ORLANDO, Fla. -- Kevin Garnett is back in the lineup, but that sound you heard wasn't the clicking of the tumblers falling into place for the Boston Celtics. Instead, those are the creaking and cracking normally associated with age.
When Rashard Lewis got the ball from J.J. Redick and cruised along the right baseline, right past Garnett, for the game-winning layup with 1.3 seconds left on Thursday night, the only thing missing was an escort in a tuxedo. The only thing missing from Garnett's game, from the opening tip to the final horn, was a walker and maybe a Boy Scout to help him cross the street.
Garnett was slow moving from side to side and up and back. He was late on defensive rotations. He was late getting into the right position in the Boston offense.
Indeed, there are plenty of things wrong with the way the Celtics have been playing over the past month and plenty of culprits. On the night when Rajon Rondo was named to his first spot in the NBA All-Star Game, he was just 2-for-6 in the first three quarters. On the night when Paul Pierce was selected to his eighth All-Star team, he finished just 3-for-12 from the field.
Since beating the Magic in Orlando on Christmas Day, the Celtics have lost nine of 15 games. Yet there was never a sense of panic or the need for real urgency, because 10 of those games were played without Garnett, recovering from a hyperextended right knee.
Garnett, after all, is spark for the Boston engine. He's the one who makes them roar.
But in his third game back in uniform and on the floor, Garnett's only roars were complaints about his own performance.
"Some nights you have it and some nights you don't," is the way that Celtics coach Doc Rivers explained Garnett's evening.
Garnett was more direct.
"Some nights you look good and some nights you look like [expletive]," he said. "This was one of them nights when I looked like pure [expletive]."
Everybody has those nights from time to time. But the concern with Garnett stems from the fact that it was near this time last season when knee problems began to slow him down and eventually took him out of the Celtics' lineup entirely for the playoffs.
Garnett says now that he is not experiencing any pain and is not willing to offer up any excuses about his physical condition, only that the responsibility is all on him to work harder and to get better.
And he's going to have to get much, much better. While Boston can win games and stay in the upper half of the playoff bracket in the Eastern Conference with K.G. moving around the court like he's wearing concrete basketball shoes, it can't contend with him like that.
As Rivers said: "Our expectations are for a title. I don't know what expectations you can have other than that."
The Celtics collectively are graybeards with Rasheed Wallace at 35, Allen at 34, Garnett at 33, Pierce at 31 and even Eddie House at 31. But it's Garnett and those 13 years with his motor revving high and all those miles on those wheels that has drawn the most examination.
Sure, it was just one game in late January. But the immediate road doesn't get any easier for the Celtics. There's a stop tonight to close the back-to-back in Atlanta against a Hawks team that has already beaten them three times this season. Then comes a home date on Sunday against the defending champion Lakers.
Of more long-range concern is the way that the Magic, after winning the second-round series against the Celtics and clinching it on the parquet floor in Game 7 last year, are still radiating with confidence against Boston. Even when they're down by 16 in the third quarter and when they're down by three points with less than a minute to play.
Rivers spoke of a lack of focus from his team all night and all of the Celtics talked about not doing the little things that make a difference in the end.
But there was no getting around the fact that the Magic were the ones surging with confidence and energy coming down the stretch, making the right plays, grabbing the critical rebounds, hitting the big buckets.
The Celtics came out of a timeout in the final minute holding a 94-91 lead and their priority was not to allow Orlando to hit a 3-point bucket. Ten seconds later, Allen inexplicably allowed Redick to step back and nail a wide-open trey.
Then Garnett allowed Lewis to turn the corner and sail all the way to hoop for the game-winner.
"I like our team against any team in this league and that includes Orlando," said Garnett. Then he put his head down into hands.
It's a long season and, suddenly, feeling longer.
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