Three, it's a magic number...

Last night the three active Boston area spots teams - Bruins, Celtics, and Red Sox - won their respective games.

The Bruins were first up and the first one's done, winning their playoff game to knot their series with the one-time Whalers at three games a piece. By the time the Carolina Hurricanes scored their second goal, the B's already had a three-goal cushion. The Bruins have now won two straight after dropping three. They are now 3-0 against the 'Canes when scoring at least three goals and 0-3 when the 'Canes have scored at least three goals.

Now the Bruins are returning to Boston and going for a third straight win in order to wrap up the series.

Three...it's a magic number.

The Celtics were second on the docket, for the third time mounting a comeback from a double digit deficit in order to go up on the Magic 3-2. In all three of the games in which Boston trailed by more than ten the winning margin has averaged 3.3 points. In the three games Boston is 2-1. With Orlando returning home for a third game in Florida and their backs against the wall, the pressure is squarely on the Magic.

Speaking of three, a beat up and bloodied Celtics team is doing it not just sans Kevin Garnett, a member of the team's nouveau Big Three of Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, but without their second option at the position - Leon Powe. This has left them with their third option at the power forward - Glenn "Big Baby" Davis.

They are doing it with the two aforementioned forwards on the bench with knee injuries, and with their point guard playing on two bad ankles.

Three times in this series a guard not named Ray Allen came up big for the Celtics. In their blowout win Eddie House led all scorers with 31 points including 12 on 4 for 4 three-point shooting. On the night that Davis hit the buzzer-beater, Rajon Rondo scored 21 and led the Celtics in rebounds with 14. Then last night, when Rondo struggled and got into foul trouble, Stephon Marbury may have scored only 12, but it was all in the fourth quarter, igniting the Celtics' 33 point fourth quarter.

Three...it's a magic number.

Over on the West Coast in a third different city the Red Sox were busy giving up one run every three innings only to score three in the last two to complete the comeback win. The Sox used three relievers over the last three innings to hold the Angels in check while the Sox finally got to the Angels' third reliever of the night for their third run off the Angels' bullpen with the winning knock coming from Jason Varitek in the bottom third of the Sox' order.

Yup, three...it's a magic number.

Quoth the Raven...

A couple of things to address...

Hey, San Diego...welcome to the Norv Turner era. I wonder what the over/under will be on when AJ Smith gets whacked for replacing a hall-of-fame coach with football's version of Rain Man.

From Don Banks this morning -

"I know the truth and I know what I believe, and that's all that's really important,'' said Brady, when asked about the perception of the Patriots' tarnished legacy. "Hopefully everyone who follows us realizes that. But if you don't, then who really cares? We've been proving it to people for seven years, and it's been the same thing. We're not changing what we do.''
Sideline cameras aside, no, they're not. Not one bit. Critics be damned. Two games into another season, and despite the tumult of the past week, they're still the same old Patriots. Maybe even better. For the other 31 teams in the NFL, I can't think of anything that could possibly rate as a worse piece of news.

So, on the second Monday of the season, here are my questions -

If the Patriots had an unfair advantage in the first game of the season, then what was the Jets' excuse for that performance in Baltimore? What, then, is the Chargers' excuse for losing to the league's most scrutinized team yesterday? Belichick manage to replace Philip Rivers with a pod-person?

Let's face a couple of incontrovertible facts here -

For all the talk about the Pats offense - and it has been impressive - the defense has been just as impressive in spite of missing two of their key starters.

The Patriots might be the deepest team in the NFL. Without defensive stalwarts Rodney Harrison or Richard Seymour, New England has done the following on defense through the first two weeks -

Given up a league leading 214 yards per game
Given up 56 yards per game on the ground (2nd in the league) while facing Thomas Jones and reigning league MVP LaDanian Tomlinson (Tomlinson averaged a mere 2.4 yards per carry against the Pats)
Given up 158 yard per game through the air (5th) and have sacked opposing quarterbacks 8 times (4th)
Achieved an average margin of victory of 24 points

All this while playing two of last year's playoff contenders and last season's consensus "best team in the NFL."

Did the Pats have an unfair competitive advantage over the Chargers last night that made a big difference between last night and last season's narrow playoff victory? You bet. Any team that thinks Norv Turner is a better coach than Marty Schottenheimer is automatically giving its opponent an unfair competitive advantage.

Now for the weird question of the week...

Belichick did something mind-bogglingly stupid and against the rules and deserved punishment for it. He got it. He also, in a season in which many pundits have already claimed they are the team to beat, managed to create an "us against the world" situation for his team. So...was he hoping to get caught in order to give his team that extra impetus?

Gone for the last two seasons has been (even the ability to claim) the mantra of "no one thought we could do it." So...was this done to give the team a rallying cry? How do we defend one of our own, how do we defend our legacy?

I think it's unlikely, but I wouldn't rule it out as a possibility.

Nine is a magic number...

I wasn't thrilled with the Red Sox performance this past weekend. They screwed the pooch on Friday, and spit the bit on Sunday...both faux-pas a result of Terry Francona doing a piss-poor job of handling his pitching staff.

I understand that Schilling was pitching a good game and had a low pitch count. But this whole season he has had trouble holding a lead. He should never have been around to face Jeter. I won't even get into Friday's debacle.

Now for the good...

With twelve games left, the Sox magic number is down to nine. It could have been lower, but this isn't bad.

Eric Hinske will never pay for another drink in Boston. He may have been thrown out in the play at the plate (props to Jorge Posada for holding on to that ball), but he was responsible for the run scored by Jacoby Ellsbury later in the game. The ball clearly beat Ellsbury to the plate, but the gun-shy Posada braced for the collision instead of getting the tag down.

I almost think that Hinske should have been given an RBI for that.