BOSTON -- The Celtics dried all their tears from losing their precious perfect home record on Wednesday by starting up a new streak, mercilessly bullying the Bulls two nights later. The 107-82 victory was the type of heartless display you would expect from an elite team.

After dismantling Chicago for three quarters, Boston's regulars all stood for most of the fourth and together with James Posey and Scot Pollard heckled the Bulls during their offensive sets, which just happened to be at their end of the floor.

The six Celtics stood and yelled "board" while calling out defensive sets for nearly the entire quarter, egging on teammates while disrupting Chicago into misses on 17 of its first 21 shots.

It was all in good fun, but made things extremely difficult on the team Scott Skiles settled on to play sacrificial lamb once he realized all else had failed. That group, Chris Duhon, Thabo Sefolosha, Adrian Griffin, Viktor Khryapa and Joakim Noah saw what had at one point been an 18-point deficit turn into a 29-point hole before two late meaningless baskets, the last of which -- coming off a turnover that resulted in a Griffin layup -- made Tony Allen hang his head.

That's right, he hung his head and closed his eyes in frustration. He wasn't even credited with the turnover -- teammate Leon Powe was.

That's how focused Boston was on Friday night.

For Allen, a strong game (12 points, five rebounds, three steals) was therapeutic after fouling Chauncey Billups to help lose the Detroit game. He was locked in. The Celtics were adamant about maintaining their edge. That's part of Kevin Garnett's influence. He's relentless and will give you nothing, to the point where there's concern he'll burn out before the All-Star break hits. He won't.

Neither will the Celtics.

"Ray and Paul were repeatedly saying before the huddle 'we stop the bleeding tonight' and we never try to carry over, especially bad things, and when I say bad thing I mean techniques and such things ... what you saw tonight was what we call stopping the bleeding," coach Doc Rivers said.

The Bulls never had a chance.

"We need to be our harshest critics. We have to strive for perfection," said rookie Glen "Big Baby" Davis. "What we have to focus in on is doing all the little things and work on becoming precise. That's how you grow."

Let the record show that Boston is now 3-0 after its losses. Clearly it is learning from its mistakes.

Although he's had productive stretches off the bench this season, Detroit didn't envision paying Nazr Mohammed over $6 million a season through 2011 to sit the bench.

Now it won't have to.

The Pistons shipped Mohammed to size-starved Charlotte for Walter Herrmann and Primoz Brezec on Friday night in a move that improves Detroit's fiscal responsibility quotient for the next few years. That FRQ isn't an official stat, but it's common sense-driven. You don't want to be tied down to someone who isn't working out.

Mohammed never quite worked out the way the Pistons envisioned, unable to plug the hole left by Ben Wallace or retain his starting spot when the team decided it was time to plug Antonio McDyess into the starting five and slide Rasheed Wallace to center.

"We're happy with the players we got back," Pistons President Joe Dumars said when reached via cell phone.

Herrmann is a versatile tough-minded forward and Brezec has solid offensive skills which weren't put on display in Charlotte's new up-tempo system because Sam Vincent's style of play was simply too fast for him. Those two will vie for playing time with Jason Maxiell, Amir Johnson behinds starters Wallace and McDyess.

From the Bobcats standpoint, their willingness to add on such a lengthy contract illustrates their desire to compete for a playoff spot despite the demoralizing season-ending injuries to Sean May and Adam Morrison. Mohammed should see major minutes next to Emeka Okafor and has an opportunity to earn the starter's minutes he thought he was going to receive when he signed on with the Pistons.

"Nazr brings the type of big body, experience and athleticism that we been looking to add to our team,” Bobcats General Manager Rod Higgins said. “Having evaluated our roster from top to bottom, we felt it necessary to make this move and bring in a guy who could immediately help this franchise."

This move is a no-brainer win as far as the Pistons are concerned. If they need another veteran big body for the postseason, they can cross that bridge when they come to it, but the key for them is getting Mohammed off their books. Mohammed can make this a win-win if he plays to his potential and stays healthy.

Charlotte is spending more than it probably wants to in the long run, but Brezec looked lost and was bordering on useless while Herrmann had lost playing time to rookie Jared Dudley. Their fans should consider this proof that the team is willing to financially back a long-anticipated playoff push.

The NBA released the first numbers of this season's All-Star voting and the big news is Howard and his stranglehold on the center spot in the Eastern Conference. It was expected that this would be the year Howard passed Miami's Shaquille O'Neal, but the glaring part is the vote difference; Howard leads by more votes than O'Neal has even received, 596,187-282,727. Chalk that up to the Magic's fast start, the Heat's slow start, O'Neal's early struggles and Howard's undeniable dominance.

LeBron James and Kevin Garnett are already locks to start at forward, with fans showing Boston's new arrival love by making him the leading vote-getter. Dwyane Wade remains the East's most popular guard by a fairly wide margin, but the race as to who starts alongside him should come down to the wire, with Kidd holding an early lead over teammate Vince Carter, Celtics shooter Ray Allen and injured Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas. Yi Jianlian received 98,507 votes to lead all East rookies.

Out West, Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan will vie for the two forward spots. Yao Ming looks like he'll coast to an easy victory for the center spot over Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire.

The battle for the backcourt in the Western Conference is similar to what's going on in the East. Kobe Bryant has a Wade-like grip on one of the positions, while Tracy McGrady, Nash and Allen Iverson contend for the other.

It's interesting that many voters have ignored the efforts of reigning Finals MVP Parker and New Orleans star Chris Paul. Both rank behind Dallas' Jason Terry. Kevin Durant, listed among forwards, in about 20,000 votes ahead of Yi for top rookie honors.

BOSTON -- Ron Artest is back on the East Coast.

Hide the women and children!

Kidding. Artest is actually somewhat subdued these days, happy to play the veteran role on a Sacramento team that is 6-7 with him back in the lineup after beginning a five-game road trip that took them into an Eastern Conference building for the first time.

Considering they haven't had Mike Bibby, lost leading scorer Kevin Martin to a groin injury earlier this month and start a point guard who wasn't on their roster until after the season began, the Kings are actually doing as well as anyone would've deemed possible.

"We had a chance to win in Boston," Artest said over being up at the break and down by just four after three quarters. "That's what it's about. We're a young team, once they get better, and these guys are improving, we'll be trouble."

Artest cites wins over Houston, Utah, Detroit and San Antonio and close losses to Phoenix and Denver as proof that the Kings are more dangerous than you may think.

It also makes him something of an expert on the NBA's elite teams, having seen most of them over the last calendar month. His assessment of the 18-2 Celtics, owners of the NBA's best record:

"They're a good team. They're a good solid team. They lack in a few places, though ... but every team has its faults. You can't be perfect, but where they don't lack they're pretty good at and it shows. It helps them get wins out there."

Not exactly a Doug Collins-like analysis, but one can infer Artest was criticizing what everyone rips the Celtics for, a lack of depth in the post alongside Kevin Garnett, which was compromised further by the fact Kendrick Perkins missed the game after dropping part of his bed on his right toe.

Glen "Big Baby" Davis made his first career start and despite a few rookie mistakes, was really productive. Five of his nine rebounds came on the offensive end and he finished 16 points, the same point total Artest ended up with after coming up 0-for-5 from 3-point range.

He's in a shooting slump, hitting 31-of-92 over his last five games, but that's not going to stop him from trying to lift his team where he wants it to go.

Back on his preferred coast for a five-game road trip that continues in Philadelphia on Friday, Artest is intent on trying to set a good example.

Among taunts he heard from boisterous Bostonians: "Why do you wear 93, is that the number of elbows you throw?" and "How's your record label?"

Asked if he heard the boos and taunts, he shrugged and smiled.

Nothing else he can do, right? Remember, he's a subdued veteran these days.

Migraine headaches are beasts. That's understandable. Fortunately for me, I don't really get them. The few I've had, I agree with Lawrence Frank's relief recipe of "medication and darkness."

Turn out the lights, close your eyes, call out for Mommy and pray the pain subsides.

If that was what Jason Kidd was doing on Wednesday night, he'd better thank his lucky stars he doesn't play for the Detroit Pistons.

"I don't know, I'm thinking there has to be something to it. Calling in with a migraine, c'mon man," GM Joe Dumars said in a phone conversation Thursday afternoon. "You call me with a migraine, I'm gonna have to tell you you'd better get yourself in here. That's not gonna fly."

Funny thing is, Dumars was chatting with Nets president Rod Thorn just a few days ago, and the subject of Kidd playing the Knicks came up. Kidd gets up for New York, lives for the back page of the tabloids with his dominance of the city's preferred team. Since arriving in New Jersey, the Nets are 19-2 against the Knicks when he plays.

If James Dolan and Cablevision didn't own them, you could easily make the case that Kidd does. So, given that this is the game he skipped, it was easy to assume there was an ulterior motive. That's what most of the reporters who cover the team, spurred on by unidentified sources, ran with after hearing conflicting stories from coaches and teammates as to the meaning and timing of Kidd's absence.

Without him, the Nets lost 100-93. It was the first game Kidd, who's averaging 11.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and an Eastern Conference leading 10.4 assists, missed this season.

Kidd has scheduled a press conference at the Nets practice facility to dismiss rumors he was playing sick and has already aired out any misunderstandings with Thorn.

"He was sick," Thorn told the Associated Press, adding that he spoke with Kidd on Thursday morning. "He was very hurt about some of things in some of the articles and he plans to address it."

Kidd has every right to jump down everyone's throats on this one, because there weren't enough facts to warrant all this speculation, just one unsubstantiated rumor after another. Even after he addresses the media and expresses his displeasure, there will be prevailing sentiment among some that this was indeed meant to send the Nets a message.

Just don't buy into the noise that it's to engineer a deal to wind up holding hands with LeBron James as Cleveland hangs up another Eastern Conference championship banner.

The Cavaliers have nothing, outside of James himself, that New Jersey would want in order to get a deal done. Kobe Bryant's Lakers, another potential trade partner, would have to give up young talent like Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar. While that would make Bryant giddier than a 10-year-old juiced up on Sweet-Tarts, it's unlikely Mitch Kupchak would go that route after refusing to move anyone all summer. Bynum actually looks 10 times better than he did in January, when the original deal to New Jersey for Kidd was discussed.

In fact, the more likely scenario in all this is that the Nets wind up giving him another year at a rate between $15 million and $20 million to keep him happy and thank him for playing through one injury after another at the age of 34, this migraine excluded. He has performed better as he's gotten older, remaining among the NBA's best point guards.

New Jersey could also do nothing and force him to play out this season and next, which he's under contract to do, earning $41 million for his troubles.

We'll never really know for sure whether Kidd had the mother of all migraines, despite no history of that type of headache, or if he didn't think through pulling off a stunt that would've brought him nothing but bad publicity.

What we do know for sure is that if he wants to play with James or Bryant, he's going to have to wait until next summer -- in Beijing.

Calling it the right decision for the 76ers' future, Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider, the father of the NHL's Flyers as well as regional cable power Comcast SportsNet, finally pulled the trigger on a move to resuscitate his city's failing basketball franchise.

Billy King's decade-long run as the primary decision maker in Sixers matters is over. He was fired with Philadelphia sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Division, likely to miss the postseason for the third straight year. In his place comes former Nets GM Ed Stefanski, a Philadelphia native who is jumping at the opportunity to run the team he grew up rooting for.

"They're my team, the Sixers," Stefanski said of the rare move of jumping to a division rival. "I root for the jersey."

Now Philadelphia fans have one of their own at the helm and at least for now, can expect a honeymoon period of necessary changes. King did have some success during his reign, with his partnership with Larry Brown resulting in an NBA Finals appearance in 2001, but his legacy will be that he didn't get enough for Allen Iverson despite hearing from nearly everyone in the league on the matter.

Sure, because Iverson made his trade demand public around this time last year, King was low-balled by a few teams who felt his hands were tied, but the ultimate verdict was that you had to get more for the city's icon than Andre Miller, Joe Smith and a pair of first-round picks.

Miller then led the Sixers on a surprising push that coupled with the re-hiring of Brown as executive vice president, gave off the impression that the team was going into a rebuilding mode without fully committing to starting from scratch. There was no real direction. Chris Webber was waived in one breath, but Miller, a veteran whose trade value was at its height after his excellent start, was kept as a building block in another.

Even though the Sixers sported one of the Eastern Conference's best records following February's All-Star break, fans still stayed away more often than not. This season, the atmosphere around the Wachovia Center has been described as lifeless.

Snider finally decided he'd seen enough. He showed a lack of foresight in not making this move when it should have been made, following the end of last season when a universal reset button should've been hit, but Sixers fans will just have to chalk this up as a move that's better made late than never and hope nothing valuable has been compromised.

It's easy to second-guess now, but if Stefanski came into this league as a scout and hit homers through the draft as New Jersey's director of scouting by selecting Kenyon Martin despite concerns over his broken leg, as well as dealing Eddie Griffin for the draft rights to Richard Jefferson and Jason Collins, why wasn't the decision made to bring him on board before last June's pivotal draft? This is the guy who hit on Nenad Krstic, too.

King's final two draft picks, forwards Thaddeus Young and Jason Smith, have enjoyed some positive moments early in their rookie seasons, but if either turns out to be a bust, everyone will play the what-if game over their additions. Andre Iguodala wasn't extended in the offseason and aired his displeasure over King's negotiating tactics as a reason why. He'll be a restricted free agent come the offseason and also 76ers' top priority.

Stefanski has a mountain of work to do, and if nothing else, will bring unbridled passion to the table. He has vowed to look at everything from the talent on the roster to the job of head coach Maurice Cheeks, hired by King in May, 2005 and in the final year of his contract.

"I'm evaluating top to bottom, working from afar," Stefanski said, "but not that far because I've been here."

In other words, he's been watching all the goofs of recent years and no doubt cringing like all the other Philadelphia fans over how the 76ers have moved their greatest assets and rendered themselves insignificant.

"Right now, you tell the fans we're moving forward. We have young players, options, picks and a lot to work with," said Peter Luukko, President of Comcast-Spectacor, the man who came up with the idea try and pry Stefanski from the Nets. "We have options. When a president or general manager of a team have options, that's where you can work your magic and make things happen."

The Sixers can only hope so, starting with having faith that this move isn't coming a few months too late.