at next level? 18-2 Celtics

will be ready

for the Blazers

T hey think it's done. As sure as slamming a door. If all goes as planned tonight in Boston, the Celtics figure they'll dress, warm up and then proceed to Riverdance all over the Trail Blazers' promising season.

The Celtics are 18-2. They're defending NBA champions. A repeat is such a foregone conclusion that Nevada sports books won't even allow a wager on the Celtics winning back-to-back NBA titles. Instead, they ask you to pick who finishes "next best."

So while we're sorting out who finishes second, let me tell you about the visiting locker room at TD Banknorth Garden last January. Because before the Celtics and Blazers played then, Kevin Garnett warmed up by punching the basket standard as if he were Joe Frazier.

Then he yelled a lot. And clenched his fists. He shouted at LaMarcus Aldridge, then Channing Frye, then Travis Outlaw and Brandon Roy. And when Joel Przybilla smacked the Celtics' Paul Pierce with a hard foul, Garnett rushed over, arms waving, eyes bulging.

"I'll chop your head off at the other end!" Garnett screamed.

The Blazers lost by 28.

Afterward, the Blazers moped around the locker room, collecting their things. Nobody said much. But every time the door opened, you could hear Garnett, one door down, crowing about the intimidation factor, and talking about Portland's team as if it were some second-cousin franchise that needed to grow up.

"It's nothing personal with nobody out there," he said.

Greg Oden, out for the season while recovering from knee injury, was on his first NBA road trip. The front office decided to bring him along for the ride, let him take a look around the league. After the game, he sat in one corner of the locker room, the pant leg of his dress slacks rolled up to his thigh, with a bag of ice on his knee.

Oden's eyes were as big as saucers.

After the game, Blazers assistant Maurice Lucas walked past, and said that nobody trash-talked like Garnett during his playing career, because, "Back then, it was only a $50 fine for punching a guy in the mouth."

We've arrived at a courage test for the Blazers, see. Because even with the 14-6 record, even with the infusion of confidence, even with the depth, until Portland decides it's not intimidated by Garnett, the Blazers don't have a chance.

A year ago, the young Blazers looked at him as if they were thinking, "I used to have his trading card." They wilted when he glared and stomped around, and at one point when Brandon Roy chirped at Garnett after making a basket, the veteran center drove by Roy, dunked, and shouted, "Take that young'un!"

This season's opening-night disaster against the Lakers provides reasonable doubt that Portland can hang with an upper-echelon team. There's the Celtics, the Lakers and then there's everyone else. And with this wonderful start to the season in the bag, the Blazers find themselves on the road, against the defending champions, in a game that will tell us more about the team than the 20 games that came before it.

The Blazers beat Tim Duncan's Spurs and Tracy McGrady's Rockets. They pounded Chris Paul's Hornets and Rasheed Wallace's Pistons. They disposed of the Kings, Knicks and Wizards, too, but we all know until the Blazers can hang with the Lakers and Celtics, nobody is going to take them as a serious threat.

The Blazers won't sneak up on Boston. They won't be underestimated. Those days are gone. You kiss them goodbye when you play .700 Basketball. Which is why what happens when Garnett starts screaming tonight becomes riveting.

It's a test of courage and growth.

As simple as opening a door.

John Canzano: 503-294-5065;

JohnCanzano@aol.com

Read his blog at blog.oregonlive.com/

johncanzano

Catch him on the radio on

"The Bald-Faced Truth," 3-6 p.m.

weekdays on KXTG (95.5).