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Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers despised the idea of trading away Jason Collins when his team moved him at the February trade deadline, but with a glaring need for a bench scorer, Collins became a necessary inclusion in a swap for the Washington Wizards' Jordan Crawford.

When Collins returned to Boston in early April as a member of the Wizards, Rivers showered him with praise noting, "He’s just honest. And he’s honest with the coaching staff, with what he sees, but he’s honest with players. Player will complain about something, he’ll tell them the truth and a lot of guys don’t want to hear the truth."

Jason Collins told the truth in the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated when he penned a first-person article announcing that he is gay. From SI:

I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay. I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand.

Rivers on Monday applauded the announcement.

"I am extremely happy and proud of Jason Collins," he said in a statement released by the team. "He’s a pro’s pro. He is the consummate professional and he is one of my favorite 'team' players I have ever coached. If you have learned anything from Jackie Robinson, it is that teammates are always the first to accept. It will be society who has to learn tolerance. One of my favorite sayings is, 'I am who I am, are whom we are, can be what I want to be it's not up to you, it’s just me being me.'"

Signed to a one-year, veteran-minimum contract last summer, Collins appeared in 32 games for Boston, including seven starts. The biggest number in his stat line was his fouls per game (2.3) and he averaged 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds over 10.3 minutes per contest.

The Celtics had hoped to retain Collins, but Chris Wilcox used his impending Bird Rights to veto a deal that would have sent him and Leandro Barbosa to Washington in exchange for Crawford. With really no other option, Boston reluctantly sent Collins instead of Wilcox.

On the day of the swap, Rivers said, "Let me just say this: We lost a very important guy in our locker room in Jason. You take away that, and then you add something else. You just never know with your locker room. That was difficult for me. Because... I protect my locker room. To let a guy go like that out of your locker room, for me, that was hard to do. Really hard. And honestly, if Barbosa doesn’t go down, it wouldn’t have happened. But he did go down, and we had to do something."

Before that April visit, Rivers continued to praise Collins, whose twin brother Jarron played with him at Stanford and was drafted in the same class.

"He literally is one of the best -- I’ve said it before -- he’s one of the best guys I’ve ever had in the locker room, player or coach. He is," said Rivers. "It’s funny, I didn’t know him very well until we got him, I literally didn’t. I used to call the two twins, I just called them the same name -- Jason -- both of them because I didn’t know which one was which. He’s just good. He’s a good guy and what he says is the truth."

In his essay in Sports Illustrated, Collins said the recent marathon bombings impacted his decision to come out.

The recent Boston Marathon bombing reinforced the notion that I shouldn't wait for the circumstances of my coming out to be perfect. Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully? When I told [former Stanford roommate and current Massachusetts congressman] Joe [Kennedy] a few weeks ago that I was gay, he was grateful that I trusted him. He asked me to join him [at Boston's Gay Pride Parade] in 2013. We'll be marching on June 8.

Ironically, two days after he gushed about Collins in that visit from the Wizards, Rivers was asked what would happen when a current professional athlete came out amidst news that four NFL players were considering doing such as a group.

“Nothing. I really don’t think anything," said Rivers. "I think it’ll be a lot of talk about it and then I think it’ll go away. It’s funny, we, as a team, I took the team to see '42’ yesterday and, there was a lot of talk, and then all of a sudden everybody started playing. And I think the same thing will happen. So that’s the way I look at it."

Celtics captain Paul Pierce was not willing to accept a series sweep and Jason Terry helped him keep Boston's season alive:


And a look at how things are playing at ESPN New York:

BOSTON -- Kevin Garnett probably didn't understand the gravity of his statement. Neither did Paul Pierce.

Not long after Pierce admitted the Celtics sometimes forget about Garnett on the offensive end, Garnett emerged from the training room and stressed that getting shots on offense isn't what's needed from him.

Really?

That is, frankly, ludicrous for a team that's been as anemic on offense as Boston has been for the majority of its Eastern Conference first-round playoff series with the New York Knicks. But for 17 vital minutes of Boston's 97-90 overtime victory in Game 4 on Sunday, it went out the window, as Garnett suddenly emerged as a needed factor on offense and helped propel Boston back into the series.

Garnett finished Sunday's win with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting, but seven of those came in the fourth quarter and overtime, amid a stretch when Boston's offense once again imploded and the Knicks rallied from a deficit that was as high as 20.

"That's what Kevin has been bringing us when he's out there, when he's not in foul trouble," Pierce said. "But I thought we did a better job of making an effort to go to him. Sometimes we forget about him in the offense, we get too perimeter-oriented taking a lot of jump shots. But Kevin, he's our bread and butter down in the post and we've got to give it to him and play inside-out. Most of the time when we get the ball to Kevin, good things are going to happen."

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BOSTON -- Brandon Bass fouled out with 4:27 to play in regulation and missed much of the late-game fun. But don't let that diminish his contributions to Boston's riveting 97-90 overtime triumph over the New York Knicks in Game 4 of an Eastern Conference first-round series Sunday at TD Garden.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers shuffled Bass back into the starting lineup Sunday and tasked him with the thankless chore of guarding Carmelo Anthony. While foul trouble limited him to 30 minutes 39 seconds of floor time, Bass did all he could to pester Anthony while on the court.

Anthony finished with a game-high 36 points, but needed 35 shots to get there (missing 25 of them). With Bass at the helm, Boston limited Anthony to 3-of-15 shooting for 16 points in the first half while opening as much as a 19-point lead.

Bass might have missed the final nine minutes as the the Knicks rallied ahead and Boston fought back to win in the extra session, but his teammates showered him with praise for his efforts against Anthony.

"Brandon was the star of the game, as far as I’m concerned," Rivers said. "He just defended and did it over and over and over again. There’s a lot of guys that you want to defend; I don’t know if Carmelo would be the one you would pick. And for Brandon to do that, basically the entire game until he fouled out, was terrific for us. We needed that one guy to be able to do that."

Bass treats his defensive strategy against Anthony like classified information, often smiling and saying he can't reveal his secrets. It's not really a secret; Bass just tries hard to stay in front of Anthony and uses his combination of size and athleticism to make things as difficult as possible.

“I tried to make him work," the soft-spoken Bass said. "It led to us getting the win."

Bass' defensive efforts have floated below the radar this season. According to Synergy Sports data, Bass allowed 0.756 points per play (536 points on 709 plays) and, among all NBA players with at least 475 defended possessions, Bass ranked seventh overall (teammate Avery Bradley topped that list at a minuscule 0.697, but Bass was in the cluster behind him).

Rivers heaped praise on Bass early in the series, suggesting that he played a "perfect" Game 1. With the team in dire need of ballhandling to aid Bradley, the Celtics moved Jason Terry into the starting unit for Game 3 and Bass struggled a bit in a reserve role. Rivers reversed course Sunday and reaped the defensive benefits.

"[Bass] did a great job," Bradley said. "Me, personally, I think we won the game because of Brandon. All credit to Brandon. He played great defense."

What did Bradley think was Bass' secret?

"Just trying to make everything hard on him," he said. "Melo is a great player. That’s all you can do, just try to make everything hard. I feel like Brandon did a great job."

Echoed Kevin Garnett: "Obviously, Melo's going to get a bunch of looks, he's going to get a lot of opportunity at shooting the ball. Guarding a guy who is, if he's not the MVP of the league, is very difficult. He's a handful and I thought BB just did what he could today and I thought he did it consistently."

Read on for more postgame notes, including a Chris Wilcox cameo and Boston's ever-changing guard rotation.

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The Boston Celtics survived a comeback effort by the New York Knicks to prevail in overtime and extend this first-round series to a fifth game. Let's take a look at some of the keys to the outcome of this contest, one that snapped the Celtics' five-game playoff losing streak.

KEY TO THE GAME: C'S CATCH-AND-SHOOT WELL  

The Celtics were finally able to put some points on the board in this series, and their performance in a number of areas contrasted their efforts from earlier in the series. The chart on the right shows the difference between how the Celtics fared on catch-and-shoot shots in the first three games of the series, compared to how they shot in Game 4. Paul Pierce, who was 0-for-12 on catch-and-shoots in the first three games of this series, was 4-for-7 in Game 4, with most of those makes coming early when the Celtics got off to their big lead.

JET THE UNSUNG STAR

Celtics guard Jason Terry scored nine of his 18 points in overtime, making all three of his shots in the extra period. Terry was 6-for-6 from 2-point range in this game, including 4-for-4 in the paint. He was 1-for-4 in the paint in the first three games of this series.

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BOSTON -- Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the New York Knicks 97-90 in overtime during Game 4 of an Eastern Conference first-round series at TD Garden. The Knicks lead the series, 3-1:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Jason Terry, shuffled back to a reserve role, came up with a couple of big shots in overtime while scoring 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go along with four assists. Paul Pierce scored a team-high 29 points on 9-of-20 shooting with eight rebounds and six assists, while Kevin Garnett added 13 points and 17 rebounds. Carmelo Anthony scored a game-high 36 points on 10-of-35 shooting, while Raymond Felton willed the Knicks back from a 20-point hole with 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting.

A DOMINANT FIRST HALF ...
The Celtics held a 12-point lead when Jeff Green picked up his third foul with three minutes to play in the first half (joining Garnett on the bench with his third foul). Boston has had a propensity to stumble at the end of quarters, but actually closed out the first half on a 9-0 run that included a deep 3-pointer by Pierce after Avery Bradley swiped an inbounds pass following a Brandon Bass make. The Celtics owned a seemingly safe 54-35 lead at the intermission.

... BUT ANOTHER DREADFUL SECOND HALF
The Celtics were up 14 with 3 1/2 minutes to play in the third quarter when Felton took over. He scored 12 of New York's final 15 points (all but an Iman Shumpert 3-pointer) and his 26-foot heave in the final second of the frame pulled the Knicks within three. Felton finished 5-of-8 shooting with 16 points in the quarter, outscoring Boston (4-of-16 shooting, 14 points).

OOOOOOVERTIME
The Knicks were down five with little more than four minutes to play, but a Shumpert 3-pointer and an Anthony layup tied things up with 3:34 to go. The Knicks squandered multiple opportunities -- including two missed freebies by Anthony -- but Felton hit an 18-foot pull-up with 78 ticks to go. Garnett responded with a 17-footer off a pass from Pierce to even things again with 67 seconds to play. Pierce missed his elbow jumper on Boston's final gasp.

TURNING POINT
Terry broke the game's final tie with a 3-pointer from the left wing in transition to put Boston out front 91-88 with 92 seconds to play. Anthony responded with a fadeaway baseline jumper, but Terry came back with a little fadeaway of his own for a 93-90 lead with 50 seconds to play. Terry then drew a loose-ball foul with 20.4 seconds to go and made his free throws to seal the victory.

OUT OF BASS
Back in the starting lineup and tasked often with defending Anthony, Bass did an excellent job until foul trouble derailed him in the second half. Picking up his fourth foul early on, he was tentative, especially in the fourth quarter when Anthony blew past him for a loud dunk. Bass fouled out with 4:27 to go. He finished with four points and four rebounds over 30:38.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics -- and their veteran core of Pierce and Garnett -- live for at least one more game. Terry, after a disappointing regular season, stepped up with his team's season on the line. This series takes a two-day break before resuming with Game 5 on Wednesday in New York. The Celtics still have an uphill battle, but they showed some mental toughness by fighting back after the Knicks rallied and refused to go out with a sweep on their home turf.

BOSTON -- One game after experimenting with Jason Terry in the starting lineup, the Boston Celtics will revert to their end-of-the-regular-season starting unit for Game 4 with Brandon Bass joining Avery Bradley, Paul Pierce, Jeff Green, and Kevin Garnett.

"I just like Brandon on [Carmelo Anthony] more," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. "Like I said yesterday, with the smaller lineup, the numbers actually say it’s better, but I like our defense better the other way."

The Celtics are staring at an 0-3 deficit to the New York Knicks in an Eastern Conference first-round series and know that no team in NBA history has ever rallied from that hole. Rivers knows it's a mental challenge for his team.

"Obviously, when one team is in an elimination situation, and the other team is not, it’s mental really for both," said Rivers. "I’m not going to concern myself with their mental, but with ours, it’s all mental, it always is."

Rivers said he expected Smith to be suspended, so the news of his one-game ban didn't surprise him at all. How are the Knicks different without him?

"Listen, he’s one of their other guys that can create shots and, especially in the playoffs, you need a guy," said Rivers. "You think about what we’ve done good in this series, the Knicks are being held 13 points under their normal [scoring] average. And JR Smith has played well, because in the playoffs you take teams out of their stuff, and it comes down to guys creating shots for themselves and others. Well, Melo does that, [Raymond] Felton has done that, and JR Smith does that. Now they don’t have one of those guys."

The Boston Celtics host the New York Knicks in Game 4 of an Eastern Conference first-round series on Sunday at TD Garden (1 p.m., ABC). Here's what to watch for:

* PLAYING FOR PRIDE?: Unless the Celtics are to make league history, their fate is sealed being in an 0-3 hole (no team has ever rallied out of it). The question now is whether they'll go down swinging. Coach Doc Rivers knows his team is a prideful group, but admits it also comes down to playing better than what they've shown thus far in this series. "I think, honestly, this group has a lot of pride. But we have to play better with that pride, at the end of the day," said Rivers. "Pride is great; the Knicks, I’m assuming, have pride. But we have to play better. We don’t have a big margin of error. We knew that going into it, and unfortunately we’ve made errors, and to me, at the end of the day, that’s where I go back to the X and O part. We’ve made a lot of errors... And so as a coach, you just keep pushing them to do it right. And it’s hard. Sometimes their pride is what gets in the way. Every single guy wants to win. They want to win so bad, they become an individual. I thought [Game 3] there was some of that as well."

* SPOTLIGHT: TEAM PLAY, ONE GAME: Rivers said his biggest challenge will be reminding his team that they can't win four games without winning one. He knows he has to prevent his players from trying to individually rescue the season when the only thing that would allow for a comeback is a team effort over four individual games. "If you don’t [focus on team basketball], we're going to lose. That’s pretty simple. Now, whether I’m successful at it is a whole different ball game. It’s really important. That may be the challenge for me tomorrow more than anything, because we do have the Jason Terrys on our team that want to win so bad that they may go into a game like, ‘I’m going to win this game tomorrow!’ Yeah, but it better be ‘we’ are going to win this game. That’s important, but it’s hard. That’s why players are so great, every game is a different game."

* NO EASY POINTS: The Knicks have made a lot of tough shots in this series, but they will be playing without one of their top offensive weapons (and tough-shot makers) in JR Smith (suspended for Game 4 after elbowing Jason Terry in Game 3). Rivers said it's all about making the Knicks work for their points. "There’s certain shots that guys take and make, and as a coach, you say, ‘That’s cool,’" said Rivers. "If they can make that all game, then they get to win the game. That’s how you think as a coach. It’s the shots that you don’t want them taking, when they make those, those are the ones that you don’t like. When you see a guy rolling the ball behind the 3-point line, that’s clearly not a shot we chose for them to have... When JR Smith makes a one-legged, twist-and-turn around from 30 feet and it goes in, you go pat him on the butt and say, ‘That was a great shot. Do it again.’ That’s how you think as a coach. Then that’s why the great players are great, because Carmelo [Anthony] can beat you with those, sometimes. Paul Pierce -- you can name the guys. But there’s only one percent in the league that can do that. And you live with that."

* IS THIS IT?: With the Celtics on the brink of elimination, you can't help but wonder if this will be the last time this veteran core -- Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, in particular -- take the floor together at TD Garden. A very uncertain offseason awaits this summer despite much of the team under contract for next season.

With the Boston Celtics on the brink of playoff elimination, allow this to serve as your annual reminder to savor what could possibly be the final time Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett share the Garden floor together.

I know, I know. We've been here before in each of the past few seasons. But last year we saw the end of the Big Three era when Ray Allen defected to rival Miami. With each passing season, it seems the likelihood of a potentially larger roster overhaul grows. Maybe more so this season, given that these Celtics are on the verge of being swept out of the first round of the playoffs after a season plagued by injuries and inconsistencies.

Antennas are further heightened after Garnett and Pierce, along with Rajon Rondo, huddled in the shower area inside the team's locker room at TD Garden for a lengthy confab after a Game 3 loss to the New York Knicks on Friday night put Boston in an 0-3 hole.

Was it a gabfest about how the Celtics could pull off the biggest comeback in NBA history? Or was it a trip down memory lane for a championship trio that knew it might never share that sort of moment again?

Neither Pierce nor Garnett was available to the media during Saturday's off-day availability. Both did speak after Game 3 and weren't overly maudlin, keeping the focus on what went wrong and how to reverse the momentum of the series in Sunday's Game 4.

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New York Knicks guard J.R. Smith has been suspended for Sunday's Game 4 of an Eastern Conference first-round series with the Boston Celtics after throwing an elbow that struck the chin of guard Jason Terry, NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson announced Saturday.

Smith earned a flagrant-2, which comes with immediate ejection, for the incident that occurred midway through the fourth quarter of Friday's Game 3 at TD Garden. The elbow sent Terry crashing backward to the floor, and he initially attempted to confront Smith before being intercepted by head coach Doc Rivers.

Terry declined comment on the play before Boston's off-day film session Saturday. The Knicks own a 3-0 lead and can close out the best-of-seven series Sunday.

For more on the incident, hop HERE.

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Perhaps not wanting to add any fuel to the already raging fire that is the New York Knicks' 3-0 Eastern Conference first-round series lead over the Boston Celtics, Jason Terry did not want to discuss the elbow he absorbed from Knicks guard J.R. Smith in the fourth quarter of Friday's Game 3 loss, which put Boston's season in a stranglehold.

Terry had to be restrained by head coach Doc Rivers and teammates after the hit knocked him to the floor, and Smith was later assessed a flagrant-2 foul and ejected. "No comment," was all Terry had to say on the matter Saturday, focusing instead on how the Celtics need to show a new resolve in Sunday's do-or-die Game 4 to get themselves back into this series.

"We've just got to fight harder than what we've been doing," Terry said. "I mean, they're outworking us. You can see it on the tape. Their energy is much better than ours. Offensively, their offense is running much more fluid and smooth, and they know what they want to do. They're very determined. The only way we can deter them is to come out and fight and be aggressive, which I have no doubt in my mind that we've got fight in us."

Terry, who started in place of Brandon Bass on Friday to give the Celtics an extra ball-handler beside Avery Bradley, finished with 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting, but was as guilty as the rest of his teammates of missing open looks at the basket. While the point-blank misses have the C's a bit mystified right now, Terry vowed to shrug off the disappointment of Friday and gear up for Sunday.

"When you get your butt kicked like they've been doing to us the last week or so and you're seeing the same team every day, you're going to get tired of it, or you're going to lay down," Terry said. "I'm tired of it.

"I'm coming out with something. I'm going to come out with the heart, the passion, the energy that's needed to get a win. We have to do that collectively. One man's not going to be able to provide that. It has to be a collective unit and we've got to get it done together."

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WALTHAM, Mass. -- The Boston Celtics' locker room brimmed with anger following Friday's Game 3 loss to the New York Knicks. Players were mad at themselves for missed shots that helped put Boston in an 0-3 series hole and further perturbed by the way the Knicks showboated on the TD Garden floor en route to a 14-point victory in an Eastern Conference first-round series.

Before the Celtics watched film Saturday at their practice facility, Avery Bradley and his teammates described a subdued and unhappy postgame locker room as Boston's season moved to the brink of extinction.

"It was quiet in the locker room yesterday," said Bradley. "Everybody was real mad yesterday. Nobody was saying anything. Usually [coach] Doc [Rivers] talks and then [Kevin Garnett] and those guys talk to keep us all level, let us know that we've got to continue playing hard. But yesterday after the game, everybody was quiet and pretty mad."

Rivers and the veterans eventually spoke up, offering words of encouragement about trying to do what no team in NBA history has done by rallying from an 0-3 hole. For a Celtics team that can't get out of its own way through three games, it starts with simply executing on offense and making shots.

"The frustration with us is knowing the type of game that we had with everything that we've missed -- the layups, the open shots, the stuff that we can control," said Jeff Green. "We normally make those layups and those open shots and I think it was more frustrated with ourselves as far as how the game was played out and how we determined how the game ended."

But the Celtics were also peeved at watching the Knicks celebrate highlight plays while putting the game out of reach.

"That's what made us so mad, so angry," said Bradley. "We've just got to go out there and play the right way. We've got to not let that happen again. After the game, somebody said it right after we got in the locker room, said, 'Oh they're showboating and they're dunking,' and everybody kind of looked like, 'Oh, you're right.' But all we can do is go out there and play the right way and play hard and don't give them a chance to showboat at all."

As Jason Terry noted, "You can be angry all you want, but how are you going to channel that anger? Are you going to fight among yourselves or are you going to come out and fight the opponent? And that's what we must do. We must come out against these guys that are kicking your butt."

Read on for notes on J.R. Smith's elbow to Terry and lineup chatter from Rivers:

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Three months ago, Celtics coach Doc Rivers implored us not to write off his team? After an uninspired effort in Game 3 it's clear this team has no more fight in it:


And a look at how things are playing at ESPN New York:

BOSTON -- Asked about J.R. Smith's flagrant-2 elbow that floored Jason Terry in the fourth quarter of New York's Game 3 triumph on Friday night at TD Garden, Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers paused and seemed a bit emotional as he crafted his words.

"I hate doing it, you know that. I don't know. I wish I was playing. I didn't like that," said a visibly angered Rivers. "[The Knicks were] up. So ... I'm going to stop. I've already given up money."

With the Knicks up 19 with seven minutes to play, Smith seemed aggravated by Terry's attempts to strip the ball near the 3-point line in front of the Boston bench. With Terry crouched and up on his body, Smith appeared to purposely swing his arm, sending Terry backward to the floor with an elbow that connected with his head.

Smith was assessed a flagrant-2, which comes with immediate ejection.

Terry did not make himself available to reporters after the game, but his reaction on the court said it all. He immediately popped off the court and pursued Smith, stopping only when both Jeff Green and Rivers intercepted him.

Smith attempted to defend his actions.

"I was trying to draw the foul," he explained. "[Terry] reached in one time, I thought he was gonna reach in a second time and I was gonna try to get a quick shot off, but they made a call that the refs saw, and there's not really much I can do about it."

Asked if the flagrant-2 was warranted, Smith added: "I don't really know, I'm not really the judge of that. I'm going to let them do what they do. I really try to stay away from getting into it with the officials, so I gotta keep my head. That was a bad basketball play on my behalf, just because I got kicked out of the game and my team needed me. I just have to be ready to play Sunday."

Like with all flagrant fouls, the league will review the tape and can add further punishment, including possible suspension.

Read on for postgame notes, including Rivers' thoughts on his lineup shuffle, Fab Melo's D-League honor and Rivers' take on his $25,000 fine for criticizing officials.

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BOSTON -- The prospect of being asked to do too much for the Celtics in the first two games of their first-round playoff series with the New York Knicks might not have been frustrating for Paul Pierce, but he likely crossed that threshold in Boston's 90-76 loss in Game 3 Friday night.

The frustration wasn't from being over-burdened with responsibilities -- as head coach Doc Rivers suggested he was during the first two games -- but from the fact that he finally had some help in Game 3 yet still couldn't produce the kind of night that Boston needed from him to get itself back into this series.

Pierce finished Friday's game with 17 points, but shot just 6-of-15 from the field, missing all four of his 3-point field goal attempts. He committed five turnovers -- his third time in three games with at least five giveaways -- finished minus-11 in plus/minus, and missed a number of quality looks at the basket that would've helped swing the game in Boston's favor.

And that's what has to be eating at Pierce the most. In a game that saw Boston's offense remain as meager as it was in Games 1 and 2 -- Boston scored just 31 points in the first half -- there was actually some semblance of balance, as Pierce was joined in double figures by Jeff Green (21), Jason Terry (14), and Kevin Garnett (12).

But none of them shot a particularly high percentage, especially Pierce in the first half, when the game slipped away from Boston. Pierce shot just 2-of-10 over the first two quarters, certainly playing a role in the Celtics' lackluster offense. He missed jump shots, he missed on layup bids, he didn't attempt a single free throw, and he missed crucial, potentially momentum-swinging, 3-pointers. Boston entered halftime facing a 47-31 deficit that it would never have a chance at overcoming.

"I just know we missed some great shots," Rivers said afterward. "Paul misses a layup, Kevin misses a layup, (Terry) misses a point-blank layup -- we missed three or four wide-open shots. And you've just got to be mentally tougher."

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