O'Brien challenges the Celtics

The Boston Celtics have 18 games left in the regular season, and the team will not be happy unless they finish out their games by playing hard and grabbing at worst the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Currently, the Celtics have the fifth-best record in the East, but things could easily change- as the top six teams in the East are only separated by four games.

Back on March 10, Celtics head coach Jim O'Brien prematurely ended practice a few minutes early after watching an errant pass sail out of bounds. O'Brien marched into the Celtics locker-room minutes after stopping practice, and amongst his silent team, issued a challenge to his players. O'Brien told the team that there aren't many games left in the regular season, and that now is the time for them to put their game together, and finish the season strong if they want to go deep in the playoffs, where they believe they should be.

O'Brien later gave The Boston Globe a feeling as to what he said to the Celtics players in that team meeting following practice, saying, "There are no excuses; We do not feel like we should back down from anybody. I think that our guys realize that this is the time to enjoy the difficult schedule. It's good that we're playing New Orleans, New Jersey, Detroit, because those are the teams you have to beat."

A few days later, on Wednesday night, the Celtics hosted those New Orleans Hornets at the FleetCenter. their first game since O'Brien's speech. What followed had to have been just what the doctor ordered for O'Brien. The Celtics soundly defeated the Hornets, 93-65 in a game which saw the Celtics dominate from beginning to end. The Celtics defense was stifling, and frustrated the Hornets team all night.

O'Brien, in that team meeting, told his players, "We have 19 games left. If we go 14-5, that gets us to 50 wins and we win the conference championship." It was a challenge to his players. a challenge that did not fall on deaf ears as evidenced by the team's response against the Hornets.

The Celtics have that challenge to play mentally and physically tough for the remainder of the season, and try to at least match the successes of last season, a season which saw the Celtics make the playoffs for the first time in eight years, and make it to the Conference final.

The Celtics, and of course their fans, are hoping that the team doesn't stop there. They still have some heads to turn, and some tricks left up their sleeves.