Patriots and Celtics in parallel in Miami

[jmc@ptc.com]

I don't know if this has already been mentioned as I've only had time 
to skim quickly through the digests from the weekend this morning, but 
as I was driving into work this morning I realized that there were a 
remarkable number of similarities between the Celtics and the Patriots 
this weekend. 

Both teams went down to Miami this weekend with a 6-3 record to play a 
division-leading Miami team with a 7-2 record and a tough defense.  Both 
teams lost because they made too many careless passes, which the alert 
Miami defense picked off and converted into lots of points (13 steals and
30 points off turnovers by the Heat, 5 interceptions by the Dolphins). 

Both Boston area teams otherwise played well, and would have won if they'd 
kept the turnovers to a normal level. 

Both teams came home 6-4 while Miami went to 8-2.  

The difference is that the Celtics are getting better with each game, 
and have 72 games left in the season and improving hopes of making 
the playoffs against people's expectations.  The Patriots seem to be 
getting worse as the season goes on and need to turn things around or 
they'll miss the playoffs, against people's expectations. 

Makes you wonder if there's really something to the fact that Boston 
sports teams all hit a peak in 1986, then had some relatively bad years
through the 90's, and are now all doing much better than in recent 
years. 

Jon Mc