A lot has happened during the Boston Celtics? recent eighteen-game slide. They have played without their all-star cornerstone Paul Pierce, and lost key reserves like Tony Allen to season-ending injury. With that said, Pierce is back and no team in the NBA should go eighteen games without a win. This is the National Basketball Association we?re talking about ? where any team can beat another, on any given night.

The NBA prides itself on parity, but this season has been one of runs. Both the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks have gone on double-digit win streaks, and now the once-storied Celtics are threatening the all-time record for consecutive losses (it stands at twenty-three currently). They haven?t come out victorious since January 5th against the struggling Grizzles. They haven?t beaten a team with a winning record since they beat the Nuggets in mid-December, and Denver is barely over .500. Their only other win against a winning team, this season, came against the Pacers in early November.

They?ve been downright horrible. Embarrassing even. Their home crowd has cheered opposing teams, chanted for visiting players, and booed hard enough to make Red Auerbach turn over in his grave. The sad thing is you can?t say this cast of young players isn?t trying. Of their eighteen losses, seven have been by six points or fewer, and more often than not they?re giving teams a run for their money in the first half.

So why are they so bad?

They have enough promise to make even the most anxious Celtic fan patient, but it?s been like this for a few years now. Danny Ainge seems to have been building for the future since he took over as GM. He traded countless players away for measly draft picks. The thing is he has drafted good players. Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes could become dominant presences one day, and Delonte West, despite my disliking, has played well above many people?s expectations. Then there?s Rajon Rondo and Allen Ray.

I understand the majority of these guys are still very young, with Gomes, Rondo, and Ray seemingly just out of college, but even horribly constructed teams like the 76ers are putting up more wins. I?ve always been critical of both Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers, but this isn?t entirely their fault. Maybe the basketball gods are still paying Boston back for their years of dominance. For the leprechauns that haunted opponents for decades. For assembling talent unlike any franchise had ever seen. Maybe Danny Ainge made a deal with the devil?

Who knows?

What I do know is that even though Ainge and Rivers don?t deserve all of the blame for the Celtics? recent eighteen-game tumble, they need to go. They?ve been in power too long without producing results in Boston, and change could help right the ship.

Celtic fans who have given up on the season in order to aim for a top draft pick are fooling themselves. Memphis may be the only team within five or six losses of the Celtics, but their chances of actually nailing the first overall pick won?t be good. We all know it?s rare for the worst team in the league to actually grab the first pick. Plus, with teams like Charlotte, Milwaukee, and Seattle hovering in futile ground as well, a three-game Celtic win streak could drop Boston out of top-pick contention entirely.

The Beantown faithful that are smiling as the Celtics rack up loss after loss are also assuming that phenoms like Greg Oden and Kevin Durant are going to declare for the draft this June. What if that doesn?t happen? This draft is projected to be deep, but will they be happy with Joakim Noah or Brandon Wright (who would also have to leave school early) after a season of heartache?

If you know me, you know I despise every Boston sports? franchise. So things must be pretty awful for me to worry about the current state of the Celtics. I mean, I?m not losing sleep, but I sure wish they?d get their act together.

?you think it?s the cheerleaders?

Here are a few things that have passed, or taken place, since the Celtics last won a game:

Thirty-five days (as of Feb. 12th)

That?s 840 hours?

?or 50,400 minutes

The Suns won fifteen games

The NFL playoffs hadn?t even begun when the Celtics last won a game

The Pacers have had one brush with the law

They?ve been outscored by a combined 142 points

I?ve written twenty-six Scoop Du Jours

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