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It might be a while before the folks at TD Garden get to dust off the Gino video -- the American Bandstand clips with the bearded groover that roll during the final moments of lopsided home wins by the Celtics -- so here's an idea for the rest of the 2011-12 season. Someone should go hit the MTV vault and look for clips of Eric Nies that can run at the end of every narrow triumph because this season is clearly drawing inspiration from the title of the network's early '90s dance show, "The Grind."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers admitted as much -- in so many words, at least -- after Tuesday's closer-than-it-should-have-been 86-83 triumph over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. Boston built a 16-point cushion on the strength of a dominant first quarter, then turned the ball over a head-slapping 10 times in the second frame while letting the Cavaliers right back into a game that ultimately featured 11 ties and nine lead changes, the final of which didn't come until Ray Allen's fast-break slam with 48.6 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter thrust the Celtics out front to stay.

While discussing how All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo (0 points, 11 assists over 32:29) got down on himself because of early turnovers, Rivers told reporters in Cleveland, "We're all human, we're not going to play great every night. But you have to grind every night. That's what this team is, and that's what we're going to have to be -- a grind-it-out team every night."

So forget bell bottoms and the Bee Gees. For this year's Celtics, wins should trigger club gear and the Spice Girls.

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Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 86-83 Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena:

HOW THE GAME WAS WON
After a dominant first quarter, the Celtics flirted with disaster by not valuing the ball and fumbled away a 16-point cushion before pulling out the win behind gritty fourth-quarter defense. Ray Allen scored a team-high 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting (4 of 8 beyond the arc), while Kevin Garnett added 18 points and eight rebounds. Rajon Rondo was scoreless but handed out 11 assists, while Paul Pierce (12 points, 6 assists) provided some big buckets in the final frame. Rookie Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 24 points for Cleveland despite a minor injury scare absorbing a Pierce charge in the first half.

TURNING POINT
With the Celtics down 1 with less than a minute to play, Garnett forced a turnover with his aggressive defense, denying the Cavaliers from getting into the pick-and-roll, and Irving ultimately threw the ball away. After grabbing the steal, Garnett delivered an outlet pass to Allen for an uncontested dunk and an 82-81 lead with 48.6 seconds to go. Pierce then provided some stout defense, forcing Irving to take an odd-angle shot on a drive to the basket. Garnett got the rebound, made two free throws at the other end, and Boston hung on from there.

BOLD PLAY OF THE GAME
Pierce, who has struggled with his shot all season, couldn't get much of anything to fall for the first 44 minutes of the game, but came up with some huge buckets down the stretch. That included a deep 3-pointer from the right wing that put Boston out front 78-76 with 3:19 to go and a vintage step-back jumper a short time later to again push the Celtics out front as the lead changed seven times in the final quarter. Pierce finished 4-of-11 shooting (2 of 7 beyond the arc), but committed six turnovers and was a minus-11 in plus/minus over 34:31.

BIG MINUTES FOR BRADLEY
Second-year guard Avery Bradley continues to emerge as a key rotation player, chipping in 6 points on 3-of-5 shooting with three assists over 15 minutes. Bradley is slowly improving at running the offense and is creating his own scoring opportunities off cuts and strong drives to the basket. It also allowed Rondo to play a manageable 32:29.

IT'S ALL ABOUT 18: KG PASSES CHUCK
Garnett leapfrogged Charles Barkley (23,757) for 18th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list on a fourth-quarter bucket. Garnett entered Tuesday's game 15 points behind Barkley and now has 23,760 career points. Next in KG's sights: Allen Iverson who, barring an NBA comeback, has 24,368 career points.

WHAT IT MEANS
After an ultra-encouraging first quarter, the Celtics were plagued by turnovers (18 leading to 20 points on the night; 10 turnovers led to 12 points in the second quarter alone) and let the Cavaliers back into the game. As we've said all season, beggars can't be choosers. The win snaps a Big Three-era-worst five-game losing streak and gives Boston some much-needed momentum to start the second half of the season, particularly with a back-to-back looming Wednesday in Boston against the Bucks. Bass' return was huge for the Celtics (though the Cavaliers not having Anderson Varejao helped immensely). Boston still has kinks to work out, but the late-game execution was encouraging and -- hey -- nobody appeared to get hurt.

The Boston Celtics (15-17, 4-9 away) reach the official midway point of the condensed 2011-12 season Tuesday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers (13-18, 8-9 home) at Quicken Loans Arena (7 p.m., CSN). To preview the matchup (and the second half of the season), we play a game of 3-on-3 with ESPN Boston's Greg Payne and CelticsHub's Brian Robb.

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1. What's the biggest change you'd like to see from the Celtics in the second half of the season?

Payne: A more efficient offense. The Celtics are in the bottom half of the league in terms of offensive efficiency, and they weren't able to develop a reliable offensive balance among their starting 5. I'd like to see them increase their offensive pace and figure out how to re-establish Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett as their three primary and consistent offensive weapons.

Robb: A consistent effort on the defensive glass. Boston does not have the horses to win the rebounding battle every night, but there are enough talented rebounders on this squad for the C's to hold their own. Injuries up front have taken their toll on the C's in this department over the past couple weeks, making the team look like a worse rebounding squad than it really is. However, with everyone expected back in action (besides Jermaine O'Neal) on Tuesday, Boston needs to get back on track in this department and start denying their opponents unending second-chance opportunities.

Forsberg: Health might have been the biggest factor in the Celtics' first-half woes, but it's hard to imagine that getting much better when the team will be playing a whopping 34 games in 59 days, jam-packed with road games and grueling back-to-backs. With that in mind, I think Boston needs a spark from the end of its bench since those players will remain vital to keeping the team afloat (and avoid the lapses that plagued them over the first 32 games). Can someone like Marquis Daniels or Keyon Dooling or Sasha Pavlovic put together a strong string of games? Or can a rookie like JaJuan Johnson or E'Twaun Moore or Greg Stiemsma take their play to another level to aid the team over a key stretch? If Boston wants to climb in the seedings, it needs some reserves to play bigger roles.

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A handful of observations after the Boston Celtics hung on to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 93-90 Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena:

CRAVING CONSISTENCY

The Celtics are making it incredibly challenging for their supporters to muster much confidence in them at the moment. Just when it seemed safe to climb back on the bandwagon (or shout about how you never left) after the team ripped off four straight wins -- much of it while playing without a trio of starters -- Boston coughed up an 11-point lead in the final four minutes against the Cavaliers on Sunday, then nearly fumbled away a 22-point cushion Tuesday night in Cleveland.

Sure, the Celtics are still waiting to get healthy, and the lack of point guard Rajon Rondo goes a long way towards explaining some of their inconsistencies at both ends of the court. But it's fair to say that Tuesday's win might have been the least encouraging of the season because of the near meltdown -- and that's not exactly an unfamiliar feeling this season.

The Celtics are simply struggling to put together 48 consistent minutes this season. The schedule thus far has been littered with slow starts and sloppy finishes. Players are showing up for portions of the game and disappearing for stretches. Blame the schedule, blame the injuries, blame the officials -- but Boston only has itself to blame for much of its struggles so far.

As coach Doc Rivers is fond of noting, Boston's biggest opponent is itself. If the Celtics go out and execute for 48 minutes, chances are they are going to win, regardless if its the 16-5 Heat or the 4-17 Hornets on the other side of the floor (though, they did lose to both those squads in December). When Boston gets outworked on the glass or sloppy with the ball or stops attacking the basket, the Celtics find a way to let teams hang around long enough to make it interesting.

And that's exactly what's happened twice in this discouraging home-and-home with the Cavaliers. On Tuesday, Boston exploded out of the gates in the second half, turning a 12-point halftime lead into a 22-point cushion with under three minutes to play in the third quarter. But just when it seemed safe to relax, the foot came off the accelerator, Cleveland got some quick confidence, and -- the next thing you know -- it's a two-point game with 1:18 to play.

And this time around Paul Pierce played the final 9:28, checking in with a 14-point lead that still got whittled to a single bucket (though the reserves did little to aid the cause in watching the big cushion erode early in the final frame).

Consistency won't be easy to find in a condensed 66-game season with little practice time. But Boston's No. 1 goal has to be finding a way to prevent these sort of lapses. Clearly, it can't get away with this type of effort against a young team like Cleveland; the Celtics certainly won't get away with it against the East's elite.

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Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 93-90 Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena:

HOW THE GAME WAS WON
Paul Pierce paced five Celtics players in double figures with 20 points (adding 6 assists and 4 rebounds), but it was Kevin Garnett (13 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) and Brandon Bass (13 points, 6 rebounds) who produced the clutch late-game buckets helping the Celtics escape with a should-have-been-easier triumph after leading by as much as 22 with under 15 minutes to play. Anderson Varejao single-handedly kept the Cavaliers in the game, producing 20 points (on 10-of-17 shooting) and 20 rebounds (10 on each end of the court) and rookie No. 1 pick Kyrie Irving (game-high 21 points and 6 assists) gave his team a spark late, helping make it a one-possession game in the waning moments.

NO CELTICS LEAD SAFE VS. CAVS
The Celtics came out strong after the intermission (keyed by Ray Allen's 12 third-quarter points) and turned a 12-point halftime cushion into as much as a 22-point lead after Allen's 3-pointer with 2:43 to play in the third quarter. But Boston clearly didn't learn from Sunday's loss in which the Cavaliers rallied from an 11-point deficit over the final four minutes. Cleveland got some momentum and rallied all the way to within a bucket when Irving's layup made it 89-87 with 78 ticks to play. Isolated on Varejao, Garnett got a turnaround jumper to rattle home with 1:04 to go and Jermaine O'Neal swatted a Varejao layup attempt at the other end helping Boston hang on.

BENCH PROVIDES AN EARLY SPARK
Boston's bench aided its early success as reserves Bass, E'Twaun Moore, Sasha Pavlovic, and Mickael Pietrus combined for 23 first-half points. Alas, everyone but Bass -- who played starter-sized minutes -- disappeared in the second half. Bass scored the bench's only five points after the intermission, making two big jumpers to keep Cleveland at arm's length down the stretch.

LINE OF THE NIGHT
Flummoxed for much of the night by the whistles from referee Karl Lane, Celtics TV analyst Tommy Heinsohn declared in the fourth quarter, "His name is Lane, they should show him the highway."

WHAT IT MEANS
Well, the Celtics clearly are not going for style points this year. They're also clearly not trying to make things easy for themselves. That said, unlike Sunday night, they managed to emerge with the win, pulling their record back to .500 at 10-10. Maintaing a 22-point cushion might have allowed Boston some fresher legs for when the Toronto Raptors visit Wednesday night, so it will be interesting to see how the Celtics respond with the quick turnaround.

Two days after fumbling away a double-digit lead in the final four minutes, the Boston Celtics (9-10, 3-4 away) wrap up a home-and-home series against the Cleveland Cavaliers (8-11, 3-4 home) Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena (7 p.m., CSN). To preview the matchup, we go 3-on-3 with ESPN Boston's Greg Payne and CelticsHub's Brendan Jackson.

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1. What was the most discouraging part of Sunday's loss to Cleveland?

Payne: The Celtics' inability to get a stop on Cleveland's game-winning possession. The C's had to know a pick-and-roll involving Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao was coming, yet it didn't seem like they were fully prepared to handle it. Watch the replay and you'll notice that Avery Bradley slams right into Varejao's screen, which indicates he had zero idea it was there. That breaks down to poor communication on the part of his teammates and poor court awareness on Bradley's end. The C's had the pieces they needed to make a defensive stand, but those pieces didn't execute as well as they could have.

Jackson: The last five minutes of the fourth quarter. Everything the Celtics did up until that point was pretty impressive. They played great defense. They shot over 50 percent from the field. They were out-rebounding the Cavs at that point. If the game lasted 43 minutes, the Celtics would have dominated in a 10 point victory.

Forsberg: Points in the paint. The Celtics surrendered a season-high 54 points in the paint (the previous high was 52 in Miami in December), which accounted for 61.3 percent of Cleveland's total output. That includes 12 points in the paint in the fourth quarter (most notable being Irving's winning bucket). While Boston was content to settle for perimeter jumpers (and led late because they were making them at a high rate, shooting 52.2 percent for the game), the Celtics lost the game by giving up easy points around the basket (and being unable to get easy buckets of their own at the other end).

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BOSTON -- A collection of postgame news and notes after the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Boston Celtics 88-87 Sunday evening at TD Garden:

Quick links: Irving a star in the making | Erden's return to Boston | Loose balls

RIVERS ON IRVING: 'HE'S GOING TO BE A STAR'

Long before Kyrie Irving produced the final of his game-high 23 points Sunday night off a driving layup with 2.6 seconds remaining to lift the Cavaliers to victory, Celtics coach Doc Rivers knew he was going to be something special. And, sure, Rivers is a bit of a biased observer, but he really likes what he sees in the No. 1 overall pick in last summer's draft.

"He’s terrific," Rivers gushed, while detailing how he got to spend a week observing Irving during the summer of 2010 at the FIBA Under-18 Championships, where he played alongside Rivers' son, Austin, comprising the team's gold-medal backcourt.

"He’s going to be better than a good player, he’s going to be a star. I think he has a shot at that. He’s just powerful, I think that’s what people miss. They see this guard, but they don’t see power. He’s a powerful little guard with great handle, and he’s going to be good."

The fact that Irving has a Duke pedigree doesn't hurt, either. If he hadn't declared for the draft after his freshman season, Irving might have shared a backcourt with Rivers' son again this winter.

"No, I'm happy for him," Rivers said before Irving efficiently connected on 10-of-14 shots while chipping in six assists, four rebounds and a steal over 33:29. "I’m happy because he’s where he should be right now, that’s for sure."

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BOSTON -- Normally, Ray Allen's performance on Sunday would have been considered exemplary.

Allen, who returned following a three-game absence due to a left ankle injury, scored a team-high 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting, including a 4-of-6 mark from 3-point nation, to go along with three rebounds and three assists over nearly 36 minutes. But his performance was overshadowed by the Celtics' fourth-quarter meltdown that resulted in an unsightly 88-87 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at TD Garden.

Allen, himself, wrote off his performance almost immediately, stressing that his team's first loss in five games weighed on his mind.

"The loss," Allen said of Sunday's greatest takeaway. "It doesn't matter, individually, what I did out there."

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BOSTON -- Rapid reaction after the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Boston Celtics 88-87 Sunday night at TD Garden:

HOW THE GAME WAS WON
Rookie Kyrie Irving muscled in the go-ahead layup with 2.6 seconds remaining after the Cavaliers erased a double-digit deficit in the final four minutes to stun the Celtics on their home turf. Irving finished with a game-high 23 points, while Anderson Varejao added 18 points, 9 rebounds and plenty of his typical scrappy play -- fighting for a key loose ball in the final moments. For Boston, Ray Allen had a team-high 22 points, while Paul Pierce (18 points), Kevin Garnett (14) and Brandon Bass (13) all were in double figures.

TURNING POINT
The Cavaliers hung around for much of the night and made it a one-possession game (74-71) with 8:53 remaining, but it seemed the Celtics were intent on pulling away. Allen made a long jumper, Sasha Pavlovic followed with a dunk while driving the baseline, E'Twaun Moore splashed a 3-pointer and Bass added a jumper as the lead quickly ballooned to 11 with 6:09 to go. The Celtics were up 11 with little more than four minutes to go before Irving and Varejao sparked another run, pulling the Cavaliers within a bucket yet again (87-84) with 1:38 to go. This time they got over the hump. Varejao came up with a key offensive rebound, fighting for the ball on the ground and calling a timeout to set up Irving's heroics.

ALLEN JUMPS RIGHT BACK INTO THE FRAY
Allen missed three games last week with a left ankle injury, but it hardly seemed to detour him Sunday in his first game back. Allen connected on 9-of-14 shots, including 4-of-6 trifectas, chipping in 22 points over 35 minutes. He started quick, hitting 5-of-8 shots for 12 points in the first half.

FUTURE IS BRIGHT WITH IRVING
Cleveland sure looks like it hit the jackpot landing the No. 1 overall pick and selecting Irving. The 19-year-old point guard was an efficient 10-of-14 shooting, while adding six assists and four rebounds over 34 minutes. He showed absolutely no fear going hard to the basket for the winning bucket.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics have only themselves to blame after fumbling away a double-digit lead so late in the game. Boston's four-game winning streak is snapped and the team failed to get above .500. The schedule remains friendly moving forward with a rematch in Cleveland on Tuesday before the Raptors visit on Wednesday (later next week, the Knicks and Grizzlies drop by the Garden). Even still, this one will sting, stemming the momentum the team had built over the last week-plus.

BOSTON -- Celtics guard Ray Allen is back in the starting lineup Sunday against the Cavaliers.

Allen tweaked his left ankle last Sunday in Washington and sat out the past three games while recovering. He said it's difficult to properly describe the injury, saying it's not a turn or a sprain but more localized pain on the interior of the left ankle that the team dubbed a jam. Allen said he's comfortable where he's at in his recovery.

"I got up and I didn’t have any issues or any problems," he said before the game. "When I shot today, I probably felt more weak than I [felt] pain. I moved around fine. The only thing I noticed was weakness in there, but it’s just like running around on it and getting it stronger -- just from having been off of it. I like where I am. I like working my way through it as I go along because I’m not going to do anything worse to it at this point. I feel good about it."

Said Celtics coach Doc Rivers: "It's good that he can get back out on the floor. We need him."

Elsewhere on the injury front, Rivers deemed center Jermaine O'Neal a game-time decision, saying he was still 50/50 whether he'd play while meeting with reporters an hour before tip-off. Rajon Rondo (right wrist) and Keyon Dooling (right hip) are out and inactive, so O'Neal will be able to dress for Sunday's game even if he's unable to go.

"Rondo is out for tonight, but maybe [will play] our next game," said Rivers, whose team plays Tuesday at Cleveland. "Keyon's out, and he'll be out the longest of all the guys."

The Cavaliers will be without Daniel Gibson, who is sidelined by a neck injury.

Old friend Semih Erden is back in town with the Cavaliers and expressed great appreciation for his time in Boston (especially what he learned from the veteran members of the Celtics). Luke Harangody, a second-round pick in the 2010 draft who was dealt to Cleveland with Erden for a 2013 second-round draft pick, is not with the Cavaliers after being assigned to the D-League.

It's a battle of two teams trending in opposite directions as the Boston Celtics (9-9, 6-5 home) host the Cleveland Cavaliers (7-11, 4-7 away) Sunday evening at TD Garden (6 p.m., CSN). While the Celtics have won five of their last six games, the Cavaliers have dropped five of their last six. To preview the matchup, we go 3-on-3 with ESPN Boston's Greg Payne and CelticsHub's Brian Robb.

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1. How much do the Celtics miss Semih Erden and Luke Harangody?

Payne: I don't think the Celtics miss either of them too much right now. Sure, Erden might have come in handy over the last handful of games with Jermaine O'Neal battling a bone bruise on his left knee, but both of their respective positions are essentially full right now with J.O. and Chris Wilcox at center and Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass at power forward (the small forward spot is booked up as well). Chances are they wouldn't be seeing too much floor time if they were still in Boston.

Robb: Not at all. They're both fringe NBA players, and while they had a few nice spurts last year with the C's, the fact they are struggling to get off the bench this year in Cleveland should tell Boston fans all they need to know about their abilities. You could make the case that Erden could have still been valuable in the role Greg Stiemsma has claimed now as the third center on the roster, but the Stiemer brings more defensively than Erden ever did. As for Luke, the team already has enough trouble with athleticism, so it's unlikely he would have seen the floor at all this year if he had remained in Beantown.

Forsberg: OK, so we agree Harangody's no big loss (hey, he was a second-round pick who played better than most probably imagined). But you guys are totally undervaluing Erden. We're talking about a 25-year-old 7-footer who gave the Celtics everything he had last season, playing injured almost his entire stay here because of the fact that neither O'Neal -- Shaq or Jermaine -- could stay on the floor. Erden generated consistent offense around the basket (he ranked in the 75th percentile among all NBA players last season with Boston at 0.987 points per play, according to Synergy Sports data) and his defense was actually far better than Stiemsma's shown thus far (we'll give Stiemsma the benefit of time, but Erden allowed 0.879 points per play last season with Boston; Stiemsma is allowing 1.0 points per play this season, according to Synergy). For what they got in return -- a 2013 second-round draft pick and roster space that the likes of Carlos Arroyo and Troy Murphy clogged up -- you can make the case this was actually the worst trade the Celtics made at the deadline last year because they had to move Erden.

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BOSTON -- Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Shaquille O'Neal are all members of the NBA's esteemed and, somewhat exclusive, 20,000-career point club. Yet at no point in their respective All-Star laden careers -- with Garnett being a slight exception -- have they shot the ball better than they have this season.

Pierce (51.4 percent), Allen (50.5), and O'Neal (67.7) entered Tuesday night's tilt against the Cleveland Cavaliers averaging the highest field goal percentages of their careers (a combined 44 seasons and counting), while Garnett was not far off, shooting 53.4 percent from the field, nearly identical to his career high (53.9, set during the 2008 championship campaign).

But wait, aren't these Celtics supposed to be an "old" team? The fact that three 30-something, past-their-prime, future Hall of Famers are posting their best shooting numbers ever -- with a fourth practically accomplishing the same feat -- is certainly a testament to the offensive system that coach Doc Rivers has employed. It's a system predicated on ball movement, swinging the ball until it winds up in the hands of an open player.

"Well they're open," Rivers said of why his players are shooting so well. "I know that sounds simple, but I just think our guys take open shots, and they pass contested shots, and they trust each other. Shaq said it earlier in the year -- this team, if you're open, they pass it to you. If you're not open, they pass it to someone else, and if you're not open, you should pass it, and I think that's the way we play."

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After returning to the court Tuesday night for the first time since tearing his ACL in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Celtics center Kendrick Perkins phoned into ESPN's First Take Wednesday morning to discuss the moment. Perkins admitted it's going to take some time to get back into game shape, but he didn't hesitate to say the team is better with him back on the floor.

"Defensively, we're a lot better," said Perkins. "Offensively, we get better as far as execution; Guys have been playing together for three or four years now -- the starting 5 -- and we know each other. We know each other's weaknesses and we know each other's strengths. That should help a lot."

Perkins also opines on teammate Shaquille O'Neal, including his desire to put Jenny Craig out of business with his "Shaq O'Meals" weight-loss plan.

Click HERE to watch the interview.

BOSTON -- Everything you need to know after the Boston Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 112-95 Tuesday night at the TD Garden:


Rapid Reaction | Game Recap | Box Score

--FORSBERG: PERKINS BACK IN THE MIDDLE--

Even as he stepped onto the floor to a rousing ovation from the TD Garden faithful, Kendrick Perkins wasn't back. Even after he muscled in an and-1 layup a minute later, his first points of the season after spending the past six months rehabbing from offseason ACL surgery, Perkins wasn't quite back. No, it wasn't until he stood in front of the Boston bench fuming at referee Scott Twardoski, displaying his familiar scowl while barking about the lack of an over-the-back call on a putback by J.J. Hickson early in the third quarter that Perkins was officially back. "He almost ran after the guy that one time," Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers recalled. "And I was thinking, 'You've got to be kidding me. Perk's back.' When he did it, the whole bench started laughing, saying, 'Perk's back.'"

--POSTGAME NOTES: PIERCE STARTS STRONG, ANKLE SLOWS FINISH--

Celtics captain Paul Pierce erupted for 17 of his game-high 24 points in the first quarter of Tuesday's win before tweaking his ankle near the end of the third period. He retreated to the locker room with more than three minutes remaining in the game. "I just tweaked it a little bit, that's why I came back early, to get a little treatment," Pierce said. "I don't think it was anything serious. I should be fine."

--DAILY DIME: WITH PERKINS, C'S FEEL WHOLE AGAIN--

Less than a minute after stepping back onto the floor for the first time since tearing the ACL in his right knee in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Kendrick Perkins took an inside feed from Ray Allen, burrowed into two defenders in the lane, and completed an and-1 layup that nearly blew the roof off the TD Garden. As Perkins emphatically stomped around the perimeter, congratulating every other member of a reunited starting five, Allen took a minute to savor what was happening as Perkins' return brought the Boston Celtics one monster step closer to being whole again since letting a world title slip away last season.

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BOSTON -- A collection of postgame news and notes after the Boston Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 112-95 Tuesday night at TD Garden:

--PIERCE SHINES EARLY, TWEAKS ANKLE LATE--



Celtics captain Paul Pierce erupted for 17 of his game-high 24 points in the first quarter of Tuesday's win before tweaking his ankle near the end of the third period. He retreated to the locker room with more than three minutes remaining in the game.

"I just tweaked it a little bit, that's why I came back early, to get a little treatment," Pierce said. "I don't think it was anything serious. I should be fine."

Pierce departed the arena without a noticeable limp. After his first-quarter exploits, an early night could be forgiven. Pierce connected on six of his first eight shots, staking Boston to an eight-point, first-quarter lead. He had all 24 points before intermission, finishing 8-of-15 shooting with four rebounds, two assists and a steal over 23:58.

"I think he thought we were practicing tomorrow," Celtics coach Doc Rivers joked. "It’s called the 'veteran injury.' They know how to get hurt late because they think it excuses them from practice the next day. So he’s fine.”

Kidding aside, Pierce put together another dominant first quarter, this after scoring 13 points in the first frame of a win over Utah on Friday.

"That’s who Paul is," Rivers said. "What, did he score more points than he played minutes tonight? And that’s with blowing three layups in the third quarter."

Added Pierce: "It's something I've been trying to do over the last two or three weeks, come out aggressive from the jump and just try to get us off to a quick start. It's something I've been focusing on."

The fact that Cleveland's Joey Graham pushed Pierce's buttons in the first quarter didn't hurt either. After the players jawed early, Pierce responded by scoring Boston's final 13 points of the period.

Pierce let his play do the talking as he walked away from a group of reporters with a big smile when asked about his words with Graham.

--DANIELS MISSES FIRST GAME; EXPECTED BACK THURSDAY--

Celtics reserve swingman Marquis Daniels sat out Tuesday's game while attending to a family matter. It was the first game this season that Daniels has missed.

Rivers said before Tuesday's game that Daniels would likely rejoin the team in time for Thursday's road-trip opening tilt against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Daniels sent a Tweet Tuesday asking his followers for game suggestions for his iPad, writing that he was at a hospital, "bored but family is important."

Von Wafer logged a hefty 21:35 of action, getting an uptick in time due to both the lopsided win and Daniels' absence. He finished with 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting (hitting a pair of 3-pointers) as Boston put seven players in double figures, including three reserves.

--LOOSE BALLS: TECHS, CHARGES AND WAVES--



* Technical tracker: Glen Davis picked up his fourth technical foul of the season for complaining to officials late in the second quarter.

* ChargeWatch: Davis offset his outburst by picking up charge No. 37 on the season, absorbing contact from J.J. Hickson. Semih Erden also stepped in front of the Hickson locomotive for his second charge of the season, while Pierce picked up his fifth charge of the season (tying him with Jermaine O'Neal and Nate Robinson for second place on the team, well behind Davis).

* Double-double in one quarter: Lost in another Cleveland drubbing was the fact that Hickson put up a monster third quarter, registering 10 points (on 5-of-6 shooting) and 11 rebounds in the frame. Alas, it was all for naught. The Celtics and Cavaliers both scored 24 points in the quarter.

* Wave goodbye: With the Celtics up 21 with nine minutes to go, the Garden faithful amused themselves by starting the Wave (much to the delight of Shaquille O'Neal).

* Gino Time!: While the JumboTron operators could have done it at the six-minute timeout of the fourth quarter without fear, everyone's favorite scoreboard dancer didn't appear until there was 2:56 remaining with Boston out front, 108-91. Perkins joined Shaq and Kevin Garnett to laugh their way through the American Bandstand clip.