ESPN

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Celtics coach Doc Rivers now knows the perfect remedy for Mickael Pietrus' shooting slumps: The Golden State Warriors.

Over the past month, Pietrus was a mere 8-for-44 from beyond the 3-point arc over a 14-game span. He busted out in a big way against the team he spent his first five NBA seasons with, connecting on 5-of-6 triples as part of a 15-point effort in Boston's 105-103 triumph over the Warriors Wednesday at Oracle Arena.

"Clearly we need to just tell him we’re playing Golden State every night," quipped Rivers.

Pietrus downplayed the opponent, instead trying to shift the focus to identifying his evolving role with his new team.

“Sometimes we have too many offensive players and I just don’t want to give [Rivers] another headache," said Pietrus. "I’m willing to sacrifice my offense for the benefit of the team because we have Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and [Kevin Garnett], who are all going to need the ball a lot. Those three guys are going to take us to the championship, so I’m willing to sacrifice myself to make the team better in other parts of the game, like defense and rebounding. I just tried to make some plays. Sometimes shots are going to come and sometimes they aren’t going to come."

On Wednesday that came early and often. Pietrus tied a season high for trifectas, splashing the first four he took in the first half before adding a fifth in the third quarter. Winners of eight of 10 to start the second half of the season, Pietrus said the Celtics are simply trying to improve before the postseason arrives in little more than a month.

"I think everybody’s trying to play together, everybody’s trying to raise their level for the postseason," said Pietrus. "I know when you look at the schedule right now, we’ve got like 20 games left. So we’re just trying to make a push. It’s been an up-and-down season for us. But nobody wants to play the Celtics in the playoffs."

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OAKLAND, Calif. -- Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Golden State Warriors 105-103 Wednesday night at Oracle Arena:

HOW THE GAME WAS WON
Kevin Garnett scored a team-high 24 points on 11-of-15 shooting, delivering the game-winning bucket in the closing seconds, while adding seven rebounds and five assists over 34 minutes. Brandon Bass added 22 points and nine rebounds, while swingmen Mickael Pietrus (5-of-6 beyond the arc) and Paul Pierce kicked in 15 points apiece for the Celtics. Klay Thompson had a game-high 26 points while David Lee added 22 points and eight boards for the Warriors.

TURNING POINT
The pesky Warriors -- fueled by old friend Nate Robinson no less -- hung around all night and tied the game on Robinson's driving finger roll with 30 seconds to go. The Celtics took the clock all the way down on the ensuing possession before a driving Pierce kicked it out to Garnett for his trademark 19-footer to produce the winner with 5.1 seconds to go. Robinson, who finished with 20 points, 11 assists and 5 rebounds over 36 minutes, missed the potential winning 3-pointer in the closing moments.

BOLD PLAY OF THE GAME
Greg Stiemsma put together a rock-solid evening, chipping in eight points and eight rebounds over 16 quality minutes. He got some of each when he followed a Pierce miss with an emphatic two-handed putback jam to close out the third quarter, sending Boston into the final frame up four.

WHAT IT MEANS
Nothing comes easy in Oakland for the Celtics (who were a mere 4-12 here in their previous 16 visits). The short-handed Warriors showcased their offensive talents a day after shipping out Monta Ellis and playing without birthday boy Steph Curry. The Celtics didn't want a shootout, but they still managed to win one. Boston is now 8-2 since the All-Star break, playing some inspired ball that should keep things (potentially) quiet with Thursday's 3 p.m. trade deadline looming. The Celtics got contributions from a lot of players and continue to show they are making progress in the second half of the season.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A handful of pregame soundbites and nuggets before the Boston Celtics visit the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena:

* Celtics coach Doc Rivers on the news that Chris Wilcox will miss the rest of the year: "It’s obviously tough -- tough for Chris first, but in the grand scheme of things, Lawrence Frank sarcastically [texted], 'You guys are in the business of savings lives.' In retrospect, that’s true. I’d rather have it that way. Basketball-wise, it puts us in a bit of a hole, so we have until [Thursday] to see if we can extract a big from somewhere. But we don’t want to give up anything. It’s going to be tough to do."

* Rivers on if there's an overwhelming urgency to obtain a big man: "Not really. The one thing I said in [his] last conversation [with Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge] was that, at the end of the day, I like our team. Obviously we need a big, but let’s not do anything that hurts this team this year or the future to try to get a big. I just don’t think we should do that."

* Rivers on if he thinks his team will be intact in 24 hours: "I would be surprised if we’re not. But you never know. Last year I may have made that statement and we traded nine guys. I mean this thing goes pretty quickly. I guess you’re telling me that Dwight [Howard] is going to be back in play, so you never know."

* Celtics captain Paul Pierce, walking through the locker room and greeting reporters, playfully shouted, "I'm still here! I'm still here!" while glancing at the clock. You have to keep a sense of humor at the trade deadline.

* Ray Allen responded fine after rolling his ankle in Los Angeles on Monday; Rivers said the team is as healthy as it gets and everyone -- at the moment -- is available (beyond Wilcox and Jermaine O'Neal).

The Boston Celtics (22-19, 6-11 away) catch a bit of a break when they travel to meet the Golden State Warriors (18-21, 10-10 home) Wednesday night (10:30 p.m., CSN) at Oracle Arena in Oakland. A five-player swap with the Milwaukee Bucks (including sending out Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown) will leave the hosts shorthanded on the second night of a back-to-back (Boston meanwhile took Tuesday off, despite encountering some travel woes getting up to rainy San Francisco). To preview the matchup, we play a game of 2-on-2 with CelticsHub's Brian Robb.

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1. What should scare the Celtics most about the Warriors that weren't traded to Milwaukee on Tuesday?

Forsberg: Sure, the Warriors traded away Monta Ellis, but they are still one of the league's elite offensive teams. According to Synergy Sports data, they rank fifth in the league averaging .942 points per play. What's more, they thrive in a halfcourt set, ranking first in the league in spot-up shooting at 1.122 points per play (spot-up accounts for a team-high 19 percent of the Warriors' plays). David Lee, Dorrell Wright, and Steph Curry (if able to suit up) give Golden State more than enough firepower. Brandon Rush is the type of bench spark the Celtics don't have, while old pal Nate Robinson ought to be fired up (especially around the trade deadline given that the C's shipped him out as part of the Kendrick Perkins deal last year after acquiring him at the deadline the year before). The shorthanded Warriors still put up 115 points and throttled the Kings by 26 points Tuesday night.

Robb: High-energy offense and youth. Despite missing former teammates Ellis and Ekpe Udoh, as well as Stephen Curry (ankle injury) last night, Golden State blew out the Kings on the road thanks to a standout effort from Klay Thompson among other young role players. Despite the roster changes, Mark Jackson has this team playing well lately, winning four of its last five contests. High-powered offensive teams have usually been the demise of the C's on these west coast trips and tonight should be no exception. Boston must be efficient on offense in order to keep up.

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Somewhere in San Francisco, the Boston Celtics are giving a little fist pump as the first domino falls before the trade deadline:

Sources: Bucks deal Andrew Bogut  

The Milwaukee Bucks have traded Andrew Bogut and forward Stephen Jackson to the Golden State Warriors for Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown, sources confirmed to ESPN.com.

The swap means the Warriors will be shorthanded when the Celtics visit on Wednesday night. Boston had lost six in a row in Golden State before emerging with a 115-93 triumph last season. Even still, Boston is a mere 4-12 there since 1994. At this time of year, you take any advantage you can get on the road. Not having to deal with Ellis and Udoh should only aid Boston's cause.

[Update: Thanks to those commenters that reminded us that Brown is essentially done for the season after pectoral surgery in January. Given the Celtics' rebounding woes, he probably still could have grabbed a few boards against undersized Boston].

If the Golden State Warriors were on the fence about hiring ESPN/ABC analyst Mark Jackson as their next head coach because of a lack of experience on the bench, it might have been Celtics coach Doc Rivers who gave the team the confidence to ignore that.

Warriors owner Joe Lacob, formerly part of the Celtics' ownership group, admitted as much Friday while appearing on The Doug Gottlieb Show on ESPN Radio.

"I will tell you that I know Doc very well because of my years with the Celtics in ownership there and he had a big impact on me when he said that the best thing he ever did to prepare to be a coach in the NBA was to be in the broadcast booth for the number of years he did it," said Lacob. "He thought that was more valuable than being an assistant coach. He got to see how other teams prepared, how other coaches prepared, and how they played other team. He got to study the game. That kept ringing true in my head as we went through the process here and interviewed Mark in comparison to other candidates, some of which were head coaches and some of which were assistant coaches.

"At the end of the day, you try to evaluate all the qualities of these individuals and [determine] what are there most important ones. Not everyone has every quality and the one risk -- the one downside to Mark -- is that he had not been a head coach and you'd rather have that than not. But his other qualities -- his character, his leadership, his passion, his intelligence, and his experience overall as an NBA guy as a player -- were so great that he was almost overwhelming to me in his fit for this organization. He was the first finalist I interviewed and I was pretty blown away. I kept comparing everyone else to him."

Now, before any conspiracy theorists get in a lather and suggest that Rivers' compliments for Jackson might have hindered the candidacy of Lawrence Frank, Boston's top assistant last season and another finalist for the Golden State job, let's remember how effusive Rivers has been in his praise of Frank -- and he undoubtedly expressed that to Golden State brass as well. Rivers boasts an unselfish desire to see all of his assistants land head coaching jobs.

Rivers worked for TNT before landing his first coaching gig with the Magic (he won Coach of the Year in his first season). Rivers also spent a year as color commentator for ABC after being fired in Orlando and called the 2004 NBA Finals alongside Al Michaels. He took over the Celtics' coaching job soon after and has ascended to the top paid coach in the NBA after inking a 5-year, $35 million extension last month.

BOSTON -- When the Celtics acquired Jeff Green at the trade deadline a little over a week ago, head coach Doc Rivers immediately gushed over the prospect of his new 6-foot-9 weapon fitting into a James Posey-like role during key moments of games.

Much like Posey during the 2007-2008 championship season, Green is versatile enough to log time at the power forward position, potentially creating a number of matchup problems for opposing teams when he's on the court with the likes of Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett. But it wasn't enough that Posey could simply fill that role, it was that he could excel in it, particularly during the fourth quarters of important games. Not only did Posey's versatility make the Celtics a difficult team to combat on the offensive end, but a certain chemistry always appeared to be brewing between him and the other four usual starters, and even the likes of reserve guard Eddie House.

Green can appropriately be compared to Posey from a versatility standpoint, but if the Celtics hope to replicate the past success of the Posey-filled lineups with Green, that sense of chemistry needs to be present. Entering Friday's tilt with the Golden State Warriors, Green had played in three games for the Celtics, and each of those games was relatively close down the stretch. Yet with Green still adjusting to his new surroundings, Rivers stuck with Glen Davis as his power forward in the final few minutes -- a lineup decision he has made many times this season.

But Davis missed Friday's game with a left patella tendon strain, leaving the door open for Green to play the closing minutes. The Warriors clawed back from an 18-point deficit to make things competitive down the stretch and Rivers chose to go with his new versatile lineup for the first time in crunch time, as he inserted Green alongside Rondo, Allen, Pierce, and Garnett.

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Ray Allen had a sore right knee heading into Friday's game against the Golden State Warriors, but that didn't stop him from leading the Boston Celtics to a win. Then again, what really can?

--ALLEN WON'T LET AILING KNEE SLOW HIM DOWN--

Ray Allen doesn't like the notion of ruling himself out for a game too far in advance. But he admitted Friday to picking out one of his finer-looking suits before heading to the arena because the thought crossed his mind that, for the first time this season, he might be wearing business attire on the Boston Celtics bench. After sitting out Thursday's practice with a sore right knee, Allen said it wasn't until he went through his pregame routine that he was confident he'd be able to lace up his high tops against the Golden State Warriors. But not only did he dress, Allen hit seven of his first eight shots, pouring in 20 first-half points to pace Boston to a sizable lead that it clung to while emerging with a 107-103 triumph at the TD Garden.

For more from Allen, check out the postgame video below:

BOSTON -- A collection of news and notes after the Boston Celtics defeated the Golden State Warriors 107-103 Friday night at the TD Garden:

The rundown: Green gets comfortable | He'll take a win | Loose Balls



Celtics newcomer Jeff Green decided to get familiar with his surroundings the other day, so after picking up a car, he hopped on the highway and decided to make a test run to the TD Garden. Maybe not surprisingly, he got lost. Luckily, there's an app for that, and with the help of his iPhone, he navigated his way out of the tunnels and back to Causeway St. after a 35-minute detour.

He's not sure how long it will take him to get comfortable with his new surroundings, but he's confident it won't take nearly as long to navigate the Boston playbook. Green produced his best performance in a Boston uniform Friday night, pouring in 21 points over 27:39 as the Celtics held off the late-charging Warriors.

"I was lost for like 35 minutes downtown, trying to find my way [Thursday]; Sad, right?" joked Green, who admitted there wasn't even traffic to slow him down.

"I decided to try to get familiar with the area, learn my way around here, and I took the wrong exit. Once you end up in those tunnels, it's not fun. I took the wrong exit and I don't know where I was at. But my iPhone helped me out with the GPS."

If only there was an app for processing Boston's defensive schemes, particularly when you're learning two different forward positions. Green could use a Rosetta Stone to help translate all the knowledge he accrued in Oklahoma City to the defensive language Boston speaks.

But he's not concerned about that; he knows that will come. In fact, Green joked that he'll watch the game tape and have it down by the time the team hits the practice floor Saturday. That's probably a bit too optimistic, but given all the consternation about the need for Celtics coach Doc Rivers to figure out how to use Green, he showed Friday that it has the potential to come together quickly.

Green erupted for 13 second-quarter points, doing much of his damage around the rim, teammates finding him in transition throughout the frame, highlighted by an alley-oop jam off a Rondo lob on the break. He thrived especially in a lineup with Boston's four regular starters in Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett.

For the night, Green connected on 8-of-11 shots (and made all five free throws he attempted). He added two steals and a rebound before fouling out in the final moments.

"They share the ball," said Green. "They make it easy for me to get easy shot. It's a team effort and I think we do a great job to make sure everyone gets a touch, making the extra pass."

Rivers said Oklahoma City coach Scotty Brooks had raved about Green's speed and the Celtics simply took advantage of it Friday.

"Well, it’s funny, we didn’t do anything; He just ran the floor," said Rivers. "He’s a gazelle. I mean, the guy can absolutely fly. And our guys know that now and you can see them, they’re giving it to him, and he knows that they’ll get it to him, so he’s running. There’s a couple times that Kevin actually slowed down so he could run by him because he saw that he had his mean beat. And that’s just great awareness.”

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BOSTON -- Celtics reserve guard Von Wafer sported an oversized walking boot following Friday's win over the Golden State Warriors and said he'd be sidelined for a few days after suffering a right calf sprain.

"I feel alright, just a little sore," said Wafer. "I'll be out for a few days... I think I just sprained a muscle, that's all."

Wafer appeared to land awkwardly while trying to chase Golden State's Monta Ellis on a layup with 10:29 to play in the second quarter. Wafer immediately grabbed at the right calf, then hobbled off the court and headed straight to the locker room with team trainers in pursuit.

Used sparingly over the past five games, Wafer connected on 3-of-4 shots for seven points over 5:28 before suffering the injury. The initial report from the team was that he was likely to return later in the game, but he was ruled out after halftime.

"It's not frustrating, it's just what happened," said Wafer. "So I've got to deal with it. It's not frustrating, I'm just going to try to get back as fast as I can."

Wafer is the latest Celtic stung by the injury bug. The team was already playing without Delonte West (sprained right ankle), Glen Davis (left knee strain), Shaquille O'Neal (inflamed right Achilles), and Jermaine O'Neal (left knee surgery).

*[Blog updated from original in-game injury report]

BOSTON -- Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Golden State Warriors 107-103 Friday night at the TD Garden:

HOW THE GAME WAS WON
Celtics captain Paul Pierce scored 20 of his team-high 27 points in the second half and made a pair of key late-game buckets as Boston fended off another furious rally to emerge with a narrow win. Ray Allen, who sat out Thursday's practice session with sore legs, provided a symmetrical effort to Pierce's output, matching his 27-point night, but scored 20 of his points in the first half (hitting 7-of-8 shots, including all four 3-pointers he attempted). Jeff Green added 21 points off the bench, while Rajon Rondo handed out 16 assists over a team-high 42 minutes. Monta Ellis paced Golden State with a game-high 41 points.

TURNING POINT
The Celtics' lead ballooned as high as 18 in the third quarter, but Pierce made sure this one didn't slip away. Nursing a one-point lead with under three minutes to play, Pierce drew a foul on Reggie Williams while attempting a 14-foot baseline jumper and added the free throw for a four-point cushion. Shortly after, Rondo squeeze a bullet bounce pass to a cutting Pierce for a layup that provided the winning points with 1:31 to go.

STAT OF THE GAME
The Warriors dominated the glass, finishing with a 39-28 rebounding advantage. What's more, Golden State boasted a 46-44 edge in points int he paint (a category Boston typically thrives on).

UNSUNG HERO
Before suffering a strained right calf that chased him from the game, Von Wafer turned in five quality minutes, hitting 3-of-4 shots for seven points. He was the only bench player other than Green to score in Friday's game.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics sometimes seem like they don't want Gino to dance on the JumboTron, letting yet another monster second-half lead slip away. Regardless, Boston has won four straight and has some practice days on the horizon with only one game (Sunday's visit to Milwaukee) over the next four days. Shorthanded because of injuries, Pierce and Allen put the team on their back in this one.

BOSTON -- Celtics coach Doc Rivers said before Friday's game against the Golden State Warriors that Shaquille O'Neal (inflamed right Achilles) had lobbied to play this weekend, but Rivers suggested it's more likely that both O'Neal and Delonte West (sprained right ankle) will return to the lineup Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers.

"Delonte is day-to-day, but I doubt he’ll play this weekend," said Rivers, who takes his troops to Milwaukee for a Sunday night battle with the Bucks. The Celtics enjoy two days of rest before the Clippers visit.

"Shaq actually wants to play on Sunday, but I think he needs more practice time, so he’ll probably play next Wednesday -- if nothing happens in practice, and I'm scared to say that now that our shootarounds been so grueling."

O'Neal, who has sat out the last 11 games and hasn't been on the floor since Feb. 1, participated in skeleton drills before Thursday's practice, but will likely need additional full-contact action before Rivers is confident to put him back out.

West has missed 51 games this season, including the last two after rolling his right ankle during skeleton drills in an informal practice with Boston's trade acquisitions on Sunday.

A couple other quick pregame notes:

* Newly acquired Sasha Pavlovic is on the active roster for Friday's game and, after another crash course in Boston's philosophies Friday morning, he's ready to dive in.

"Whatever coach asks me todo, I'm going to try and do my best," said Pavlovic.

Rivers said it was more likely the team will lean on Von Wafer first if they need a perimeter player off the bench early.

* With Celtics top reserve Glen Davis sidelined due to a strained patella tendon in his left knee, expect heightened activity for Jeff Green and Troy Murphy at the power forward spot. Rivers said he won't increase Kevin Garnett's minutes and will also lean on Chris Johnson at times.

* Rivers said that Johnson, signed out of the NBA Development League to a 10-day contract at last Thursday's trade deadline, is likely to get another 10-day deal with Boston when that original deal expires on Saturday.

"I don’t know, but I think we will," said Rivers. "He hasn’t played much, but in that Denver game, I thought he was terrific. If we can figure out a way to get him on [Big] Baby’s weight program, he’d be terrific."

* Harvard's Jeremy Lin is inactive for Friday's homecoming game, but Brookline High product Jeff Adrien is active. So is newly acquired Al Thornton after being bought out by the Washington Wizards.

(27-33, 8-20 away)

-- vs. --

(44-15, 26-5 home)

at TD Garden, 7:30 p.m. | CSN, WEEI (850 AM)
PAYNE'S THREE THINGS TO WATCH

• Value the ball: The Warriors currently force opponents into 16.2 turnovers per game, good for the second highest mark in the NBA. When Boston and Golden State met in Oakland last week, Boston committed 18 turnovers, which the Warriors converted into 23 points. While the Celtics still managed to escape with a 22-point victory in that game, they could have an even easier time of it tonight if they cut back on their number of miscues. For the season, only eight teams have been turning the ball over at a higher rate than the Celtics.
• Running and gunning: The Warriors are of the league's most dedicated fast-breaking teams, but, much like a Phoenix Suns squad the Celtics toppled on Wednesday, they don't like it when opposing teams flip the script and try to beat them in transition. When these two clubs met on the Warriors' floor, the Celtics made an effort to run both on missed and made baskets, particularly in the first half. The result was Boston producing a whopping 30 fast-break points, which outweighed the 22 produced by Golden State. The circumstances haven't changed very drastically since that last meeting. If Boston wants to run tonight, Golden State isn't likely to rush back and play great transition defense.
• Second unit growth: Boston's bench brigade played an important role in the Celtics amassing their 29-point lead over the Suns on Wednesday, but it was also one of the key culprits as the Celtics stumbled through the final 15 minutes and allowed Phoenix to get back in the game. While it would be optimistic to hope for growth from the unit following the practice time it was allotted on Thursday, the group will be missing key components in Delonte West (ankle) and Glen Davis (knee) tonight. We can still examine the comfort levels of guys like Jeff Green and Troy Murphy, but the second unit Danny Ainge envisioned when he pulled the trigger on the recent Kendrick Perkins trade might not see the floor together for at least another week.

GAME PREVIEW (via Stats Inc.)

[Last week's] loss to the Celtics began a four-game skid for the Warriors, but they put an end to it Wednesday in Washington -- barely. Golden State was up by 20 points late in the third before watching the lead shrink to one, but held on for a 106-102 victory behind 29 points from Stephen Curry.

"When you've gone through a streak of losing, to get a win -- no matter how it ends up -- nobody will pay attention to how the fourth quarter went," coach Keith Smart said after the Warriors improved to 1-2 on their seven-game road trip.

If Golden State plans on winning in Boston for the first time since Garnett's arrival, it will likely need more from Monta Ellis than the 15 points he contributed while shooting 6 of 18 last week. Ellis has been held to 17.0 points per game -- 7.7 below his average -- and 36.2 percent shooting since the All-Star break.

The Warriors also need to slow down Rajon Rondo, who's averaged 22.3 points and 14.0 assists in his last three games in this series.

Al Thornton, released by Washington earlier this week, is expected to be in uniform for Golden State after signing with the Warriors on Thursday.

Read the full preview HERE.

Former Brookline High School standout Jeff Adrien returns to the TD Garden Friday night as a member of the Golden State Warriors. In town a day early, Adrien visited his old stomping grounds Thursday. From ESPNBoston.com's Brendan Hall:

Jeff Adrien touched down at Logan Airport 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning, and there was no jet lag from the west coast. Not when it's coming home to Boston.

"It's definitely great to be home, definitely not lagging," said the former Brookline High star and newly minted Golden State Warrior [Thursday] morning from inside the school's Schluntz Gymnasium, on the eve of Golden State's game with the Celtics [Friday] night at the TD Garden.

Adrien made the Warriors' final roster cut to start the season, but was sent to the D-League after 15 games to make room for point guard Acie Law. With Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Adrien dominated, averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds before getting called back to Golden State last week following the trade of Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric to the New Jersey Nets.

He was back at his alma mater [Thursday] morning, speaking to a quarter-filled gymnasium of Brookline students for a Q&A session. Adrien, of course, led Brookline through one of its most successful runs in school history before moving on to a storied career at UConn, twice taking the Warriors to the Division 1 state finals (2002, 2004).

Click HERE to read the full story.

Kevin Garnett is most often lauded for his value to the Celtics on the defensive end of the floor, and for good reason. Without Garnett anchoring the middle, Boston will not win another championship.

What gets lost in the shuffle of that praise, though, is just how valuable Garnett can be to the Celtics at the other end of the court. The man who took home the Defensive Player of the Year award during his first season as a Celtic is also a member of the NBA's exclusive 20,000 career point club. But Garnett is a self-proclaimed team guy, and despite his obvious talents on the offensive end of the floor, he's always been willing to defer to his teammates over the course of his career.

That mindset still exists for Garnett today, but in an interesting twist, his current teammates simply aren't as interested in his willingness to share the ball. Instead, the likes of Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen have all demanded that Garnett be more selfish with the rock, since an aggressive Garnett on offense typically spells out good things for Boston. Take Tuesday night for example, when Garnett posted a team-high 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting as the Celtics defeated the Golden State Warriors, 115-93, marking their first victory in Oracle Arena in seven tries.

"We told [Garnett] before the game, 'Early offense and we're going to you every single time we can,'" said Celtics coach Doc Rivers told reporters after the victory. "We thought that was an advantage for us. It was funny, our guys, they were on him. They kept telling him to shoot. You know Kevin, he takes two in a row, he'll pass the next three times, and so they just kept saying, 'Go. Keep going,' and it was great to see him do that."

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