Depends on who you talk to. Some would tell you it was too many games in too short a time. Others would tell you the Celtics were hurt by the defections of P.J. Brown and James Posey, that the defending NBA champions were being worn down because they didn't have hotshots coming off the bench to make hot shots.

But that was then. And this is, well, wow.

In rolling to a 124-100 victory over the Dallas Mavericks yesterday afternoon at the Garden, the Celtics have now won eight straight, playing good Basketball against some good teams.

One of those good teams is Mark Cuban's Mavs, who arrived at the Causeway Street Gym yesterday with a you-best-not-be-taking-us-for-granted 25-18 record.

They left looking confused and bewildered, having just had box-out lunches handed to them by the Celtics. As Mavs coach Rick Carlisle put it, ``We haven't come across a team that plays at this level defensively.''

But here's a question for the Celtics: Does that aforementioned rough stretch still ring in their noggins? Is it an open sore, still itching, still bothering them?

Or is it just yesterday's news, an old speeding ticket that, now that it has been paid, can be laughed at?

``It's old, man, it's old,'' said Kevin Garnett during the nightly postgame Abbott & Costello media routine he does with Paul Pierce. ``We shouldn't be going back and looking at L's. You recognize that it's there, but . . .''

``. . . but it's like the stock market,'' Pierce chimed in. ``Up and down, up and down. We're trying to stay away from that, though.''

But the Celtics' stock, having had its dip, is on the rise. They have our full attention now. The holidays are over, as are the Patriots, and the Red Sox haven't even loaded up the spring training truck yet.

We the Bruins. We the Celtics. We like what we see, even if just a few weeks back we didn't like what we saw.

``Right now we don't look to the past,'' offered Eddie House, who threw in seven 3-pointers yesterday en route to a 23-point effort. ``We're too busy looking ahead, you know? That already happened. That would be like me sitting here and talking about how great it was when we went on a 19-game winning streak.

``We don't look back at the stuff,'' he said. ``We're looking to the future.''

And . . . well . . . it's just so danged cliche to say this but, um, well, Eddie House teed it up for us so here goes: The future looks bright for these Celtics.

But don't think for a moment they have conveniently forgotten about the four straight losses and the seven of nine. That would be too easy, too convenient. It would not be in keeping with human nature.

As Pierce noted, ``It was something we hung our heads on,'' referring to the rough stretch.

``It was what it was, but the thing about this team is that we never let it get us down. Our thing is, we're just trying to get better. And when we're not playing well, we realize it. Hopefully we won't have any droughts like we had a couple of weeks ago,'' said El Capitaine. ``The key is to remain consistent throughout the year so that we don't have any more lulls. . . . We need to stay away from those lulls and keep getting better.''

Amazing. A few weeks ago it was a losing streak. Now, it's being referred to as a lull. That's what happens when you're playing as well as these Celtics are.

- sbuckley@bostonherald.com