happens every year at this time. It's tedious, physically taxing and can send a team spiraling downward in the standings. It's the Celtics' dreaded western trip, a 12-day, seven-game grind that begins tonight in Denver.


But for this year's Celtics (28-21), owners of the franchise's best record at the All-Star break in a decade, the story of the next two weeks does not necessarily have to be how the West was won. How the West was kept under some semblance of control would do fine.