After one the lead was 12. After two, it was well, two. After three, it’s 16. So now we have a bench referendum for the final 12 minutes. That’s not entirely fair, but that’s the way this works when a team is 24-2 and on a 15-game winning streak. Obviously, they’re playing great ball, but are they any cracks in the foundation?

Let’s find out…

FINAL WRAP: That’s the ball game folks. Seventeen in a row. Blowout city. Be back for a little more in a bit.

– Huh. A Cedric Simmons sighting.

– Tony Allen is bringing the ball up because Lindsay Hunter is in the game and Hunter ate up Eddie House in the playoffs last year. Doc swears that TA is a capable point in certain situations, and he showed it there, dishing off to Scalabrine for a wide-open 3-pointer.

– Leon Powe has trailed off a bit after his torrid start ^[3], but one thing that will keep him employed for years is his ability take charges.

– Right, right but who cares about all that when Scal is pulling out a jump hook (bet Sam Cassell taught him that one) and Tony Allen is unleashing a Cape Wind-slam-therefore-I-am monster jam?

– This must be said: Great crowd in here tonight. I sincerely hope everyone gets home safely and that the Red Line is still running when I get out of here.

– Bad spacing on that break. Yes I’m being too negative. Yes I’ll stop.

– I think it is safe to say, however, that the bench passed this little test.

– Tough to blog during extended garbage time, by the way, and yes it is Gino time.

– So at 25-2, am I ready to revisit my column about the Celtics being better than last year ^[4]? Yes, yes I am, but not yet. Let’s see what happens Christmas Day in LA first. I still think, as I said in the piece, that it’s very likely they’ll be better at the end of the year, but don’t forget that 29-3 start was historic from all kinds of numerical methods.