When the 2011 season began, the men in green were off and running…again. Last year’s 7 game series loss to the Los Angeles Lakers kept them motivated and hungry.

They were ripping teams apart, beating Miami, Oklahoma City and Chicago along the way, easily. Putting up 101 a game, and holding their opponents to only 92 a night over the first 25 games of the season. Teams struggled getting good shots off, where there was always a big Celtic paw in the face of the shooter.

From November to December, the C-men were rolling on a 14 game winning streak, beating Portland and Chicago in that streak, and Rajon Rondo was dishing out 13 dimes a game. Ray Allen was shooting the rock with staggering regularity, Kevin Garnett was doing what he does, screaming at his hands, head butting the basketball pole, oh ya, and scoring the ball, dropping 15 a night in the first 2 months of the season. Captain Paul Pierce was playing the 3 spot superbly. Although all a year older, they were still the team to beat in the Eastern Conference.

The Celtics have been decimated by injuries. Now, I never a man to blame injuries on team’s failures or success, all teams have to deal with them, of course on different levels. But when the Celtics signed Shaquille O’Neal (career 24 ppg, 11 rpg) and Jermaine O’Neal (career 14 ppg, 7 rpg), many felt they may have gotten older, and slower with Shaq on the court. But they added more meat in the center of the pain to give Perk a breather when needed, plus Shaq would bring that championship swagger along with him as well.

Ready to rock and roll, but then Shaq went down, Jermaine O’Neal went down, both played a combined 57 games on the season thus far. Then the trade of Kendrick Perkins bewildered many a basketball fan and even more baffled Celtic fans. Perk was a huge part of the team’s success. Even though he missed many games on the season, because of his injury in the finals last year, his 280 lb, 6-10 frame took up space in the middle, and played tough belly to back defense on any center who tried him down in the block. Since February, over the last 28 games, they have a deteriorating record of 16-12. They are losing games to the Clippers, The Nets, The Sixers, including losses to Memphis and Charlotte in Boston. The Celtics better get themselves pulled together and get ready for the playoffs. They were at one point looking at home court for the playoffs in the East, now they legitimately could land in the 3rd spot.

Last season, the C’s ended the season going 10-10 over the last 20 and they still made their magical Celtic pride playoff run to the NBA finals. But they are getting older, and ultimately age will catch up with us all, even great future Hall of Fame NBA players. With their big 3 and average of 34 years old, will they have the strong backs to bear the load of the playoff run one more time? It’s hard to bet against them, after what we have seen them do in the past. They weren’t “supposed” to get there last year, and we saw what they put together. They weren’t supposed to beat the 61-21 Cavs, but they did and then lost the illustrious finals series to the Lakers.

Someday, there will be that one last run, was last year it for the green guys, or is it this year? Written by Tony Karpinski of VegasTopDogs.