So the Celtics clinched third seed in the East last night by sweeping the season series against the Knicks. Back in the playoffs after nine years, the question now is how far they can go. Charlotte will be an easy first-round opponent, but when it gets to the later rounds, it’ll take more than Pierce and Walker to win the close games. Rodney Rogers, Kenny Anderson and Erick Strickland have to do their part to contribute and to give the Celts a more balanced scoring attack.

Saw the Celtics lose to the Bulls last Monday night, and what impressed me during the game was the Celts lackadaisical approach on defense. Here’s a team — the Bulls — that’s second to last in scoring with 88.9 points per game, and the Celtics let them score 105 points. It is true that the Bulls were on fire, shooting 55 percent from the field, but it seemed like half of those shots came without a hand in the shooter’s face. Obviously, the Celts can’t afford that kind of lapse on defense if they hope to the give the Nets a serious challenge for the conference championship.

I was going to make a snarky comment about Kerry Wood‘s blister the other day, but I decided I was already looking for the worst. But now he might missing his next start due to the blister.

The offense finally broke out, and as pathetic as it’s been, Sosa‘s doing just fine with five homers already. Hope the Cubs can take the rest of the series from the Pirates. As I’ve said before, the Pirates are one of the Central teams the Cubs need to take care of to compete for the wild card, let alone the division.

But looking at the longer-term picture, Mark Prior could be a solid starter for years to come, and perhaps a bona fide ace. Corey Patterson is delivering on his promise, and Bobby Hill will be ready to take over at second base year. As exciting as last year was and this year could be, the big deal about the Cubs is still the future, as in the No. 1 farm system according to Baseball America.