Where are the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics right now?

We need them badly.

Barraged by Brady banter. Maligned by the Mookie mess.

And worst of all, forced to watch a Patriots-starved Super Bowl, the New England sports fan clamors for something to believe in.

But which team do you hitch the pickup to?

The young, fresh, new, unproven Celtics, who have been besieged by nagging injuries but still manage to hang in the playoff pack? Or those wily, battle-tested Bruins, refreshed from a week-plus in the Caribbean and back to work tonight in Winnipeg?

To be honest, I like neither. The Celtics can’t play well enough together when it matters. Somehow, Marcus Smart always ends up taking the big shots and we’ve seen how that goes.

And the Bruins, well, the NHL is just such a meat-grinder. Only the best of the best make true back-to-back runs. And this team is so top heavy once again.

But you have to pick one, unless you feel the need to spend your chilly February nights watching Wichita State and Tulsa slug it out for supremacy in the American Athletic Conference.

So the play here is the B’s.

Simply put, the Bruins have multiple rallying points.

It starts, of course, with Patrice Bergeron, a surefire Hockey Hall of Famer, whose body has to look like the guy in the Operation board game.

Both he and Zdeno Chara are running out of swings at the pinata.

Aren’t enough, or shouldn’t enough of the pieces still be in place?

The first line rocks like no other. The power play dominates and the Bruin work ethic that dates back to the 1970s and over-achievers like Terry O’Reilly remains in tact. There’s plenty to love and admire.

There’s also some desperation. Aren’t Torey Krug’s days numbered here? He has to make money somewhere, and it’s not going to be in Boston.

After dropping Game 7 at home to St. Louis in the finals, the Bruins and Tuukka Rask are a hard-sell.

Unfortunately, the pickings on our shelves are pretty slim these days.

Our only decent opportunity is bathed in Black-and-Gold.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

This reporter unearthed an obscure, yet thoroughly noteworthy nugget this week amid all the Kobe Bryant mourning and the celebration of his life on social media.

Twitter’s @Brayden28_ sent in a video to @ESPN that was a fantastic finish with a kid (#24) making a buzzer-beating three to win a game.

Turns out it was from Basha High School in Chandler, Ariz. I watched the video a couple times and fell in lose with the play design, a five-second, full-court matriculation that would make any NBA coach proud.

I reached out to the coach, Michael Grothaus, to congratulate him.

And you know where he got it?

“Got that from (current Boston Celtics coach) Brad Stevens some years back at Butler,” he said.

Small world, right?

By the way, hunt down the video if you haven’t seen it. It’s excellent.

Contact Hector Longo at 594-1253 or hlongo@nashuatelegraph.com.

Newsletter