Celtics set team record with 19th straight win

So what else is new?  The Celtics won again on Tuesday night, this time defeating Philadelphia  110-91 at the TD BankNorth Garden.  With the victory, Boston set a new franchise record for consecutive wins as they surpassed the 18 game winning streak put together by the 1981-82 team.  They also set a new NBA record for best start to the season with only two losses at 27-2. 

Despite the record setting night, the Celtics players were nonplussed and focused on bigger goals.  Paul Pierce playfully hoped that some sort of prize would be in the offing:

"Do we get anything for winning 19 in a row? A new car? If so, let me know. Has any other Boston Celtics team lost 18 in a row? I've been there."

Kevin Garnett took a more serious tone, suggesting that the only thing that matters to the Celtics is another championship ring:

Unless you win it all, it's pretty much steam in the air: You see it, and then it evaporates”

Boston now turns its attention to a Christmas Day tilt against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center.  The Celtics fans are amped about this contest, starting a “Beat L.A.” chant late in the fourth quarter.  Garnett tried to suggest that it was just another game:

"I totally appreciate the whole history of the Lakers and Celtics and the tradition, the players who've come through both teams, the foundations of this league. But to put all the eggs in one basket on one game, or that we circle it ... we circle all the games, and if you're on the schedule we don't decline any shows."

A win over the Lakers would be twenty straight for the Celtics, though they have a long way to go before challenging the longest winning streak in NBA history—the 1971-72 Lakers won 33 straight.  Celtics coach Doc Rivers also did his part to minimize the significance of the team’s lengthening win streak:

"I know it's great and all that stuff, but we didn't get our hands in and say 'Hip! Hip! Hooray! No one even mentioned it. We just want to keep playing, and keep winning. And we want to try to keep getting better."

Philadelphia dropped to 12-16, and lost their 5th game to the Celtics in six tries.  They also continued their own streak, a dubious mark of futility from three point range—they didn’t hit from downtown for the second consecutive game going 0-19 from beyond the arc in that span.