The Boston Celtics are enjoying their best season in eight years. They are playoff driven for the first time in six years. They had two players in the All-Star Game for the first time in 11 years. Times are changing.

	Walker leads the league in threes, but not shooting percentage.

Only three teams in the Eastern Conference have better records. Yet you could find more people who think "Lord of the Rings" will win Best Picture than think the Celtics are anything more than a first-half curiosity and, at best, a first-round playoff casualty.

We'll know a little more about this curious club over the next 12 days after their annual Lewis & Clark thing out west. The last time they ventured west of Old Man River, they departed as the No. 1 team in the East. They returned having lost three of four with the only win being an overtime verdict over the Clippers.

They went 11-13 over the next six weeks and dropped to No. 4 in the conference. They are now closer to ninth place in the conference (3 1/2 games) than they are to first (5 games.) But they also are seven games over .500 in a conference where simply breaking even could get you into the playoffs with homecourt advantage.

Their 28-21 record, while surprising to many, is a little bit misleading and speaks to the skepticism that still surrounds this team. In the Celtics' first 39 games, only 12 were against teams who had winning records at the time. Among playoff-contending teams in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics and the westward-bound Wizards have played the fewest road games against Western Conference teams: four out of 14. (Philadelphia is finished with the Western Conference on the road while Orlando has one roadie remaining and Toronto has two.)

In addition, if you factor out the flotsam in the West -- which is what the Celtics will see Tuesday (Denver) and Wednesday (Golden State) -- the Celtics have played the fewest games (four) against the Western Conference Iron: Lakers, Kings, T-Wolves, Spurs and Mavericks. And Boston is 0-4 in those games, with three of the losses (Kings, Spurs, Wolves) coming at home.

Boston will see two more of the Western elite on this trip, including their first look at both the Lakers and Mavericks. The games are two nights apart near the end of the trip and, as luck would have it, the Lakers may be able to welcome back Shaquille O'Neal for the Boston game. Then again it won't matter if the Lakers continue to be bored by the regular season.

So what can we expect of this team over the final two months? Their track record indicates that they won't be spooked by this long journey. They have been solidly .500 on the road all season.

	Pierce

They've won in New Jersey, Orlando, Toronto and twice in Charlotte and New York. They've been a serviceable road team under Jim O'Brien and don't look for that trait to end anytime soon. If they start this trip with two wins, and given the competition, that is not a reach, they will go into two more places (Portland and Seattle) where road wins are coming a lot more often than they used to.

But the skepticism around the team centers on its vulnerability and fragility. It has made substantive upgrades on defense. There is no disputing that. Statistically, they have gone from one of the worst defensive teams in the league to among the top 10 in all applicable statistical categories. O'Brien and defensive henchman Dick Harter have fashioned a scheme that takes advantage of the new rules while also calling for old-fashioned hard work. The new rules have allowed the Celtics to hide their soft interior defense while newcomer Erick Strickland epitomizes a tough, ballhawk mentality on the perimeter. They lead the league in steals, which O'Brien things points to their defensive play because he has all but abandoned the trademark Rick Pitino trapping, pressing, turnover-creating style.

The defensive mindset the team tries to have seems at variance with its more public persona, a free-spirited band of merry men who like nothing better than to hoist treys with impunity. There is some validity to that. No team takes more three-pointers, which may be one reason why the Celtics are dead last in the league in shooting percentage.

	Anderson

Only two teams in the last 20 years have managed to make the playoffs while finishing last in the league in shooting percentage. Here's a shocker: they were both coached by Mike Fratello. He popularized the Stonehenge Offense with his 1994-95 Cavaliers, who still managed to win 43 games, sixth best in the conference.

But Fratello's 1983-84 Atlanta Hawks had Dominique Wilkins, Doc Rivers, Randy Wittman and still finished as the worst shooting team in the league. Interestingly, their dead-last field goal percentage that year (47.4 percent) would lead the league now by a wide margin (46.3 is tops) and their dead-last, points-per-game average (101.5) that year would be third overall.

O'Brien says he pays no heed to the shooting percentage, other than to admit that he wishes it was higher. But he says the team's disproportionate number of three-pointers drags the number down. His point: usually the team that shoots the worst also scores the fewest points. The Celtics are 15th in scoring.

Boston has the two most prolific three-point shooters in the league in Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce, who are 1-2 in three-point attempts. Neither, however, is in the top 40 in three-point percentage (Pierce is 42nd, Walker isn't even among the top 50.) But they have the consistent green light to fire away and they don't hesitate, even though both players are tough to guard in the post because of their strength and quickness. Walker is a matchup nightmare for most power forwards, but prefers to play on the perimeter.

The two carry the offensive load as much as any twosome in the game. Neither has missed a game, both play big minutes, and there is concern about how long they'll be able to hold up under the pressure. There has been no consistent third scorer -- Strickland is looking like he may be that guy -- and promising rookie Joe Johnson is beginning to look like Mr. November. Kenny Anderson has rebounded from a disastrous, injury-filled season to play well, but he's also got a history of getting hurt.

Yet somehow, in spite of it all, O'Brien has the Celtics in solid playoff contention at the All-Star break. You couldn't find too many pre-season previews which had the Celtics higher than fifth in their own division, let alone in the conference. Yet in many of those same forecasts, the two teams behind the Celtics in the division were the Nets and the Wizards.

So maybe it's just their turn. Maybe they're going to confound the critics by winning with two offensive players and a new commitment to defense. Maybe they will win because of the undeniably improved feng shui under the direct, but composed O'Brien. They've done it so far. They think there's no reason they won't continue to do it.

You may doubt them, but you can't doubt this: they're overdue.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.