Before long, the Celtics will have lost enough that it's not big news every time.

But for now, this is just their second loss of the season, and it's big news every time. And Cleveland deserves a lot of credit for gutting out the win even when a lot of things weren't working perfectly for them. They also deserve a lot of credit for a vastly more team-oriented offense (last night they had 24 assists on 38 field goals, which isn't amazing for most teams, but is good for this team).

Watch the highlights. This year, sometimes LeBron James actually catches the ball on the move, with room to operate. That's a fantastic improvement that will not only make the team better, but add years to James' career, as he no longer has to undergo the stress of creating his team's offense from scratch every time up the floor.

On his blog, Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon-Journal points out a key play, with some interesting back story:

The key play in the game was LeBron missing the jumper at the end of regulation. Now, that may not be a great shot, but he was hitting his jumpers all night and he was talking trash with Pierce the entire second half and he wanted to bury one in his face. Remember these guys have a history. Anyway, missing that shot focused him and he immediately went to the basket to start overtime. It later earned him space to hit a big 3-pointer with 1:50 left that turned the tide. He had 11 points in overtime.

That "have a history" link Windhorst included is to a 2006 Windhorst piece making a pretty convincing case that as much as rivalries with Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, or Kobe Bryant may be hyped, Pierce is James' truest rival in the NBA.

At the time of Windhorst's article they had faced each other more than any other stars. They had all kinds of big scoring games against each other. Unlike a lot of more hyped rivals for James, these two have actually spent a lot of time guarding each other.

One of their 2006 games, Windhorst remembers, was a true classic:

James put up 43 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in a double-overtime victory. Pierce scored a career-high 50 points and might have forced a third overtime -- or led his team to victory -- had he not drawn his sixth foul.

And there was this:

They were guarding each other before last season during a preseason game in Columbus at Value City Arena when things got heated. James and Pierce were aggressively going after each other on the offensive and defensive ends. It boiled over after James got a steal and dunk.

Being chirped at from the Cavs' bench, Pierce spit at the reserves. He later was fined.

Following the game, Pierce and James got into a fiery exchange in the hallway between the locker rooms with then-coach Paul Silas having to break things up and Pierce having to be carried away by teammates.

I always wonder about those kinds of personal rivalries. On the one hand, certainly it can be powerful motivation. Michael Jordan famously talked himself into all kinds of such rivalries, and he did pretty well for himself. It's not hard to believe that such rivalries might be a magic elixir to keep top players motivated.

But I have to think it can also be a distraction.

For one example, in Windhorst's estimation, James took an ill-advised shot with the game on the line in part because he wanted to stick it to Pierce. Maybe, if James hadn't been so hot to humble Pierce, the play turns into something less sexy but more effective like an assist to Drew Gooden or Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Here's one other example, from my own experience on the playground. (Yes, I'm aware I'm breaking some kind of code by leaping from describing the play of LeBron James to describing the play of ... myself.) I was in a game in the local park against one of the best players who ever plays around here. He's feisty, tough as hell, and super-skilled. A multi-faceted player.

But he has a short fuse, and for some reason he and I had been at odds a little all day. My team was doing better than he would have liked, and he was trying to take it out on me (we were guarding each other, and I had scored some early buckets) with a mess of vicious trash talk and threats. I just kept battling him, and the game was right down to the wire.

But as he got madder and madder, he grew more and more determined to embarrass me. His team's possessions shifted from a team attack, to everyone standing around and watching him try to hurt me in the post. Sometimes he scored, often he didn't, but every time there was a hail of elbows, shoves, and grunts. A lot of people there thought we were going to come to blows.

Meanwhile, I didn't give a crap about outscoring him or showing him up, I just wanted to win. So when I had the ball, I went to work on him a little, and got a good shot if it was there, but on most of the key possessions I ditched the ball to this scrawny kid who made good cuts and had the knack for finishing in traffic.

My hothead opponent was normally a fantastic help defender, and on other days he would have prevented practically every layup attempt. But on this day, he was so determined to get the best of me that he wouldn't even leave my side, letting the little dude waltz on by to victory.

Later I got to know that hothead guy much better -- we have played together many times -- and at some point we talked about that game. I told him that I couldn't believe he had let me -- not as good a player as him -- take his whole team out their game. His response? He got mad.

(Photo by Brian Babineau/Getty Images)