The Curse strikes again(or does it?)

    Let me start off by stating the obvious…Monday's game against the Houston Rockets(a 17-21 team) was just plain ugly. Horrendous. Disappointing. Infuriating. For the most part, it didn't even look like it was the Boston Celtics out there on the court. Where was the championship defense they are known for? Well, 90% of it is out with a calf sprain actually, but still, NO EXCUSES!

    Just to throw a little salt on all our wounds, thanks to that loss, Miami has now slipped in front of our guys for the #1 position in the East. I know what you're thinking at this point: "Here we go again!" Here comes the dreaded "January Curse" a.k.a. the "Winter Slump" a.k.a. the "Post Christmas Blues" a.k.a. "ARGHHHHHHH!!!" In fact, I've been seeing bloggers, tweeters, and reporters worrying about this since mid-December. Self-fulfilling prophecy perhaps? Nah, just regular season boredom setting in with a side of injuries.

    For the most part, I think it's too early to hit the panic button. However, I have been just the slightest bit troubled with the way the C's have been playing lately, so I decided to do a little research on this alleged annual curse. I looked into every pre-Christmas record, as well as every January record of the Big Three Era:

2007-2008 NBA SEASON

November-December 2007

26-3

They dropped two games in November to the Magic, and Cavs, both away games. They lost only one game in December to the Pistons at home.

By the end of January 2008, their record was 36-8. They lost 5 of 15 games that month, two(in a row) of which were to the Wizards. Four of those losses were at home.

2008-2009 SEASON

End of Oct-Dec 2008

28-5

3 out of 5 of those losses were during a late December road trip to the West Coast. They fell to the Lakers, Warriors, and Trail Blazers.

At the start of the new year, the C's hit an early four-game losing streak right at the beginning of January of 2009. They recovered, and went on a twelve-game winning streak into early February before losing to the Lakers for the second time that season. At the end of January their record stood at 39-9.

2009-2010 SEASON

End of Oct-December 2009

23-8

2009 marked the rockiest start for the Celtics since Sugar Ray, The Truth, and The Big Ticket joined forces. Half of the early season losses were at home at the Garden, and 3 of them were lost in a row out West around the same time as the year before(end of December).

Well, if you think the early months looked ugly for our boys, January's record is not going to give you any kind of warm and fuzzy feeling either. They lost 8 of 14 games. In one month. Hold your breath for this one: by month's end, their record was 29-16. Of course, as most of you know, things only got worse from then on.

2010-2011 SEASON

End of Oct-Dec 2010

24-7

This season started off beautifully didn't it? Well, Game 1 was beautiful anyway. The Celtics proved to the Lebron James lovers of the world that they were/are still the team to beat. Miami may have a newly assembled Big 3, but Boston has a Big 4(I believe Rondo should be accepted into that club this year). Anyways, I'm sure the 14-game winning streak going into the Christmas loss to the Magic is still fresh in our minds, but I thought I'd throw it in there for good measure.

Two weeks into January, the C's have won 4 of their 6 games. Their record currently stands at 29-9.

    Alright, so is there a "January curse"? It's still too early to really compare this month to past seasons. There really doesn't seem to be any scientific or mathematical patterns to note, except that there always seems to be a bit of a lull in January. Except last year wasn't so much of a lull, as it was a flat-line. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully the impending return of KG, and the long-awaited return of Perk in a few weeks will kill this rumored curse once and for all….or at least for this season, anyway.