"But to put all our eggs in one basket, to say this is the game we have circled. We circle all games." -- Kevin Garnett, Dec. 23, 2008.

The line was delivered a few minutes after the Celtics had destroyed their division rival from Philadelphia and a few hours before they would get on a plane and head west for this strangest trip since Jack Kerouac decided to ride shotgun with Neil Cassady. Garnett likes delivering lines like that. He knows a good soundbite when he says it and that was a brilliant one, because he at once asserted the Celtics focus and all-around nastiness, while also getting in a good shot at the Lakers, who had indeed circled the Christmas Day game.

The C’s dropped that one, as we know, and then suffered through a strange meltdown in Oaktown where they threw their offense out the window and watched helplessly as Stephen Jackson launched moonshots like he was World B. Free from all corners of the arena.

Now losers of two in a row, the C’s went into Sacramento and treated the Kings like a junior varsity team. When Gabe Pruitt is throwing down dunks and Patrick O’Bryant is swatting weak stuff into the third row, you know it’s a blowout.

So, here they are at the end of their first West Coast swing with a win and two losses and one hyped-up Portland team on the schedule. If the Celtics didn’t circle this one before Christmas it might as well be in red Sharpie now because this is a big game. It’s not as big as Cleveland on Jan. 9 and it’s not as big as the Lakers on Feb. 5, but Boston-Portland is good. Real good.

"The Celtics, they irritate everybody." -- Channing Frye, Dec. 4, 2008.

The Blazers backup big man made those comments before his team got wiped out by the Celtics earlier this month. While the 93-78 final didn’t look so bad in retrospect, it’s worth remembering that it was 74-51 after three quarters and Rajon Rondo had already messed around and got a triple-double.

Frye is one of the coolest cats in the league, a fun kid who appreciates the local art scene in Portland and can no doubt be found hanging out at Powell’s Books where he could pick up Kerouac’s On the Road or even Visions of Cody if he wanted, but that comment will follow the Celtics for the rest of the year. They irritate everybody. Say that in any NBA arena outside of North Station and you will get knowing looks and rapid agreement.

Portland wants this game badly. The Blazers are what happens when a general manager who knows what he’s doing and has a long-range plan gets lucky with the ping-pong balls. Portland is deep, talented, young and on the verge but what the Blazers don’t have (yet) is a signature win against one of the big three teams. The Lakers humiliated them on opening night and the Celtics humbled them in December.

The Blazers are like the nice version of the Atlanta Hawks, who chose to market their game with the Celtics like it was Ali-Frazier IV. The Blazers won’t feature a program with rookie Jarryd Bayless and Garnett going nose-to-navel, but they will make do with a hopped-up crowd and tons of energy. You know, nice. The Celtics, meanwhile, don’t usually need to look too deep to get their nasty on, and Frye’s comments haven’t been forgotten. 

Beyond all that this is a great matchup for basketball reasons. The Blazers have length and depth in the frontcourt and they have Brandon Roy who is the most under-marketed star player in the league.

Pat Riley once said that you have to pick your spots on the NBA calendar. It’s just too long to play every game like the seventh game of the NBA Finals. The Celtics may disagree, or they may just like giving pithy soundbites, but tonight’s game is one to watch.

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So, uh, what happened in Oakland? I’ve gotten that question from everyone over the weekend, including the guy that sells me newspapers in Porter Square, and I don’t have a reasonably good answer other than not having Kendrick Perkins clearly hurt and Stephen Jackson was channeling NBA Jam (He’s heating up… HE’S ON FIRE!). Paul Pierce was up in his grill most of the night and Jackson was still dropping 25-foothers like they were layups. Hey, it happens.

What also happened was this: When the game got tight the Celtics reverted to their stand-around and hope somebody bails them out offense (last seen in Cleveland during the playoffs). Doc Rivers calls this “hero ball”, which is kind of ironic in that the problem seems to be nobody knows who the hero is supposed to be. The Celtics have one major statistical flaw offensively—turnovers, but they still seem to have an occasional mental hurdle about playing in close games on the road when the other team makes a spirited run.

Note the disclaimer: The Celtics are fine when they are playing back from a huge deficit, and they’re OK in a grind-it-out slugfest, but when they blow a lead and the other team feels invincible in their building, they still have this strange tendency to wait for the other guy to get it done. You can almost see the mental calculus at work: Should we let Pierce go to work, should we try to get Ray Allen off, should we get Garnett touches down low, or should we run our offense?

The answer should be D: Let Rondo run the offense.

In the big picture that is a minor quibble. It is far better for the Celtics to run a Democracy offensively and let the rest take care of itself. The only people who think you need a Mugabe-esque dictator at the end of the game are retired players who like to believe their own legends (Magic Johnson, talking to you here).

The Celtics are built on two core beliefs: Defense and none of their three Hall of Famers are better than the other. That got them a championship, and it’s worth pointing out that the last team that won with only one true superstar was the Houston Rockets and that was a funky time indeed in the NBA. 

The Warriors loss will fade, but one thing that won’t is the knock that when the going gets tough the C’s don’t know where they’re going. They pride themselves on not listening to outside voices. They shouldn’t start believing them now either.

Paul Flannery is a regular contributor for WEEI.com.