The number 16 used to have a bit of a different meaning for the Celtics.

The Celtics lost their franchise record 16th in a row to the Miami Heat last night. Boston has gone from just being a bad team to being epically bad since Paul Pierce went down, first with a foot injury and now with an infection in his elbow. We see flashes of brilliance from the kids like Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Delonte West, but they can't sustain it for any stretch of time.

The whole thing, in kind of a perverse way, is fascinating. It's kind of like watching a road accident; you want to turn away, but you can't. The only upside to all this is that it gives the Celtics a reasonable chance of picking up either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant in the draft. Either of these guys could be a franchise-savior, but we all know how it worked out when the Celtics had a chance to draft Tim Duncan about a decade or so ago. Imagine how different the last 10 years might have been with him on the team?