I’m on the wagon Are you on the wagon? BY SAM PFEIFLE

Inexplicably, it’s happened. All of a sudden, I’m watching the Celtics again. Just about a month after I declared the NBA the most boring shit on television.

I walked into a coworker’s office the other day and actually started a sentence with, "Hey, did you see that Celts game on . . ." I stopped myself, changed tack. "Sorry, you don’t watch the Celtics."

"No, actually I do now," he said. "My brother called me up the other day and said, ‘You better get on the fucking bandwagon right now or you’re going to be sorry.’ That Pistons game was crazy."

The game in question happened about three weeks ago. It went into double overtime, the Celts hosting the world champion Detroit Pistons at the Whatever Center, taking them to double overtime before winning the game by a bucket, with Paul Pierce notching 38 points. It was filled, to use a cliché, with playoff intensity. More recently, I watched the Celtics put up 42 points in the first quarter against the Bobcats on a Monday night. Sure, the Bobcats suck, but 42 points is still 42 points.

Both were part of a six-game run where the Cs scored 115, 105, 119, 110, 103, and 113 points in successive games, winning all of them. That’s basketball, and fun to watch. True, their last three games were 82-, 86-, and 99-point losses, but every season has peaks and valleys. When the peaks are 119-point peaks, the valleys are acceptable. When you’re the fifth-highest-scoring team, it’s okay that you give up the seventh-most points.

A lot of people are pointing to the Antoine trade for inciting the run, and something does seem to have clicked with his return, but he wasn’t around when the Celts put up back-to-back 114-point showings December 17 and 18. He had no role in the 110- and 112-point wins on February 2 and 4. No, the Celtics have been running and gunning all year and though Antoine may have been a catalyst for a winning-streak, the mentality starts with Doc Rivers and his willingness to turn his young athletic team loose and ends with Gary Payton’s mentoring of Marcus Banks and Delonte West, who might be the two fastest players the Celtics have ever had.

Unfortunately, they’re turnover-prone (one every 14 minutes for Banks; one every 20 for West; and, well, now that you mention it, one every 13 minutes for Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker), which is why it was crucial that Payton somehow weaseled his way out of Atlanta and returned to Boston. Payton starts, then West and Banks push the ball till they’ve made so many screw-ups Rivers can’t handle it anymore, then Payton comes back in to settle things down, post-up a smaller opponent, or get the ball to Pierce and Davis coming off screens. And, speaking of Davis, watching him lead the second unit has been a reason to get on the bandwagon in itself. When he’s hot he looks like Cedric Maxwell out there.

Antoine brought the crowds back, though, and the conversation. Before that trade, no one was talking Celtics. Then everyone was. I was among those who thought it was a flat-out crazy idea, mostly because I thought we’d lose Payton, who was clearly teaching Banks and West, but also because I remembered Antoine, the same guy who never met a bad time to hoist a three, the same guy who thought he could dribble through a car wash, the same guy whose face seemed to be forever fashioned into a pouty-pout-pout. Ick. I was glad to be rid of him, and didn’t want him back.

The Whatever Center crowd sure does like him, though. I underestimated his fan appeal by a wide margin, no doubt. As soon as he came back, the crowd was back, too. The Whatever Center actually became an intimidating place to play. Maybe Doc Rivers is the coach who can control Antoine that Jim O’Brien wasn’t. The threes are mostly gone (save for occasional relapses — and remember what proponent of the three O’Brien was); the endless dribbling has been replaced by the great interior passing that made him a rookie sensation. Maybe he’s pouting a little bit less.

I’m not the first one to say it, but look at the Celtics’ starting five now: recent and current all-stars in Pierce, Walker, and Payton (who’s going to the Hall of Fame), plus an above-average center in Raef LaFrentz and a guy who’s shooting 53 percent from the floor in Mark Blount (or one of the five best rookies of the year in Tony Allen). Then, off the bench, they’ve got a dangerous scorer in Davis, two guys who can make an opposing point guard miserable in Banks and West, and the guy who might have the most upside of any of these guys, Al Jefferson, who, coming straight out of Prentis-freakin’-High School in Mississippi, is shooting 52 percent and grabbing four and a half rebounds in just 15 minutes of game time.

The only team standing in the way to the NBA Finals in the East is Miami, and we get a look at them on Friday, April 15. When’s the last time you had a must-watch regular-season Celtics game on your calendar?

Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam@phx.com