The new-look, suddenly defensive-minded Celtics are off to the fourth-best start in NBA history. But as the Pistons learned, it's not just thanks to the Big Three

Garnett (5) has played like the superstar he is, but support from the likes of Rondo can't be overlooked. Heinz Kluetmeier/SI

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The Boston Celtics' starting point guard, Rajon Rondo, is untested and will collapse like a three-legged chair in the pressure of the playoffs. Their starting center is Kendrick Perkins, and who is Kendrick Perkins? Their coach, Doc Rivers, a man of smoldering intensity, will push them so hard they'll revolt. Their expected leap from laughingstock (24-58 in 2006-07) to contender is too substantial to make in just one season. Their bench is thin, even if it includes a 6' 9", 289-pound human tugboat of a rookie named Glen (Big Baby) Davis.

One of their Big Three of power forward Kevin Garnett, small forward Paul Pierce and shooting guard Ray Allen will tire of a supporting role and chafe at not being the Man. They're good, but the more battle-tested Detroit Pistons, who have played in five straight conference finals, are better.

Go ahead, list the reasons that the Celtics -- who have not won an NBA championship since 1986, back when a svelte Larry Bird roamed the parquet, the aroma of Red Auerbach's cigars still fouled the air at Boston Garden, and Perkins was 19 months old -- cannot win the title this June. "We've heard them all," says Pierce, "and they don't mean a thing."

Any sense that Boston is not ready for prime time was zapped last Saturday at The Palace of Auburn Hills. In a 92-85 win over the Pistons, the Celtics demonstrated composure, bench strength, chemistry and coaching acumen. It might be true that the Celtics are, as Rivers says, "still under construction," but it's impossible not to notice the new high-rise going up in the Eastern Conference. That's what happens when a team gets off to a 29-3 start -- the fourth-best in NBA history -- as Boston had through Sunday. And when its pedigree, in a league desperate to evoke its glory years, includes 16 championship banners and that magical tag of storied franchise. And when all eyes in the basketball world are watching to see if its three elite players, all in their 30s, can form the backbone of a championship unit in just one year.

The last was the primary concern for the Celts, but Garnett, Pierce and Allen -- hereafter GPA -- have emerged as a tone-setting troika for a team that starts a 21-year-old point guard and includes six new rotation players, Garnett and Allen among them. As individuals GPA are NBA royalty, but none has been able to lead a team to the top. If they are not defined by playoff failure, they are certainly shadowed by it. "Paul, Kevin and Ray have done everything except win," says Rivers, "so this is the right time for all of them."

That's perhaps why the message got through when Rivers went all school-marm on GPA after their press conference in August following the acquisitions of Allen (from the Seattle SuperSonics for a No. 1 pick, guard Delonte West and swingman Wally Szczerbiak) and Garnett (from the Minnesota Timberwolves for five players, two No. 1 picks and cash). "None of you mentioned a word about defense," he told them after the convivial backslapping gabfest was over. "If we're going to get this done, we can't be a good defensive team. We have to be a great defensive team."

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