Truth about Celtics will be revealed beginning with visit to Cleveland

BOSTON -- Whether they want to admit it or not, the season has come down to this for the Celtics: Eighteen games to figure out who they are, what they are and whether they should still be included among the select few potential champions of this NBA season.

In pursuit of that truth, I sought out two vastly different perspectives. Ray Allen, the intellectual sniper and keen observer of the human condition, would admit that he's searching -- that the Celtics are searching -- but nothing more.

Allen, who came into the NBA with another more celebrated sniper, Kobe Bryant, has never been depicted as the ruthless competitor Bryant is because he has always had a quick smile and printable response for the assembled media. And the media, no doubt, is a field Allen someday will join; he spent a good 10 minutes before Friday night's game against the Indiana Pacers quizzing reporters on their pregame routines and on whether their choice of clothing is dictated by the importance of the game they're covering.

Paul Pierce's Celtics are 2-8 against Cleveland, Orlando and Atlanta -- the East's new Big Three. (US Presswire)

Perspective No. 2 came from Rajon Rondo, the head of the snake on offense and defense for the Celtics but not one to be bothered with trivialities. In a painful interview session that actually was cordial and revealing by Rondo's standards, among the questions he fielded was about what sort of body language his teammates have exhibited as the Celtics enter the most critical weeks of the Big Three era.

"I don't really try to read 'em," Rondo said with a mixture of derision and simplicity. "I just play with 'em."

And play with them he will during what will be a telling march to the regular-season finish line that begins Sunday in Cleveland, a stretch that everyone but the Celtics themselves can see will determine whether their run is over.

"I look for that one bucket, that one score, that one free throw to break a bad or negative trend," Allen said before the Celtics coasted to a 122-103 victory over Indiana. "It's the same thing as a team. That's what you look forward to, trying to find that momentum builder just to get you over the hump and create good habits."

The Celtics have been talking about turning the corner for weeks. But until now, no one has been able to aptly describe how far they still have to walk to get there.

"Probably about 17 blocks," Rondo said.

If Rondo was using blocks as a metaphor for regular-season games, his math was off by one. The Celtics have 18 games left to get themselves right for the playoffs, starting Sunday against Cleveland -– a game I consider to be significant in their quest to cure all that ails them. Either the Celtics don't see it that way, or they've been mediocre for so long that they can't bring themselves to admit it.

Even after a string of alarming losses -- a home loss to New Jersey without Paul Pierce and back-to-back defeats at full strength against Milwaukee and Memphis -- the Celtics kept promising action, kept falling back on the notion that despite everything, they still have the fourth-best record in the East. They just need to get on a winning streak, Allen said. Correct a few things here and a few things there, Rondo said, and the Celtics would find themselves in the second playoff spot instead of the fourth.

But here are some inconvenient facts that get in the way, things the Celtics don't like to be asked about: The Celtics haven't beaten one of the teams ahead of them in the conference playoff race since they defeated Orlando on Christmas Day. That's almost three months ago. They're 2-8 this season against Cleveland, Orlando and Atlanta -- the East's new Big Three. Throw in the Lakers, the best team in the West, and the Celtics are 3-9 against the elite. Since beating the Lakers without Kobe Bryant on Feb. 18, Boston is 7-5. Since their Christmas Day victory over Orlando, the Celtics are 18-18.

"I'm not a believer that you can just turn it on when the playoffs start," Pierce said. "You get a team that wins seven, eight, nine games in a row, you feel like you're unstoppable and you see a winning streak go off. That's what we're trying to build here."

The Celtics haven't reeled off a streak like that since the end of November, when they embarked on an 11-game run. Since then, their longest streak has been four in a row -- against Detroit, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Washington earlier this month. That spasm was sandwiched between the loss to New Jersey and the back-to-back defeats at the hands of Milwaukee and Memphis -- the latter ending with the Celtics getting booed off their home floor.

"That really sat with me that night, to be honest," Pierce said. "I think it sat with everybody. We just came in, talked to each other, and we played like a team that was on a mission. Hopefully it can carry over for the rest of the season."

Sensing the need for urgency, Doc Rivers seriously contemplated lineup and rotation changes after the Memphis loss, but decided against it. What he did instead was read an article to his players Friday morning about a team that was unfit for the Finals, one that was seriously lacking the intestinal fortitude to be a champion.

For good reason, several players in the room thought the article was about them. Rather, it was Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke's evisceration of the Lakers during their recent three-game losing streak. Rivers' point was this: Every team goes through this. There's still time to get it right.

With 18 to go -- 10 of them at home -- can the Celtics find their answers in time? If Rivers is right and Pierce has begun to get his explosiveness back after missing five games with a foot injury last month, that would be one encouraging sign. If their bench can get a lift out of Nate Robinson and Michael Finley, that would be another.

"The teams that have success in the playoffs are the teams that are usually playing good ball at that time and get favorable matchups for them," Finley said. "We still have time to get in a good flow going into the playoffs, get on a little bit of a roll, throw our chips in and see what happens."

But while Finley, 10 for 14 from the field in three games as a Celtic, can perhaps take a little of the scoring pressure off Allen and Pierce, there's nothing he can do about Kevin Garnett. The best player of the past decade according to adjusted plus/minus guru Wayne Winston, Garnett has a minus-1 rating for the season -- meaning he's one point worse than the average player when paired with four average players against five average players. That's the proof behind what your eyes see. It's painfully obvious that Garnett -- in a credit to his ferocity -- is simply dragging his injured leg along for the ride.

He'll drag it to Cleveland on Sunday, which ultimately will be the start of something for the Celtics -- the start of something or the end of an era, with no in between. With 18 games to go, with an 18-18 record since Christmas Day, the Celtics have arrived at the corner Rondo was talking about. Now, we see which way they turn.