thursday at Gillette Stadium, Mike Vrabel had a different type of tete-a-tete. Defensive coordinator Dean Pees, cheeseburger in hand, sat down with the veteran Patriots linebacker at his locker.

This was unique for one main reason. Usually, these quick gab sessions are held in a closed office or classroom somewhere else in the stadium. Now while we will probably never know the details, you couldn’t be criticized too much for assuming that certain assignments handling the upcoming Miami offense were probably being discussed.

After several minutes at his locker, Pees left and the media stepped in. Vrabel acknowledged he and his Patriots teammates were guinea pigs on Sept. 21 and they didn’t like it one bit, referring, of course, to how the Miami Dolphins used and abused the Patriot defense to unveil and unleash the ‘Wildcat’ spread formation on the NFL.

“I think we were certainly the guinea pigs for it,” Vrabel said. “We learned a hard lesson. They have continued to run it and continued to have success with it. We’ve seen all the looks from it to date. There’s other formations they can do but we just need to be sound in what we’re doing and trust that all 11 guys know what they’re doing.”

The Patriots allowed 113 yards and four rushing touchdowns on 17 carries to Ronnie Brown and another 98 yards on 16 carries to Ricky Williams. This opened the door for Chad Pennington to be nearly perfect in the pocket. The Fish quarterback was 17 of 20 for 226 yards.

For his side of the ball, Matt Cassel is hoping not to get pulled from the game again with his team trailing by 25 as was the case back in September.

“There were a little bit of missed plays here and there,” he said on Thursday. “I don’t think we played well as an offensive unit that day and I am sure the team felt that we didn’t put on our best performance that day. We are working hard this week to get that corrected and go down there and put out a better performance on Sunday.”

Cassel was sacked four times and lost a fumble while passing for just 131 yards on 19 of 31 passing.

On Friday, we’ll take a look at the remarkable change of fortune this year among three former USC quarterbacks, two of which won Heisman Trophies and the third is winning the confidence of his teammates in New England.

Posted by Mike Petraglia

With the Boston Bruins enjoying a renaissance and starting to capture the imagination and attention of the Boston sports fan, now would be a good time to take a look at one of the best pictorials ever done on the Original Six franchise by one of the best photographers ever to cover Boston sports.

A holiday gift idea for any Bruins fan.

Black and Gold - Four Decades of the Boston Bruins in Photographs is out in bookstores and available on line. It is a piece of work that chronicles one man’s life of documenting one of the most storied teams on ice. But the real hook in the book are the stories that go along with the pictures that were taken by Bruins photographer Steve Babineau.

The text was written by former NESN Bruins reporter Rob Simpson with a sincere and heartfelt foreward provided by none other than ‘Grapes’ himself, Don Cherry.

My personal favorite story behind the photo is a tale of Adam Oates, Brett Hull, Neil Young and a guitar.

In the ‘Scrapbook’ chapter, ‘Babs’ also does a great job of including his two sons and daughter, detailing how they have been with him every step of his impressive photojournalist career.

For those who cover sports now at TD Banknorth Garden, not only is ‘Babs’ a fixture, but so, too, are his sons Brian, an assistant equipment manager, and Keith, who has followed in dad’s footsteps as a team photographer. His daughter Jamie is also now a photographer who can be seen in and around the Garden.

Posted by Mike Petraglia

One sign of a really good team that believes it can go deep into the playoffs is finding out early in the season that it can win games in many different ways. The Boston Bruins are proving just that. They won back-to-back 1-0 games against Edmonton and Vancouver. They won a hard-fought 3-2 decision on the road on Monday night in Toronto. They lost defenseman Andrew Ference with a fractured right leg and were without Marco Sturm, out with an upper body injury. And, to the admission of center Marc Savard, they came out sluggish on Wednesday night against Buffalo after getting a day off on Tuesday. After falling behind 4-2 midway through the first period, the light went on, the red light behind Sabres goalie Ryan Miller - five straight times to be exact as the Bruins prevailed 7-4, their 10th win in 12 games, a stretch that has seen them capture 21 of a possible 24 points.

Zdeno Chara scored twice on the power play with two haymaker slap shots from the point.

Chara said the team is happy but not satisfied right now with the way they’re winning games.

Head coach Claude Julien is happy that Chara broke out with a big night.

Julien said it wasn’t a beautiful win but he’ll take it.

Patrice Bergeron said the team overcame slow start.

Bergeron on winning 10 games in a 12-game stretch.

Posted by Mike Petraglia

Consider these the Dog Days of the NFL season.

Players are beat up and coaches are tired. Anyone with a mathematical chance of playing in January is doing whatever is necessary to carry themselves into the final month of the season.

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And in Foxboro - more specifically the Patriots locker room, there’s something else in the air. Quiet. Only a handful of players spoke on Wednesday, which is usually a heavy volume day when it comes to players talking about the upcoming game.

Wes Welker, Pierre Woods and Mike Wright were among those to talk. This is not meant as criticism but merely fact.

As players get extra treatment in the hot tub and coaches hold position meetings, we, the media hordes, usually wait around in the locker room for player availability. It just so happened that on this Wednesday, one could not escape the unmistakeable ‘bunker mentality’ feel.

That feel may come from the knowledge that the players realize their season could very well be on the line this Sunday in South Florida against the Dolphins. It could also be that none of them want to waste time adding to the silly ‘Joey Porter gets no love from the Patriots’ theme that has been dialed up by none other than Peezie himself. (credit Brandon Marshall with that one) or it could just be that they don’t want to have to answer another question about ‘Wildcat’ football unless it’s Tedy Bruschi talking about his alma mater.

Speaking of college pride, the Patriots locker room boasts two proud Texas Tech alums, running back Sammy Morris and wide receiver Wes Welker, who was wearing a nifty-looking Red Raiders skull cap as he prepared to go out to practice. As we were struggling to find new and different questions about the Dolphins, Welker even did us the favor of asking, “No questions about my hat? How about the Red Raiders?!”

He had these words of encouragement for his No. 2 Red Raiders as they play at No. 5 Oklahoma on Saturday.

“This is going to be a tough game for us, with Tech going into Norman (Oklahoma), it’s going to be a tough one. We’re excited and I know all the fans are excited and everyone I’ve been talking to back in Oklahoma and Texas are really excited. We’re going to have to bring out best game to match up against them. They’re playing some good ball right now.”

Asked which game is more important to him, he didn’t hesitate.

“That goes without saying. I definitely have to take care of my end. I’m just a fan now, just a proud alum now.”

Posted by Mike Petraglia

And let it begin. Quentin Richardson against the world, or at least the world champion Boston Celtics.

He didn’t hold back following Tuesday’s loss in Boston. He accused the Celtics of throwing their title, their rings and everything else in his face in the form of trash talk.

What could turn out to be a facsinating storyline if the Knicks remain relevant throughout the season evolved Tuesday night into a backyard brawl. Just listen to ‘Q’ explain his side of the story.

Richardson said the Celtics were trash talking.

Tensions flared in the second quarter when Richardson actually played peace-maker, separating his teammate Zach Randolph from Leon Powe under the Knicks basket as the two began to get into it.

Richardson said if this weren’t a basketball court, things would be different.

Paul Pierce on all the trash talk going on.

Celtics center Kendrick Perkins said ‘Q’ has it all wrong.

One thing is for sure, our Jessica Camerato doesn’t have it wrong. She has as terrific look back at last year, showing that this isn’t the first time Richardson has popped off in Boston’s direction. Check out that and more on the Celtics Game Day Blog.

Oh by the way, the stars of the game did have something to say about how the Celtics managed to win without Kevin Garnett.

Perkins said there was no replacing Kevin Garnett on Tuesday.

Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said he takes comfort in outplaying Celtics in the fourth quarter.

Doc Rivers on the win without KG.

Paul Pierce said they didn’t feel extra pressure without the Big Ticket.

Posted by Mike Petraglia

Celtics head coach Doc Rivers didn’t hold back when asked about the suspension that will leave him without his starting power forward Kevin Garnett against the New York Knicks.

“I was just surprised. I thought it was a ridiculous suspension, I really did,” Doc said. “Anybody who’s been around the game long enough, whether you’ve played it or not, you’ve got your head sideways and someone strikes you not once but twice, your reaction… your reflex is to flail. And I guess that constitutes a punch. Clearly, he’s not a good fighter if that’s the case if that’s a punch.

“It is what it is. There’s nothing you can do about it. We have to play tonight so we have to move forward.”

Garnett’s one-game sit-out for his flailing against Milwaukee’s Andrew Bogut will cost him $200,000.

Rivers then drew a comparison to the flagrant foul Shaquille O’Neal committed on Detroit’s Rodney Stuckey, which drew a $50,000 fine but no suspension.

“I just want more consistency from our league. I think they have to look at things differently,” Rivers said. “I just looked at the Shaq thing, and I hate to call out Shaq, but that was a hard foul, where a guy was suspended in the air and comes down on his face and he gets $50,000 and Kevin gets $200,000 and misses a game. Those two things don’t go together and we have to pay the price.”

Brian Scalabrine got his first start of the season, taking Garnett’s place in the lineup.

“You don’t replace Kevin Garnett. Everyone just has to pitch in and do a little bit more,” Rivers said.

Posted by Mike Petraglia

With this being the final game before Thanksgiving, we can all be grateful for Joey Porter.

As reporters, he gives us the juice we need to make just another